stabman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2007
- Messages
- 21,321
Back in the early 1990s, there was no such thing as the internet. 
There was mail order catalogues...and these weird things called stores. Often, different cities had entirely different items for sale (odd, I know).
So around the age of 14, I was visiting my grandparents, and they dropped my off downtown with $50, and said they'd pick me up in a couple of hours.
The joy, the unbridled freedom of choice! What to do with such wealth? Time for a quest.
I wandered around entering various shops, when finally I found one with a strange assortment of items. Weird oriental looking things, painted figurines, D&D miniatures...and swords!!! Well, I got to searching, and found a saber with a scabbard covered in a nasty green colour of weird material (sort of like velvet), with an elephant head for a handle. The head/skull part was at the pommel, and the trunk extended toward the blade, forming a handguard. The whole thing was one piece of wood.
I had to have it.
I asked the price, which was $50 including tax! The fates smiled upon me.
So I bought it, and headed off with my prize, wrapped in brown wrapping paper, that the mindless hordes would not be freaked out.
The quest was a success.
A month later the Elephant's trunk fell off.
A year after that, a storm knocked a branch off the pine tree in the side yard of the house. Not quite a dragon, to slay, but close enough.
After three mighty chops, the blade snapped in half...
So I removed the handle, and wrapped it in masking tape, then medical tape.
I put a new tip on it. I also cut 1/4" 20TPI threads on it with the idea of putting a pommel on it, I guess.
When I was 20, I took it out to a wooded area and bashed at some dead trees.
It did not break, but developed a corkscrew twist to the blade.
I then stuck it in a corner in it's crappy cut-down sheath (wrapped in black tape now), and it remained in a corner each time I moved since then
The sword was made in India, out a material I call "The India Metal."
It is not stainless; it rusts.
It is magnetic.
It manages to be soft and brittle at the same time.
It bends when you don't want it to, yet is surprisingly springy too.
A truly remarkable achievement of metallurgy.
Decades passed.
Then the pandemic hit in 2020, and I had lots of time on my hands.
One day, I picked up the sword. The tape was now flaky and weird, so I cut it off.
A strange compulsion hit me...the time was ripe for it to rise from the ashes, with a handle far more awesome than before!
Proudly made in India...
I decided I wanted a different handle angle, so I would torch the tang and straighten it out.
The ricasso had to be filed back to allow for a longer handle, while still preserving the Indian pride of the blade:
There was mail order catalogues...and these weird things called stores. Often, different cities had entirely different items for sale (odd, I know).
So around the age of 14, I was visiting my grandparents, and they dropped my off downtown with $50, and said they'd pick me up in a couple of hours.
The joy, the unbridled freedom of choice! What to do with such wealth? Time for a quest.
I wandered around entering various shops, when finally I found one with a strange assortment of items. Weird oriental looking things, painted figurines, D&D miniatures...and swords!!! Well, I got to searching, and found a saber with a scabbard covered in a nasty green colour of weird material (sort of like velvet), with an elephant head for a handle. The head/skull part was at the pommel, and the trunk extended toward the blade, forming a handguard. The whole thing was one piece of wood.
I had to have it.
I asked the price, which was $50 including tax! The fates smiled upon me.
So I bought it, and headed off with my prize, wrapped in brown wrapping paper, that the mindless hordes would not be freaked out.
The quest was a success.
A month later the Elephant's trunk fell off.
A year after that, a storm knocked a branch off the pine tree in the side yard of the house. Not quite a dragon, to slay, but close enough.
After three mighty chops, the blade snapped in half...
So I removed the handle, and wrapped it in masking tape, then medical tape.
I put a new tip on it. I also cut 1/4" 20TPI threads on it with the idea of putting a pommel on it, I guess.
When I was 20, I took it out to a wooded area and bashed at some dead trees.
It did not break, but developed a corkscrew twist to the blade.
I then stuck it in a corner in it's crappy cut-down sheath (wrapped in black tape now), and it remained in a corner each time I moved since then
The sword was made in India, out a material I call "The India Metal."
It is not stainless; it rusts.
It is magnetic.
It manages to be soft and brittle at the same time.
It bends when you don't want it to, yet is surprisingly springy too.
A truly remarkable achievement of metallurgy.
Decades passed.
Then the pandemic hit in 2020, and I had lots of time on my hands.
One day, I picked up the sword. The tape was now flaky and weird, so I cut it off.
A strange compulsion hit me...the time was ripe for it to rise from the ashes, with a handle far more awesome than before!
Proudly made in India...
I decided I wanted a different handle angle, so I would torch the tang and straighten it out.
The ricasso had to be filed back to allow for a longer handle, while still preserving the Indian pride of the blade:
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