Thread: Restored a Greaves... but have a problem

I did it as I was working with old bone scales. Heating and bending won't work. Pin holes are already drilled.
When a blade is twisted, such as in the OP's 12th pic, lots more to it than closing center. You have to twist the tang position to get the blade reasonably straight as well as get it closing center. Filing on the spacers is reversible as you can pry them off and start over if you go too far!

This is fantastic! I am very happy to see all of the creative ideas to address this issue. Thanks everyone for sharing all of this knowledge and experience!

Indeed, there are many ways to accomplish a good fit. Dependent upon what ails it, a cure can usually be found.

Somehow, some way!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I did it as I was working with old bone scales. Heating and bending won't work. Pin holes are already drilled.
When a blade is twisted, such as in the OP's 12th pic, lots more to it than closing center. You have to twist the tang position to get the blade reasonably straight as well as get it closing center. Filing on the spacers is reversible as you can pry them off and start over if you go too far!

Exactly! The blade isn't in line with the tang. With the one I dealt with I could get it to close center by tapping the pins. The washers I filed were to line up the center line of the blade with the center line of the scales, looks just like yours. It was easy enough to do just a lot of fitting to make it perfect. In retrospect I would have used double sided tape while fitting the washers and then glued them in when they were right. I first filed them and then glued them in then had to finish the fitting whilst they were glued in. I took way longer than it should have because of how careful I had to be.

Well I finally got around to tackling the centering issue. I decided to start with the wedge shaped washer method first to see where that got me. I super glued a washer to a pencil eraser and ground it into a wedge shape with my dremel, then repeated. I then used a dab of glue to stick it to the scales in the proper orientation. I'm not sure if it was just beginner's luck or I'm that good , but it mocked up dead center on the first try!
BEFORE

AFTER

It's pretty apparent how much bend is in the tang considering how far off the tail is now that the blade is centered.

I am very pleased with how it turned out, and am very proud to have her in the collection. To think that I was planning on restoring her and putting her up for sale. She's not going anywhere.

Thanks everyone for offering all of the potential solutions for this issue. This project has taught me a lot.