Construction Sword

So, not having access to a forge, I decided to purchase a period sword. Most of the places i searched were very expensive, and I am working on a limited budget, so I hit up Amazon for a 12th century sword. knowing the typology of swords from Oakshott's book, I found one for a decent price. unfortunately the scabbard was lousy.  (it looked like it was based on a migration era find. (500-700).

(photo by :k. Beckham)

The blade needs some work, and unfortunately I don't have my shot up and running enough to get it done right. The blade is heavily rebated (blunt) so I'd need to grind an edge onto it. the quillions (cross guard) is loose, so I'd need to grind the rivet on the pommel (the very end of the blade) and then hammer it back down or add in a leather wedge to tighten it up.

I decided to do a quick job on the guard and simply redo the grip. (as you can see it isn't pretty and did not go with my idea of a matching sword/ scabbard/ sword belt.

as i have never wrapped a handle of a sword before, I looked up how to do it. the simplest version I found is on Ye Olde Gaffers.

 http://www.yeoldegaffers.com/project_grip_2.asp

I didn't want to use non period items so I went with a stitched grip rather than with a glued one that was shown.

(photo by: K. Beckham)

First I cut and unwrapped the handle. the leather they chose was worse than the stuff on the spur straps... and the wire wrap looked like crap to me.  I decided that I wanted to do a solid leather grip with no raised areas. 

I measured the grip top and bottom, and then I made a paper pattern taking 1/8 an inch the sides. I then traced the pattern onto a clean piece of 3/4 oz. vegetable tanned leather, and I punched the holes using a four prong punch so that both sides would match up when it was stitched and then soaked it in warm water for about 10 minutes.

The next step was to sew it on to the handle. I used a double needle method, to join the ends. Basically, I used one needle on either end of the waxed linen thread to sew through the two holes.

(photo by: K. Beckham)

It has the appearance of the stitching on a baseball, but I noticed that the leather was too thick to stretch properly. 

(photo by: K. Beckham)

The grip is now extremely comfortable, and looks real nice. I let it dry then applied a generous amount of red dye. (I pick one out earlier for my Iron Age and Roman era work that looked like it was achieved with madder root dye).

(photo by: K. Beckham)

The next step will be to oil or lanolin the grip depending on what was more commonly used during the 12th century. 

When I redo this handle, I will use a 2-3 oz leather and use a 1/16 " so it fits properly.