Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 18th June 2005, 07:30 PM

SFI? That link's to the Vikingsword forum? Pics are gone, and was there more text about the process? Seems to be some missing information in trying to establish a logical sequence to the posts; were the pictures that good, that textual conclusions came from them? Or was there an SFI link at one time or something? Didn't he use pitch as the adhesive for the scales/to level the area between the tang bands? I think he used some sort of epoxy to fill a void or warped hollow, but not as the actual adhesive; am I misremembering?
As to loose scales, I can only testify that they are common, and point out that anyone who hasn't seen them before, has seen some now. It is axiomatic in woodworking that the warpage of wood is an unstoppable force and will ultimately overcome any adhesive, when the two are opposed (one tries to avoid opposing them for this reason; a positive mechanical joint is often preferred, but even so will often sucumb.....). Thus, though the power of the adhesive (and particularly perhaps its elasticity in the case of pitch; but I've seen old pitch that was still holding, and other that had failed) may be of some influence, and the pins, if tight and rivetted will also restrain movement in varying degree (with their hardness, thickness, etc.), the main reason some old scales are going to be tight with an even, nonopen joint, tight rivets, uncracked, etc. is that either due to planning/knowledge, circumstances, sealing, or the nature of the material (most extreme example; stone, including metal), they have not tried very hard to warp. If they had, no adhesive is known to hold them (and I for one have seen numbers of scales that had come unadhered with warpage), and as to the pins, the warping wood sometimes tends to bend them (yes, that's right; if they are thin/soft) and/or crack around them when it warps much. Another common type of warpage, that often leaves a handle tight or tolerably tight, is (often wavy) warpage that makes a space between scale and tang. If the common rivetted joint between tang and pommel-plate is loose, or that of the tang bands, you'd be in worse trouble, of course.

18th June 2005, 07:30 PM	#15
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	SFI? That link's to the Vikingsword forum? Pics are gone, and was there more text about the process? Seems to be some missing information in trying to establish a logical sequence to the posts; were the pictures that good, that textual conclusions came from them? Or was there an SFI link at one time or something? Didn't he use pitch as the adhesive for the scales/to level the area between the tang bands? I think he used some sort of epoxy to fill a void or warped hollow, but not as the actual adhesive; am I misremembering? As to loose scales, I can only testify that they are common, and point out that anyone who hasn't seen them before, has seen some now. It is axiomatic in woodworking that the warpage of wood is an unstoppable force and will ultimately overcome any adhesive, when the two are opposed (one tries to avoid opposing them for this reason; a positive mechanical joint is often preferred, but even so will often sucumb.....). Thus, though the power of the adhesive (and particularly perhaps its elasticity in the case of pitch; but I've seen old pitch that was still holding, and other that had failed) may be of some influence, and the pins, if tight and rivetted will also restrain movement in varying degree (with their hardness, thickness, etc.), the main reason some old scales are going to be tight with an even, nonopen joint, tight rivets, uncracked, etc. is that either due to planning/knowledge, circumstances, sealing, or the nature of the material (most extreme example; stone, including metal), they have not tried very hard to warp. If they had, no adhesive is known to hold them (and I for one have seen numbers of scales that had come unadhered with warpage), and as to the pins, the warping wood sometimes tends to bend them (yes, that's right; if they are thin/soft) and/or crack around them when it warps much. Another common type of warpage, that often leaves a handle tight or tolerably tight, is (often wavy) warpage that makes a space between scale and tang. If the common rivetted joint between tang and pommel-plate is loose, or that of the tang bands, you'd be in worse trouble, of course.