Lady Vivamus 07

The one thing I was not able to change as I would have liked is the leather covering of the grip. In the novel, Heinlein says the grip is wrapped in shark skin. Shark skin is the traditional covering for the grip of Navy dress swords. Modern Navy swords use a hard plastic grip that has a molded surface that simulates shark skin.

Even before I got the sword, I suspected that it would be impossible to disassemble the hilt to allow the grip to be recovered without damaging it, and this proved to be true. I next considered recoloring the leather to make it white, but a test of white dye on black leather showed this to be unsatisfactory. So, I decided to leave it as is and and assume that it represents black ray skin, such as Albion used on their Lady Vivamus.