Broken sabre

[caviesfan12]

So my sabre isn't exactly broken but the hilt and blade are really loose. I can't buy another sabre and I know I can take the hilt apart but Im not sure how to do that. Any tips or instructions?? Thanks!!

[Jim Nevermann]

If you know or can find the name of the saber's manufacturer, eMail them and ask.

[TrishDish1002]

Try tightening the screw at the top with a screwdriver first

[PC]

So my sabre isn't exactly broken but the hilt and blade are really loose. I can't buy another sabre and I know I can take the hilt apart but Im not sure how to do that. Any tips or instructions?? Thanks!!

I can only tell you how to do it on a King Saber (his top-of-the-line model). I can't say for sure if it would work on any of his other models, although some of them use similar parts. I have dismantled and repaired a few of the other brand models that are close knock-offs of the King Saber by using the same methods, but I can't say for sure which of those off-brands and models they were so be very cautious using this method on off brands.

King, by the way, tells people not to dismantle his sabers or it will void the warranty - but his warranty doesn't cover looseness, rattling or bent parts, which are constant problems, just complete breakage which almost never happens. So big deal.

The term "hilt" actually means all the components of the handle assembly - everything that isn't the exposed part of the blade. King uses the term to just mean the handguard, which is misleading and confusing, at least to those of us still stuck on the long-established terminology for the parts of a sword.

Anyway, the multiple handle parts that make up the hilt on a King Saber are basically skewered over the threaded tang (the narrow and weaker part of the blade inside the hilt) and held in place by a long-sleeved cap nut that screws down over the threaded tang and is counter-sunk into the butt of the hilt. On King Sabers and some other makes this cap nut is slotted for a LARGE flat-blade screwdriver, instead of an allen wrench or hex-head. It's important to find a large flat-blade screwdriver that fits in the slot very snuggly so you can put enough torque on it without stripping out the slot. And you need the torque because the King factory glues these cap nuts on with super heavy-duty Locktite, essentially glue.

Trying to unscrew these cap-nuts by brute force without stripping out the screwdriver slot is usually difficult - but I always try it out because sometimes the Locktite has already broken loose. The locktite WILL soften w/heat - about 500 deg. F or so. I loosen the Locktite by putting a plumber's butane blow-torch to the cap nut. One of those newer torches with the higher temperature gas blend would be even better. The object is to heat up the cap nut without spreading as much heat to the other parts of the saber handle, which can cause the plastic handle part to melt. I do this by wrapping the stuff around the exposed end of the cap nut with a couple layers of cloth with three layers of loosely crinkled (to make sure there are air gaps between the layers) heavy-duty aluminum foil covering everything nearby except the exposed end of the cap nut. I try to heat the cap nut as quickly as possible, testing it frequently with a flat-blade screwdriver. When the locktite melts the cap nut usually turns without much force and I quickly unscrew it a few turns, pull the foil and insulation off and spray the butt with water from a spray bottle to cool it slightly and reverse the heat flow so I don't melt anything else, and then finish unscrewing it completely. I've never had the Locktite bind up again as it cools after moving the nut, but I have occasionally slightly melted some inside surfaces of the plastic handle. Nothing very significant. Obviously this method should not be used on saber handles that don't have, like the King Saber does, beefy metal parts that can absorb the heat between the cap nut and inner plastic or rubber parts. Or outer plastic parts for that matter.

After that it's just a matter of pulling all the handle parts off the tang, straightening and polishing them up if need be, reassembling them and torquing them back together real tight with the cap nut, using new super heavy-duty Locktite on the threads.

Some people have told me of doing something similar but not taking anything apart, just torquing down the cap nut to tighten everything up. Without being able to clean the old Locktite off the threads and apply new, I doubt that such a remedy would last very long. Although all sabers held together in this fashion can get plenty loose and rattle without the cap nut moving at all.

Anyway, that's my method that has worked on many dozens of King Sabers every time and never broken anything.