A Swords Tale

This sad and sorry tale begins a long, long time ago (about 5 years to be precise) …

I needed a cover star for my novels, this mainly being due to being skint, or penniless if you prefer. Having had a search online I decided to buy this little beauty…

This is a replica of a Scottish halflang broadsword, believed to be a 15th century style. Halflang means that it is a hand and a half weapon (a bastard sword). It is 102cm long from tip to tip and weighs in at a very nice 1.5kg.

Now, every fantasy author I’ve ever met has some sort of medieval (or later) weaponry to hand. I’ve shown you mine, now let’s see yours! Hop on over to  EPIC- The home of Indie Fantasy and Sci-Fi | Facebook and post a pic (or fifty if you’re a avid collector of stabby, bludgeony, or thrusty stuff).

Imagine my horror when I lifted the box lad a few months ago and gazed upon this…

And this…

My mighty weapon had become rusty and pitted from lack of use!

What to do?

…

There are a lot of fantasy folk with a lot more knowledge than I have, pretty much everyone in fact. So I rang Ghostb…actually no I didn’t. I contacted my resident bladed weapon expert and HEMA participant (and fellow Epic member) Lee Conley.

Lee recommended using a rubber sanding block (fine grain) to get it clean, then use some regular old 3 in 1 oil. Now armed with this knowledge I set out to fix that that was once broken…

I think the end result is pretty good (even if I do say so myself), and now all I have to do is keep it clean and oil it regularly. I cannot thank Lee enough for his wisdom and knowledge, and I hope you enjoyed this article.