A lot of reenactment level work is about learning appropriate historical crafts and skills. This board is for all general skills that don't have their own forum.
Howdy folks; as always it's been awhile since I posted. Thought I'd share my latest project. I made this from 2 pieces of 1/4" poplar glued together. Before the gluing I made the sword channel with a power router and did the shaping with a rasp and sander. Sealed with beeswax. The sword is a K.C. Viking....love this blade!
So, here it is before the staining.
Front
Back
The fit around the guard
Mouth opening
Tight enough to hold upside down
And a couple of shots showing the sides
And here it is finished. I stained the leather on the handle to match the scabbard.
The Back
The front
The front again
If it be a sin to covet honor,I am the most offending soul alive.
- W. Shakespeare
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed!
I can't tell very well from those pictures but it looks to me like the wood is still fairly thick and blocky. The main part of the process of making scabbard liners is the thinness to shave it down to. On the ones I've made, I've brought the wood down to less than 1/8" and this was still chunkier than the extant scabbard fittings. Another thing is that in using beeswax to seal the wood and making it fit so tight, you're probably going to have an issue with the steel sticking to the inside of the scabbard. Also, once the leather goes on the beeswax will repel any glue you put on there in addition to the stitching.
It looks nice, just remember that the thickness of the leather will be adding to that wood.
deadextra wrote:I can't tell very well from those pictures but it looks to me like the wood is still fairly thick and blocky. The main part of the process of making scabbard liners is the thinness to shave it down to. On the ones I've made, I've brought the wood down to less than 1/8" and this was still chunkier than the extant scabbard fittings. Another thing is that in using beeswax to seal the wood and making it fit so tight, you're probably going to have an issue with the steel sticking to the inside of the scabbard. Also, once the leather goes on the beeswax will repel any glue you put on there in addition to the stitching.
It looks nice, just remember that the thickness of the leather will be adding to that wood.
I don't plan to wrap this one with leather, I've decided to leave it as is, aside rom forging a chape for it. My initial idea was to try the stain and if I didn't like it just strip it down and do leather. The wall thickness is a little under 3/16", right at 5/32".
Thanks all for the compliments.
@Greg - I may make a bridge for it, but I haven't decided. Going to do the chape first.
If it be a sin to covet honor,I am the most offending soul alive.
- W. Shakespeare
Anyone know what scabbard cores were made from historically?
I have heard that oak is bad (High tannin causes rust), but not what was used. I believe that the one sword scabbard in the Museum of London's Knives and Scabbards is only leather. I'm not sure if there was a core that rotted or was otherwise discarded. Poplar was used for pattens.
-Jack Horner
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Impression: Cædmon Reedmace | bronze founder living in Archet, Breeland. c. 3017
deadextra wrote:Ah, that's a bit better. The title of the thread says scabbard core, so I assumed you meant it's the liner for a scabbard.
Yeah, when I started it was just going to be a core, but I decided to see what it'd look like this way first.
Greg wrote:
Avery P. wrote:Going to do the chape first.
You make chapes? You capable of doing chapes like this, perhaps in steel? I'll be needing one custom fit to a scabbard project later this winter.
Sure, I could do one like that. Not sure what my schedule will be like this winter though. We can talk about it more when you're closer to being ready.
@Ken - thanks. Just gotta find the time to make the suspension system....
@Caedmon - I've heard that many wooden scabbards for Viking blades were made from Yew, but I haven't followed up to find if that's true.
If it be a sin to covet honor,I am the most offending soul alive.
- W. Shakespeare
