[musher]

So my boy's grandfather just gave him 2 M1913 patton sabers, one dated 1913 and the other 1918. Seems he mislaid the scabbards somewhere along the way.

Grandpa had the handguards brass plated and the blades chromed decades ago to "make'em pretty"

sigh.

When he bought them as a boy, the local hardware store apparently had a couple barrels of the things.

Grampa bought them so he and his brother could play at swordfighting. :what:

Kinda makes me think about all the stuff that's a dime a dozen these days. Who knows, maybe even a turkish mauser will be worth real money someday. (Just don't have it chromed!)

My boy likes them, but I'm kinda inclined not to let him use them to swordfight with his cousins.

[hso]

What a great find, but even plated they're not safe to "sword fight" with. If your boy is a young'un I'd get a couple of wooden practice swords for him to thrash his cousines with.

[musher]

Yeah, I was joking about letting him do that. The sabers are definitely not safe--by design!

[hso]

Ohhh, I dunno, I've got a cousin that I'd use your Patton on.:evil:

Even all chromed up they make great wall decorations!

[musher]

Wall hanger is their immediate destiny, though I suppose we could still press them into service in a pinch. I just gotta round up an old calvary horse to keep in the hallway...

The worst part for me was finding out we had a closet bubba in the family. :)

Still Thomas, (my boy) is in 7th heaven. What boy in his right mind doesn't dream of getting a REAL sword, much less a matched pair?

Bit of a challenge to keep him from taking a little "swing" when he's examining his treasures though.

[Coronach]

Sigh!

My Brit Pattern 1912 was looking for a playmate...but not one that was brassed and chromed! That's horrid...and the thought that they had barrels of them...wow. There were not that many made.

You know...the finish on Patton sabers was pretty plain. I bet you could remove the plating and refinish them to pretty much milspec, pretty easily. They would not be original and should never be represented as such, but they would be like a de-bubba-ized milsurp rifle, returned to it's original glory.

Mike

[musher]

Coronach,

I was wondering a bit about that possibility. Is it possible to remove the plating w/o etching the base metal in the process? My understanding is that the handguard was blued and the blade left bright.

Of course, they're not mine, and my son is less sensitive to the historical issues perhaps. I think he might like them shiny.

[Coronach]

I was under the impression that blade and guard were either blued or treated with some early form of phosphate coating ("Parkerized"). I could very easily be wrong on that, so I'd check before you did anything. And I dunno about removal of the existing plating.

Mike

[fds5116]

musher
the sword forum has a sub forum dedicated to military swords. Folks there can help you find out the original finish. There are other forums for working on swords, as well.
http://forums.swordforum.com/
good luck
Frank

[Gordon]

Mine has some kinda black oxide finish on guard,the blade was left "brite". More than likely you don't wanta remove the plating. The original finish was polished off before it was applied AND as it had to be an electo plateing the metal IS etched!