Army Saber Hand Guards

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Below is a photo of the WKC hand guard with some sample areas circled. Under the photo, we discuss each issue. Below our discussion, we show the image of WKC's hand guard (without the red) and two other manufacturers from different countries. All images are completely unretouched.

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1. WKC casts its thumb guard with a shell-casting technique. Other countries use a sand-casting technique, leaving pits and sand in the grooves of the thumb guard.
2. Handle shapes can vary slightly. No particular shape is exactly "proper", but there are likely some shapes you might not care for as well as others. We subjectively consider WKC's design to a fuller, more elegant design than the others. Furthermore, WKC presses the shape and then hand-files the grooves to round the edges. Other countries sand-cast the guard, again leaving pits and bumps.
3. The Army Saber has a ridge along the edge of the grip. Again, WKC shell-casts the grip. Other countries sand-cast the grip leaving more pits in the grooves.
4. The item circled is the nut that connects the blade to the guard. WKC uses a perfectly oval nut, which we find to be more elegant than the nuts from the other two countries shown. Both have nuts that have parallel sides and more abrupt corners. Visit the guard "shape" page for a better angle.
5. All hand-made sabers have some minor blemishes or slight "waves" that are a result of being hand-made. With other manufaturers' sabers, we have seen more pits and dents that we would consider inconsistencies in manufacturing that were not properly completed or repaired.
6. WKC fits the metal band that goes around the grip and minimizes any space between the metal band and the grip. Note that "Country One" does a fairly good job of this process; however, "Country Two" has left a gap.