Luftwaffe Sword Restoration By Ian Dale 2/4/16

Scabbard The scabbard as you can see was in bad shape with the leather badly cracked and areas missing.

Scabbard It was also dried out and flaking.

Grip The grip leather was not quite as bad but had areas missing and I felt it necessary to have the leather on the scabbard and grip matching.

Grip Restoration The pommel was removed and I noticed the tang thread was bent and leaning to the left !

Grip Removal  Then followed a long and difficult attempt to remove the grip from the tang.  It was fixed solid and I believe this was not helped by the bent tang.  I soaked the grip and tang in lots of spray oil and left it to work for a few hours.  I then managed to get blocks of wood and tap the crossguard up along with the grip and it finally began to come off.

Tang As you can see the tang is quite badly bent upwards which caused the difficulty in removing the grip. It was quite rusty and so I cleaned it with spray oil. I then managed to straighten the tang in a vice and gently bend it back.

Grip Wire Removal The grip wire was removed by pulling it out with a small bladed screwdriver. The ferrule ring was removed from the bottom of the grip.

Grip Leather Removal The grip leather was then removed. I found the best way was to soak it in very hot soapy water which softened the glue. As you can see it came off in one piece and this uncovered the quality wood core.

Scabbard Screw Removal Next it was time to remove the scabbard screws. These had been here since day 1 and were a pain to remove. Again plenty of spray oil and after damaging 2 screwdrivers, I managed with the 3 rd by rotating them left and right before fully unscrewing. They were saved on a card for later.

Scabbard Fitting Removal The upper and lower fittings were then removed but were pretty tight in place and required a little persuasion to remove them. You can then see the original workmanship under the fittings where the leather is ‘shaved’ so that the fittings will fit over it.

Scabbard Runner Removal Once the fittings have been removed the scabbard internal runners can be pulled out by hand (they just slide out). These are the parts that hold the blade in place when it is inserted in the scabbard. These were later cleaned to prevent further scratching to the blade.

Grip Leather Application The grip leather was then applied. This is a very tricky process as you have to cut the piece with curved sides as the grip is wider in the middle and attempt to get the seam on the side. The original grip wire was too short with the new leather applied so new wire was added.

Scabbard Shell I then rubbed down the aluminium scabbard shell to remove the old glue. There were a couple of dents near the bottom so these were filled and sanded down.

Scabbard Leather The scabbard leather was then fixed to the shell using spray glue. This again is tricky and you have to attempt to get the seam on the side.

Thread Clean Up Before re assembling I always like to clean up the tang thread and scabbard fitting holes. This is done with a tap and die set. The pommel was also done with a tap. The scabbard screws were then put back in.

END RESULT

END RESULT cont….... Very happy with the end result and certainly an improvement !!!