A $70 carbon steel Practical Hand and Half served as the basis of an antiquing experiment. After stripping the fake leather off I disassembled the hilt by removing a small portion of the wood handle, tapped the pommel down about 1/8" then filed the mushroomed peen off with a dremmel. The wooden handle was epoxied to the tang and required some careful work but managed to come off in a reusable form.
The blade was antiqued with a vinegar salt solution of approx. 4 tsp salt to 1 cup vinegar that was sprayed as a fine mist and allowed to corrode the blade for 18 hours. The heavily corroded blade was washed with soap and water and a brillo pad and then most of the rust was polished away, leaving a heavily worn but cared for patina. A satin sheen was applied on the high points with a dremmel satin buffer mandrel.
The cross guard and pommel were fired in an oven at 500F for 2 hours to produce a slight golden bronze tone, then hot quenched in vegetable oil.
The custom sword handle is cord wrapped 2 oz leather over waxed thread with latigo risers.
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