A tulwar question

[Shawn Henthorn]

Hi all,
My question is about the attachment of the handles on Indian swords (espeicialy tulwars). I have heard tha the handles attach by method of glueing them. Is this true? and if so are there other things keeping the handles on or just the glue or epoxy?

[Scott Byler]

I can't answer this for all tulwar, but of the ones I've handled, the hilt is a hollow shell into which the blade tang, which is pretty short on most I've seen, is in fact glued in with a sort of pitch type adhesive. The inside of the handle is filled with it and it will really hold like you wouldn't believe.

I've had the opportunity to observe a couple of old broken tulwar and the tang on those was maybe 2 or 3 inches long. One was simply tapered, but one had a bulge left in the tang that would make a nice solid mechanical lock when glued up....

[Shawn Henthorn]

Wow that was quick! Thanks! Now if one hade to repair do you think an idustrial epoxy like PC11 would work?

[Scott Byler]

Well, I suppose something like epoxy might be used to repair something, depending ofcourse on what the repair is... My feeling would be that if it were possible to come up with a similar glue to the original it would be good to go that way... But, I don't know the formula for the original stuff myself... Need to go and look around and find that out if I can. And maybe actually manage to pick up the name of the adhesive, which I am not sure I've ever seen mentioned in any discussions I can recall....

Maybe somebody who has done restoration on tulwar can come along and give some advice on that....

[Shawn Henthorn]

Well what promted this is that i am thinking of purchaseing a new made tulwar from India. I happen to know that they glue the handles on in an apperantly historical fashion so my main concern is with the handle comeing loose or comeing off competely due to a shoddy glue being used. This is a guess only and may not come to that seeing as how the quality comeing out of India of late seems to be improving.

[Emanuel Nicolescu]

Hello Shawn,

Too suggestions, cutler's resin: http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=1403

or epoxy putty: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=pigment

I have used regular epoxy on a khukri and it holds perfectly. The only problem is that it cannot be undone and I'll have to destroy the hilt to remove it.

Regards,
Emanuel

[Greg T. Obach]

Hi
sometimes there is a pin/rivet that goes through the hilt... in the middle of the cross
-- but that is not alway there... but the resin/glue is

i've heard the glue being pitch... pitch with a binder... Alum... alum with a resin plug at the top.... and even Borax

i think zage safid maybe alum... but i don't know?... i do know that if you play with alum that it'll turn your fingers a nice purple color...


Greg

[josh stout]

Old-fashioned "shellac" if you can find it would do for the "pitch". You want the natural stuff made from pine trees. This has the advantage of melting in response to gentle heat allowing for a relatively easy disassembly of the blade. I had not heard of the addition of alum or borax, but they sound like they would make the shellac easier to work with.

I got the idea of shellac from a maker of kris blades. A kris should be disassembled on a yearly basis so they need something relatively easy to work with. Epoxy is of course stronger, but melts at a higher temperature, which increases the possibility of damaging your sword if you ever want to take it apart. Also it has toxic bad smelling fumes while natural shellac smells much nicer.
Josh

[Gonzalo G]

Hi Shawn,

Can you tell me where can I get a good modern tulwar in India? I mean, do you have a web adress to see and contact them?