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Strange Weimar Era- Competed 4 Years Later

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    Strange Weimar Era- Competed 4 Years Later

    Finally finished the project.

    This is a very odd pattern Heer saber. My belief is that the piece dates to the Weimar era- possibly even a bit earlier. Bought it about 5 years ago on eBay for about $55. The piece was barely salvageably, and i bought it simply because of the strange hand worked hilt embellishments. Note the original grip which came on the piece- it looks like the saber was torched and it had no sharkskin or celluloid covering the wooden core. Most likely a custom order- perhaps for an officer who was involved with the Army band. Note the harp on both the P-guard and the backstrap/pommel assembly. I have no idea what the obverse langet designs are all about.

    This piece had 0% gilting intact. Down to it's brass base. Best I could hope for was the clean her up. It took a number of years to locate a suitable grip replacement. I had a ill-sized grip on it in the past as a temporary fix. Bought a totally trashed Klaas on eBay last year for $35 to harvest the grip then resell the hilt parts to recoup the $35. I was able to determine from the pics on eBay that the grip would fit- it would just need some hand customizing and fitting.

    Anyway, some before and after pics. Ordinarily I wouldn't waste my time and energy buying a piece in this shape. However, because i've never seen anything like it, with respect to hilt work, I decided it was worth the effort. I recently completed the project.

    The project required me to unpeen the tang, then re-peen the tang over the P-guard once the grip was fit and installed (not a fun job and I don't reccommend it). The grip required Dremmel work in order to accommodate a correct tang-grip fit. Overall, this piece required a fair investment of time and energy.

    Anywhooo, here's the pics.

    t
    Attached Files
    Last edited by SwordFish; 11-11-2010, 05:18 AM.

    #2
    Looks like another keeper to me! Worth the original investment. Great restoration on this one.

    Comment


      #3
      Very nice job! it looks very good!

      Comment


        #4
        Tom,

        Great work as usual. That embellishing on the hilt is quite unusual, I can see why you wanted to save this one from the scrap heap.

        Comment


          #5
          How do you clean up the hilt?
          thanks

          Comment


            #6
            Thank you fellas.

            Jeremy, I used sudsy amonia on this piece. Since it has no gilting left, what we are seeing is simply the brightened up brass- the amonia reacts with the brass giving us the bright look we are seeing here. I was ablve to avoid any of the mildly abrassive agents- there was no severe verdigris or any other type of significant oxidation which would have neccessitated the need for a heavy cleaner.

            The most challanging issue with a full grip replacement is unpeening the tang, then repeening it again once the grip is installed. It's not a job I reccommend.

            Tom

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              #7
              Outstanding work Tom! Impressive transformation.

              Rob.

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                #8
                That is some NICE work Swordfish!! lets see a pic of the newly peened tang,I bet that is tuff! Kevin.

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                  #9
                  WOW, that must have taken ALOT of your time and energy. You obviously do very quality work and it shows. I personally like the embellishments and you did a great job on the grip. very impressive work that IMO looked to be worth it in the end.

                  The question is.....would you decide to do it again if you had the chance?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Thank you again fellas.

                    kevin, if I take the backstrap off again, i'll take a pic of the peen and post it.

                    Would I do it again? I don't know. It would have to depend on the specific pattern of saber, with respect to it's scarcity, and how much i personally liked the pattern. Really, the most difficult aspect of these projects is tracking down a grip that will fit. Once a somewhat suitable grip is located, it's a matter of doing the hand fitting with power tools like a Dremmel. I imagine the easist way would be to find a grip which came off a comprable saber from the same manufacturer- even then, it's no guarantee. To put it in perspective, I had bought a unwired grip from Johnsons about 4 years ago, and it cost me about $75. I had Tom send me the dimensions, and althought the dimensions matched, it still didn't fit. So, I had an illfit grip on the piece for a couple years until I located the Klaas grip you are seeing now. I was lucky enough to find a completely trashed Klaas on eBay which had a similiar sized grip, blade, etc, and since it was trashed, I spent nothing on it.

                    In short, I just don't know. As I mentioned, I guess it would be a matter of how much I personally liked the particular sword pattern. One thing's for sure- the job is a complete pain in the butt, which I wouldn't reccommend lightly. It can be done, and can be done inexpensively. Though it will take alot of patience to wait it out until a suitable replacement part can be secured without breaing the bank.

                    Rewiring a dovehead saber is a piece of cake. Anyone with any skill level can do a rewire. A full grip replacement is another story. On a side note, if anyone needs directions on a rewire, let me know. I'm sending out some detailed instructions to a friend who emailed me recently. I can CC to anyone interested.

                    Tom

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                      #11
                      CC me on the re-wire Tom, I'd like to see.

                      Regards,
                      Rob.

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                        #12
                        Tom
                        I would like a copy as well.Thanks !!!! Jay

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                          #13
                          Something I should add is that based on what was left of the original grip, it's likely it was sharkskin covered- it might pre-date the Weimar era. Don't know. Either way, spare sharkskin covered grips are not something easy to find so the celluloid repacement had to fit the bill.


                          t

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