loose hilt trouble strikes again

[TITVS PVLLO]

i am the owner of a first generation albion pompeii gladius.in the summer the hilt on my gladius is tight with no blade shaking at all, but in the winter the hilt seems to become loose and the blade shakes.i have asked for advice everywhere most tell me to wipe down the wood parts with linseed oil which i have down only to find it doesnt work,what should i do?????

[Robert Vermaat]

i am the owner of a first generation albion pompeii gladius.in the summer the hilt on my gladius is tight with no blade shaking at all, but in the winter the hilt seems to become loose and the blade shakes.i have asked for advice everywhere most tell me to wipe down the wood parts with linseed oil which i have down only to find it doesnt work,what should i do?????

Hi Titus, welcome to RAT. First though, plaese add your real name to your signature? It's a rule on this forum.

[Virilis]

This is what I have done with my Deepeeka: I have wrapped around the tang (in the "crack" between the hilt and the grip or the pommel and the grip) some thread. Wrap it around the tang as long as the grip starts to feel "tight" and then simply cut the remaining thread. Of course you can try also to impregnate the thread with a glue...

Hope this helps :wink: !

[ShaneA]

If it is loose right now I would try to tighten the the threaded cap if it has it, I don't remember what all of theirs had them. If you can tighten that up, then just tighten the peen over the cap up. Once tight keeping it regularlly oiled will help keep the wood from expanding and contracting as much. Changing how the sword is stored or displayed over the winter may help as well. I had a walnut grip on a del tin that gave me a ton of problems and most of it was a result of hanging it on a wall that would get cold in the winter and have pretty drastic temperature changes. So once tight if you can keep it well oiled to help with it drying out and at a pretty moderate temperature it should help.

Shane Allee

[arklore70]

Titus,
I own an Albion Pompeii First Generation style gladius myself.

You own a great blade and I would be hesitant to take it apart. I'd contact Albion direct and see what they advise. They have great customer service as well as maintenance service for your blade.

The pommel cap, as I will call it, on all Albion Roman blades is peened on. nothing is threaded, so unlike the Deepeeka blades, where you just can screw it off or tighten it up like I once did with my Mainz pattern Gladius, you just can't do that. unless you really have true quantifiable metal working skills.

You own the Lexus of gladii, so I would advise going to a skilled craftsman.

Linseed oil seems to rarely work on treated wood. I've tried with my EK knife, which I use for work.

What it appears, from not seeing it, is that the cap needs to be removed and re peened on a tiny bit tighter for a tighter fit, or storing your blade in a slightly less dry room..

V/r
Mike

[ShaneA]

By all means contact Mike at Albion and he can either set you up to have it tightened or explain how to do it yourself.

Unless my memory is way off, I would have to disagree with you Mike about there not being any threading on at least some of the Albion first gen roman swords. I can't seem to turn up the old Sword Forum International thread where Howy talked about the construction of these when they first started the line, it was either on the old forum or removed.

It does talk a bit about the older construction methods here.
www.albion-swords.com/swords-functional.htm
Nothing specific about their organic hilt models though.

Shane Allee

[TITVS PVLLO]

thank you for all your thoughtful responses everyone,i will definatly contact albion,though i am not sure i will be able to part with my gladius even for a short time!

[arklore70]

Shane,
I read the article and you are right. I made an assumption that because mine was either cold or hot peened, that all were manufactured the same way.

A good point to be mentioned, especially for someone shopping for one.

Good think Albion has a life time warranty. I wonder if it transfers with ownership.

Mike