I need tips on how to dullen (to dull?) a sword. Ideally, the edge should be rounded to avoid dents and nicks. Any good tricks to this?
Could you use a fine grit grinding wheel?
Lib’s advice is good, but…
If it’s one of those chrome stage sword jobs you shouldn’t go for it since this will rip the chrome layer and create a rough edge full of nicks.
If it is a chrome job I suggest to blunt it by using a sharpening stone applied gently directly to the edge. Even this method will be iffy for a chromed metal though, so be gentle. If your effort aims to making the blade safe to grab you don’t need to blunt it much at all. Your biggest problem here will be nicks.
If you intend to fence with the sword on stage, thereby meaning the classical sword strikes sword stage fencing type of fencing you have serious problems to keep the sword nick free. Every strike will produce small jags in the edge and these will usually be so deep that the only way to remedy them is with a hammer and Libs grinding wheel. This is less of a problem if you use a blade out of high-grade laminated steel, but even then the edge will inevitably jag and nick
If you want to be able to strike at for instance another metal surface without breaking it you will need to blunt it so much that it makes more sense to have a special blade made. Typically the strike surface needs to be well above 0.5 mm if you want to avoid cutting into other metals.
Generally speaking I’d suggest that you rather focus on choreography to keep your actors safe and adapt the sword according to the needs thereby dictated. Of course I have no clue of what you’re up to with this, but having done quite a bit of this myself I might warn you that the confines of a stage doesn’t afford you the safest environment to wield large white weapons.
Dramatically speaking sword fight are also quite over rated. The best way to deal with them is briefly or as an integral part of the dialogue. Look to ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, and ‘The Nose Tirade’ for a wonderful example. It’s a duel of words that takes place in the midst of a sword fight; every riposte in the dialogue follows a lunge or parry, quite smashing. The film with Gerard Depardieu from a few years back gives a great rendition of the scene.
Once you make the sword fight integral to the action, each stroke of a sword, or each stab or whatever it is, should be so well planned that you will have far less problems with safety.
Sparc