Dry Rot
 

I have a kampilan I'm doing a minor restoration with and need some advice.
The handle was removed, reversed and reglued at some point long past.
Upon separating the handle and guard I found some minor dry rot inside the guard itself.
Any suggestions for stabilizing it before regluing?
Oh, and I plan to try a little cutting with this piece eventually. It's asking me to.

Hi Nirghosa,
if you want to use the dha for cutting, I would strongly suggest that you create/or have made, a replacement handle. The blade seperating from the hilt in use would be extremely dangerous to you or others around you (at the time).....especially fully sharpened. :(

I would remove the dry rot, which would be powdery and soft and use resin to replace the damage ....only if the sword was just for show and you wanted to save the original fittings.

Kind Regards David

There is a resin on the market now that soaks into the rotted wood then hardens; I don't know what it's called.

that sounds like the trick!

to the side, a company calle Edmund Scientific (supplies?) used to and may still(?) distribute, for free (!) a pamplet about how to resin-impregnate just about any dead person/part/plant/animal; I think it involved a vacuum pump though...........