Folks, Can any of you point me to resources in the U.S. who would be
in the biz of refurbishing old, decorative swords (U.S. Navy
officers’ swords). I have several customers (currently, about 12
families) who are looking for the service in preparation for
commissioning (graduation) of family members from the Naval Academy
next spring.
What I THINK this entails is re-polishing, retouching engraving,
possibly some rewrapping of hilts, maybe resetting stones, fixing
inlay, or redoing damaged metalwork in the hilt or scabbards.
So… Do any of you do this stuff or know anyone who does? What I
will do is point my clients directly to the leads and let them follow
up directly – since this is highly personalized work, I’m not going
to stay in the middle of it (nor will I take a “cut” on it). I just
want to point the folks to reputable people who can do a great job.
My first thought is- how old are these peices? I fenced very
competitively for twenty years and have a pile of these things for
trophies, and the older ones are better made and refurbishable. Ones
from, say midcentury on really decline in quality, a lot of them are
junk. I’d google for the manufacturers and ask them. There should be
a name on the blade at the very top, right under the guard. Or google
up the quartermaster at the Naval Academy and ask them about it.
They’ve probably gotten this question before, Navy families abound.
You probably don’t want to be in the middle of this, because the
later weapons tend to be cheap theatrical peices and are plated- once
they pit or get any corrosion they’re a mess. Dryrot on the grip is
easy to rewrap but you need to really understand weapons and their
construction (and use) to get them apart. If you don’t know tang from
a pommel, yeah, send them along. We have a major dealer in antique
weapons here in New Orleans, though I don’t know if they still are
the players they used to be. James H Cohen and Sons Inc, the number
is 1 800 535 1853. Used to have a shop full of goodies, swords, guns,
coins, cannon >D though I haven’t been there in years. They may know
somebody- reconditioning stuff would be a must in their business.
There’s a dealer who sells on Ebay as Hutchinson’s Militaria out of
California (I think), Lots of super quality peices, may know
somebody. No, I don’t buy them- there was nothing on TV and I was
cruising to see just how wacko people can get in designing a pocket
knife. I found all this collector high quality weaponry mixed in with
the Dungeons and Dragons stuff. This guy had stuff so fabulous I just
wanted it the way people want jewelry (heh heh). Good luck
My neighbor Michael of dragonflyforge.com may be able to help them.
He makes the most beautiful samurai swords! I’m sure you could email
him from his website. Hope this helps!