More on the Short Sword Handle

First of all, I know many of you have wondered: "Who the hell is Oliver Hart-Paar?" A fair question. The photo to the left shows an OHP, probably sometime in the twenties considering the steel wheels. And how about those front wheels, solid steel but narrow to fit between rows. So now you know - it's a tractor - but a great nom de plume, no?
The short sword contines apace. One disaster following another. It's silly. Casting aluminum is so simple now I can almost do it in my sleep but brass, all of 500 degrees hotter is a bitch. The metal cools before the mold is filled, the amount of slag is incredible, probably because I'm a cheapskate and have been melting plumbing fittings, scraps of extruded brass and cartridges. In any case we're moving forward. In five minutes I can go shake #3 out of the sand to see how I did. In the meantime you can get an overview of the casting process in aluminum here. And, if your curiousity is piqued, here's where I sell the article itself.
To the left is a picture of the final aluminum pattern, cast in one shot without a hitch I might add, and my other brainwave: what I call the "tang liner". Virtually all of my aluminum handles are cast onto the blade but I wanted this to be put together by means of my old fave, the peened through-tang. So, I cobbled together this thing out of 3/8" copper tubing and a piece of 1/2" copper pipe (what's the difference? Tubing is measured by outside diameter while pipe is measured on the inside). My hope is that it will leave a "thouroughfare" of the tang-appropriate size for the length of the handle.
More on the success of same at a later date.