P1796 Light Cavalry Sabre Restoration Completed
Posted: 28/01/19 (16:08pm)The P1796 Light Cavalry sabre restoration is finished. As you saw in the previous blogs, there was a lot of work to do. The sabre is now looking much better and, importantly, is safe. The tang is now strong and the blade secure.
Before Christmas I received the scabbard and hilt furniture back from the media blasters and all that was left to do was to polish the parts and then put everything back together again.
It is often a little tricky to know how much polishing to do. I feel that it is always better to err on the side of caution. After all, if someone wants to polish further they can always do so. No amount of polishing will ever remove pitting and to grind off so much material as to level out the pits would leave one with paper-thin steel.
Having polished the hilt furniture, it was time to peen the tang. As mentioned before, the ideal length of tang to leave protruding for peening is equivalent to the diameter of the tang plus 1mm. I measured the correct length then cut off the surplus.
Once the blade was firm in the hilt, I used a drill press to make the hole for the cross rivet and then repeated the peening process on both sides. Lastly, I made a rawhide washer for the base of the blade.
I am quite happy with the work and I feel sure that the customer will be too.
