Care and Feeding on NamBam Blades
| The essential nature of the NamBam Series is that they can be disassembled and reassembled as needed. Given that we are talking about a piece of steel with an edge, a certain degree of caution is required. The best way to handle the maintenance is to make an addition to a vise -- wood jaws. You'll need a pair like the ones shown to the right. |  |
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Clamp the blade between the wood blocks and you're now ready to disassemble the blade. NamBam's are
either locked with a lateral Allen cap-screw or a terminal bolt. If there are a pair of hexagonal bolt heads
showing on the sides of the handle, one will be filled with epoxy and the other won't. Remove the one that
you can get an Allen wrench into. If there is a terminal bolt in the pommel, remove it. In some cases - for
very large blades - there may be a pair of laterally placed mosaic pins. If they are present and there is a
hole in the center of the mosaic pins, there is a safety pin involved - typically a 8x32 set screw
(see E037). Remove the pin. In some cases, a slotted connector nut may be accessed throught the pommel. If there is
a terminal bolt and you see a slotted connector in the bolt hole, unscrew it. The handles are typically snug fits and may require a strong pull -- that's why the vise and having the blade locked down is a good idea. Imagine how much fun it would be to have your hand wrapped around a sharp blade and then yank on the handle -- messy, no? The handle will slide off. If you blade is using a sabot system, there will be a stainless steel encasement wrapped around the tang. It is held on by a flush peg - also stainless steel. Simply push the peg out (it might take a gentle tap with a nail set or other pointy object). The guard can now slide off the tang and if there is a habaki, it can also be removed. Removing the habaki may require that you use a piece of hard wood (an oak wedge) as a chisel to get the habaki moving. Reclamp the blade as needed to get access to the front edge of the habaki and give it a gentle tap with the wedge. By now, the blade is stripped. You can now do whatever maintenance is needed. Assembly is simply the reverse of the procedure. I recommend that when you reassemble, that you wax all parts (paste wax will do) and maybe use "Never Seize" on the bolt. It will make your life easier the next time. If you have some beeswax, a good idea is to heat the habaki/guard area with a heat gun and apply the beeswax so that it melts and runs between the blade and the habaki. This will prevent any moisture from seeping into the interfaces (and is the reason the habaki may need a gentle tap to get it moving). If all of this seems to intimidating, contact me and we can work something out. |