One of the best ways to understand the construction of a sword is to take it apart and put it back together again. With some swords, this is simplicity itself. With others, disassembly is extremely difficult and inadvisable unless the sword’s condition is already so questionable that the only alternatives are repair or disposal.
Whenever you take apart an unfamiliar sword, you risk damaging it. Your first task, therefore, is to determine how it is held together.
Every sword has at least two principal parts: the blade and the hilt. The hilt includes everything that is not part of the blade. Examine it carefully to determine whether it is a single cast assembly or is composed of separate parts. Look for rivets or pins at the pommel and along the handle, as well as any visible nut or threaded fitting.
If none is visible, the pommel itself may be threaded onto the tang and may unscrew much like the lid of a jar. That tells you that the tang is threaded; it does not tell you whether the tang is broad, tapered, welded, or of the dangerously thin rat-tail construction described on the previous page.
Threaded Tangs
A threaded hilt is held together by a pommel, cap nut, or other fitting screwed onto the end of the tang. Tightening that fitting compresses the handle, guard, and other parts of the hilt against the shoulder of the blade.
The great advantage of threaded construction is that the hilt can be tightened whenever the components settle or the handle materials compress. The disadvantage is that the same fitting can gradually work loose through repeated use.
Any rattle or movement in a stage-combat sword is a warning that the weapon must be removed from use and inspected. A loose threaded fitting may require nothing more than tightening, but it may also indicate worn threads, a damaged tang, a collapsing handle, or another structural problem. Do not assume that tightening the pommel automatically solves whatever caused the looseness.
Several things can go wrong while removing a threaded pommel:
- The pommel or cap nut may have been tightened so firmly that removing it requires a table vise and a large wrench.
- What appears to be a separate pommel may actually be part of the handle or hilt casting. If you try to twist it off, you may break the hilt. I lost one sword this way, but what can you do?
- The threads may have been filled with epoxy or thread-locking compound. Penetrating oil may help if corrosion is the problem, but it will not necessarily release a hardened adhesive. Applying enough force to break the bond may instead break the tang, leaving part of it trapped inside the pommel.
Even a broken threaded tang may sometimes be salvageable. If enough sound tang remains, the pommel may be drilled and tapped for a new, correctly matched thread. The remaining tang may also be rethreaded, and the handle shortened or refitted to compensate for the lost length. Whether this is practical depends upon the diameter and condition of the remaining tang, the construction of the pommel, and the amount of material available for the new threads. This is a substantial repair, not an automatic rescue.
Assuming that the pommel comes off safely, the remaining parts of the hilt can usually be removed from the tang in order. Lay them out in that same order and note their orientation. Washers, spacers, and asymmetrical guards are remarkably easy to reinstall backward.
Top-Peened Tang
If you see a circle of blade steel flattened over the pommel or pommel cap, you are probably looking at the end of a peened tang. The swordmaker assembled the hilt over the tang, left a short section projecting beyond the pommel, and hammered that end outward. The blade and tang have therefore become a giant rivet holding the entire sword together.
This does not necessarily mean that the sword has a rat-tail tang. A broad or tapered tang may be peened in exactly the same way.
Unless the sword genuinely requires repair, do not disassemble it. A properly peened tang is extremely secure, and removing it is an irreversible operation. The peened end must be ground or drilled away before the hilt can be dismantled. That leaves the tang shorter than it was before, and the sword may not fit together properly again without rebuilding or refitting some of its components.
If disassembly is unavoidable, the peened steel must be removed without needlessly damaging the surrounding pommel or cap. Once enough of the peen has been removed, the pommel cap and other hilt components can be worked free. Proceed slowly. What appears to be a simple peen may conceal another fastening system beneath it.
Several things can go wrong:
- Additional rivets or pins may pass through the sides of the handle. The hilt will not come off until those fasteners have also been removed.
- A threaded nut may be hidden beneath the peened end or pommel cap. The cap may have to be worked loose before the nut can be exposed and removed.
- The tang may already be cracked, badly corroded, or too thin to survive the operation.
A loose peened sword is not harmless. The pommel may be unlikely to fall off, but movement within the hilt means that its components are shifting under load. The sword must be removed from use and inspected before it is fought with again.
Side-Fastened Handles
Some handles are secured by pins or rivets passing sideways through the grip and tang. Before removing them, make certain that the sword is not also held together by a threaded pommel, hidden cap nut, or peened tang.
On many swords, the side fasteners are readily visible. Depending upon their construction, they may have to be drilled out or driven through with a properly sized punch. A hardened, blunted finish nail may serve for very small spring pins, but it must be slightly smaller than the pin and used carefully to avoid enlarging or damaging the hole.
Once the fasteners have been removed, the blade may slide out of the handle. It may not. Some manufacturers also use epoxy to secure the handle. In that case, tapping the handle away from the tang may break the adhesive bond—or it may break the handle.
Traditional Japanese swords use removable bamboo pegs to secure the handle to the tang. The handle wrapping normally does not need to be removed in order to draw out the pegs and remove the handle. Authentic katana, however, are never used for stage combat.
Katana made for stage combat reproduce the outward appearance of the traditional weapon but use construction better suited to theatrical use. Their handles are generally secured either by a hidden cap nut or by steel compression springs passing through the handle and tang. Determine which system has been used before disturbing the wrapping. A hidden cap nut may require access through the end of the handle, while compression springs can usually be driven out with a suitably sized punch.
Do not remove the handle wrapping unless it is genuinely necessary. Reproducing the original tension and pattern is far more difficult than simply remembering which way the material crossed.
Reassembling the Sword
Once the sword has been inspected or repaired, reassembly is generally a matter of replacing the components in reverse order. Check each part as it goes back onto the tang. The guard must face the correct direction, the handle must seat firmly against it, and any washers or spacers must return to their proper locations.
A sword that originally had a top-peened tang presents the greatest difficulty. Removing the old peen has shortened the tang. If enough sound tang remains exposed after reassembly, it may be possible to form a new peen. If not, the handle and other hilt components may have to be shortened or refitted so that sufficient tang projects beyond the pommel.
Converting the sword to a threaded fitting requires still more exposed tang. The diameter and thread pitch must be selected precisely for the tang and matched exactly by the nut or pommel. Do not merely choose the closest size or force incompatible threads together. A poor match provides inadequate contact, damages both sets of threads, and can allow the sword to come apart during use.
The commonly encountered sizes are ¼–20 on many costume swords and M6 × 1.0 on many stage-combat blades, but convention is not measurement. Confirm the actual diameter and thread pitch before cutting or tapping anything.
A steel cap nut will normally last longer than a brass one. Place a steel washer beneath it so that tightening the nut does not grind into or deform a softer brass pommel or cap. Tighten the assembly only enough to seat every component firmly. Excessive force may strip the threads, crush the handle, distort the guard, or place unnecessary tension on the tang.
Before cutting off any excess tang, assemble and tighten the sword completely. Make certain that the guard and blade are correctly aligned and that enough thread remains engaged inside the nut. Once the excess tang has been removed, there is no putting it back.
Finally, inspect the entire sword before returning it to use. Nothing should rattle, turn, shift, or compress under hand pressure. The blade, guard, handle, and pommel must all be solidly seated and correctly aligned.
Taking a sword apart is easy only when everything goes well. The true test is whether you can put it back together as a sound, secure, fight-worthy weapon.