Tulwar hilt repair.
 

I have a beater tulwar that I intend to repair. The blade is very loose and rocks back and forth in the hilt. The blade is fixed in the hilt with the red dye from the peepul tree. How so you suggest I tighten this fit?

Will a little gentle heat applied to the hilt re-solidify this bond, or are more drastic measures needed?

Thanks

I do not think you will be able to "re-harden" the stuff.

I would take it out, clean the cavity and the tang thoroughly and then use Epoxy Putty: you can get it in aquarium stores. Originally, it is intended to attach rocks, corals etc.

Get the grey variety (there is a green one) and add a little black and red/brown paint (art shops). Squeeze and mix thouroughly for a minute or two, add more pigment to adjust color, fill the cavity, stick the tang in, adjust the angle, tamp the putty in to get rid of air bubbles, remove the excess putty. Leave it alone for 24-48 h. Will hold like a dream.

Just rememver not to linger: epoxy putty hardens fast and then becomes uncomfortable to work with.

Total worktime: 5 minutes flat and you got yourself a battle-ready Tulwar!

take the resin or pitch out of handle grind it up add 2 part slow drying epoxy to mix and pour mix back in. than shove blade in. closest you will get to original
ward

I tried it once: my problem was that no matter what, the dried mix look kind of chemically-shiny. Perhaps, I used the wrong kind of epoxy? Which one would you suggest?
The epoxy putty, on the other hand, gave a virtually perfect imitation of the old material.
The "putty trick" was suggested to me by Artzi to reattach a crossguard to the Turkish Kilij. Worked like a charm! Thanks again, Artzi!

I would actually suggest browell's acraglass. It is clear and matte until you add pigments. The finished product looks very much like wood. When I do gun work I use the sanding dust in the acraglass to match the wood. Also It comes with a release agent which you can put on the metal to prevent it from sticking to unwanted areas.

when repairing you keep a small reserve of crushed material from hilt and pour it in between blade and guard on each side. obviously when expoxy is still tacky. you can always file it down you will not see a gloss finish. I buy epoxy 330 2 part takes 2 hrs to cure

I have encountered inside a sword handle a substance that, as far as I could tell, was clear epoxy mixed with original boiled tree resin. It had not fully hardened, and showed no intent of ever doing so. A test blob may be wise to make.

With epoxy it was most likely a lack of the proper amount of hardener .