Nightmare build - Shuangdao Twin Sabers

Now, I've had nightmare builds before, but this one really tested what I was made of.

Sometimes a project comes along that adds a new detail you haven't tried before, sneakily deceiving you that it'll be a quick and simple tweak, but ends up taking you through an entire journey of unfamiliar sideroads and dangerous alleys.

This pair of Chinese shuangdao, specifically the iconic mating half hilts, were just that logistical nightmare. My noodle was thoroughly cooked, but I gained a skill.

Known for the unique way this pair appears as a single sword until they are split and wielded with both hands - I wanted to do this symbol of ancient badassery adequate justice.

The grips needed to lay flat against each other, so that meant that leather wrap was out - but also hiding the horrid exposed cross section that allowed them to sit flat was also an absolute necessity.

Thus the choice available was to accent the hilt with a rich coloured wood veneer instead.

This seemingly straightforward task, however, was one of the most dangfangled brainbusters I have ever gotten myself into.

Here is the process.

For your convenience, the entire sequence of steps laid out in order of operation.

Just writing this list alone took me two full days to think up and order.

Why? Because nearly every single step in this list blocks access to another step somewhere else.

And so it begins.

The sword clamped down, I used my CNC to skim the top face of the grip facing out. To this recess, I will add a thick veneer of accent wood.

I luckily had some mahogany left over from a failed experiment that was just perfect for this. I however didn't have any walnut veneer to cover for the guard and pommel sections, so I had to make some by sticking slats to a larger piece of oak and running it running it all through the planer.

Without the oak or even the tape, these thin little sheets of wood would have been obliterated by the spinning blades. That was what happened with the mahogany that made it unusable for its original project.

Laying out all the ready pieces, it was time to start assembling.

Most woodworkers know the feeling of nervousness before a glue up. They all know that IQ drops as soon as that bottle top is popped.

Glue, clamp, let dry, clean.

This ended up working out nicely.

Here was also my only opportunity to bevel the outer faces of these hilts before losing that access to them forever.

Guard and pommel time.

Pre-glue, the blade and hilt fittings were separately finished, the guard and pommel with boiled linseed oil and shellac, and the blade with just shellac, as this was the only time those parts had left before tying the knot of Titebond III commitment.

But here's a fun fact: Shellac actually acts as a barrier to glue, making glue squeeze-out much easier to clean and wipe off without leaving a residue or soaking in where it is not intended.

Successfully stuck, a quick hit at the belt sander trued them up to each other as fully flattened faces. But the core wood was still exposed, thus came the stage to add the inside face veneers.

Inside face laminating started off with some technical difficulties, as I managed to snap one of the guard veneers. A quick shave with the hand plane worked fine for this single one, but the tape and oak were once again huge helps.

How does one hold a thin strip against a round body that no clamp in the house can grip?

Gravity. And the help of a few weights.

Another round of glue, let dry, clean up followed. Six times in a row. Once for every individual piece of veneer. Keeping them aligned meant each guard, grip, and pommel facing piece of slat needed to be stuck on and cleaned up before the next could be put on.

But now I had inside faces, though a bit uneven. A quick hit with the belt sander flattened and trued those faces up.

A lot of work has been put in by here, but this pair was now sitting pretty.

A couple of final details,

like oiling precisely only the mahogany and walnut (I don't particularly like oil on maple) using a napkin-on-a-skewer paintbrush,