Saturday, April 9, 2016

War Hammer Refurbished

Finished refurbishing the war hammer. I used some metal epoxy to secure the head and butt cap onto the handle. Since it was a snug fit, and it's mainly a display piece, this should be no problem.
I nailed brass tacks into the epoxy to cover the holes and make it look like they're fancy topped rivets.
After removing the original finish with Citristrip, I rubbed down the handle with Old English furniture oil. Don't know why they painted the handle, as the grains are pretty nice.
A timeless piece. Cheers from the Frugal Armoury!

Friday, April 8, 2016

Refurbishing a War Hammer - WIP

Started refurbishing a war hammer. It was only $45 (free shipping), and was put together by underpaid folks in India. So, although the parts themselves are pretty good, especially for the price, the overall craftsmanship was a bit lacking. The rivets were not lined up very well, and the spike was off center as well as the butt cap. I used a Dremel to cut off the ends of the rivets (actually really big nails), and pounded them out with a hammer and Phillips Head screw driver. I also wanted to remove the ugly dark brown stain/paint from the handle. I did some Googlin' and picked up some Citristrip to remove the stain/paint (I hope) - I'm waiting for it to do its work.
 With the metal parts removed after cutting off the rivet/nails with a Dremel cutting tool.
The handle coated with Citristrip. I placed the handle in a plastic trash bag to keep it from drying out too fast - another tip from YouTube.


Here it is before removing all the metal parts - you can't really tell from this image, but the spike and butt cap were not aligned with the handle. You can probably see that the dark brown stain/paint is pretty ugly though.
 
Well, just a quick update to keep this blog alive. Cheers!

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Pole Axing and War Hammering on a Saturday Morning

Just a bit of toying around this morning with the new pole axe, and also a recently acquired war hammer.
Left off the greaves and arm harness to give it a more 15th C. Man at Arms look.
The war hammer is very heavy and quite solid. I plan to take it apart and remove the paint from the wooden shaft and refinish it with the same Dark Walnut as the pole axe shaft. I used a Dremel to cut off the two rivets for the spike - tried to straighten it as it pointing a bit off center. Still not perfect, but a work in progress.
I've found that I like fingered gauntlets a lot better than these mitten style ones. It's hard to pick up stuff with the mitten gauntlets.
Well, thanks for visiting - this interlude has me looking forward to running a War of the Roses game at Enfilade in May.
Cheers from the Frugal Armoury!