Alter a Mainz Gladius?

[Pointer]

I have not been able to find the thread that spoke about the Deepeeka Mainz Gladius AH-2005. THe one I found was dated back 5 years ago. Has this AH-2005 been upgraded since then? I had read that the handle was to long.

Has anyone reworked their's? Or altered the length of the handle? I just purchased a new one and was wondering if anyone has made personal changes to their own. I am not critiquing... Just asking questions. SOrry if this over steps my bounds.

Thanks

[Virilis]

Hi Patrick!

To my knowledge there have been no improvements on the Deepeeka mainz style gladius since they were improved the last time. Yes, the flaws are still there; the grip is too long, no brass / bronze guard plate, the scabbard is too big overall, weak rat-tail tang etc. All the improvements could be done with little or no additional costs which is, still, very annoying :wink: ...

[Legionary25]

Hi Patrick, I have altered my Deepeeka mainz quite a bit. I carved down the guard and pommel and made a new grip from some kind of hardwood. I Shortened the whole hilt as it was just too long originally. Basically removed the hilt pieces and cut off the threaded section of the tang (tang is actually very strong on this particular sword) and then cold peened the end of the tang over a washer. I have no idea how but I seemed to have made a very solid sword . I didn't really like the outcome as I am not a good wood worker so instead of scrapping it I decided to do some destructive testing on my revamped deepeeka! Mainly hacking through a fence post, hitting the side of the blade against metal poles (this puts a lot of stress on the tang) and chopped up a few bricks with it. None of this is recommended obviously, I was just curious how tough the sword is. Strangely enough it is still solid and useable even if the blade is scuffed up quite a bit!




Also I have to add that Deepeeka's swords vary a lot

from piece to piece, so even though my one has held up well, I don't know if they all would.

[M. Demetrius]

Scuffed up is probably as "authentic" as anything else. We often go too far to get our kits perfect and exact, but forget that they were used under hard conditions every day, and sometimes didn't get the maintenance that would be optimal. Dents, scratches, damaged brass trim, and rust spots would have been normal.