Making more realistic blades. A sword I've been working on.

For those of us who wish to talk about the many styles and facets of recreating Medieval armed combat.
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Leopold der Wolf
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Making more realistic blades. A sword I've been working on.

Post by Leopold der Wolf »

Alot of you guys make some amazing looking weapons and have inspired me to make my swords look more..well sword like and less like a stick wrapped in tape.

Heres a cheap project most of us can do for under 20$.

Needed items: Athletic tape, Duct tape, Electrical tape, Rattan, Thick leather, 2-4 rivets with washers. (If you cant get rivets then normal nails work fine. Just use some bolt cutters to cut them down and peen em flat).

1. Figure out where you'd like the hilt to be and mark it. Then measure out what kind of hilt you'd like to fit on the blade (Use a paper cut out to help you decide if it fits) You want areas around the blade to barely touch. That way when you rivet there it will snug tightly against the rattan and not move around a lot.

2. take your tracings and cut out two equal sized shapes in your leather (I used thick saddle leather for this. Thinner leathers probably wont hold up well or keep their shape). You could also probably use thick, tough plastic like kydex.

3. Pop holes in the leather for your rivets and set them in. It helps to have a friend there to hold the sword for you when you start to peen the leather pieces together. After that you should have your hilt completed.

4. Next take athletic tape and tape over where your hand will go (You can find it in the drugstore where they sell ankle wraps and what not). Then pull out a long piece of athletic tape and spin it into a sticky rope. You can use this rope to wrap around the handle and give it a cool looking design.

5. After that take your pvc pipe cap and fit it over the pommel end of the sword. I used gorilla glue to hold it in place. Let it dry solid.

6. Finish it off with some more duct tape around the hilt/pommel or use wood colors if that's what your going for.

The sword I made has a long handle for my gauntlets and also allows me to use it hand-and-a-half if I need too.
Attachments
Before tape.
Before tape.
sword1.jpg (51.93 KiB) Viewed 243 times
Hilt up close.
Hilt up close.
hilt1.jpg (44.88 KiB) Viewed 198 times
sworddone.jpg
sworddone.jpg (62.6 KiB) Viewed 249 times
Last edited by Leopold der Wolf on Wed May 27, 2009 9:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.
“As a fencer, conduct yourself with honesty, courtesy, dignity, and grace at all
times, never engaging in any behaviour that would bring disgrace upon yourself,
your Master, or the sword." -Evangelista
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Ingvarr
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Post by Ingvarr »

That is cool.
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freiman the minstrel
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Post by freiman the minstrel »

Good job!

It is always nice to see somebody wanting to up the bar!

Keep up the great work.

Serious win, covered in Awesome sauce.

f
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Leopold der Wolf
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Location: Meridies

Post by Leopold der Wolf »

Thanks gents :). This started as an experiment to help the new guys in our shire get their first swords made up. We don't have any sword baskets but we do have a plethora of gauntlets and hockey gloves laying around. Plus i figure if the weapons look cool they'll wanna use them more lol.

The hilt held up well in combat. It took alot of blows and was fine. The hilt did spin a bit so I had to move it back into its proper spot and just added more sticky-rope around the top and bottom to lock it in place. Stays in place great now.
“As a fencer, conduct yourself with honesty, courtesy, dignity, and grace at all
times, never engaging in any behaviour that would bring disgrace upon yourself,
your Master, or the sword." -Evangelista
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