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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Scabbards

My dear friend (and blacksmith) Jesper ocationally get to make som swords for his clients. He is very good at smithing, but not quite as good at working with leather. Therefore I make the scabbards for the swords that he makes.
Actually he makes the sword AND the wooden core for the scabbard and i dress it up in leather.

So far I have made two scabbards for him. Both for early medieval swords. The design is made after the instructions drawn out by Peter Jonhson (See this thread on "My armoury" for details).

It is a pretty straight forward design and one that I have really enjoyed working with. I really like all this "braiding and weaving" og the leather.



This is the most reasent one (Just finished it today) the one in the picture below was made in august this year.
I am really pleased with both of them!





The belt is divided in to two thongs and wrapped around the scabbard. On the back it passes through it self before it goes around the front again.


The two thongs pass under both the belt and the covering on the scabbard. This Is the most tricky part of the whole process because you have to hold the slit open and press the thong through at the same time. And you have to hit the slit on the other side as well.

Also the slits have to be as small as possible, so the thong will stay in place afterwards. If the slits are to bit the thong will come loose.

Also notice that i thinned down the thongs. This gives a bit more room to work with.





The end is folded up under the covering to give a nice round end.
It could also be fitted with a chape to reduce wear on the end, but unfortunately I don't possess the skills to make one.



And here is a closer look at the upper portion.

BTW: The red fabric in the background was the fabric that I dyed at our stay at Spøttrup. I will make it in to a new doublet later.

10 comments:

  1. If you had posted this just a few weeks ago, my last scabbard would have been a lot better!

    http://el-blindado-personal.blogspot.com/2009/11/por-otra-vaina-hanwei.html

    Which kinds of leathers did you use, and how thick? I love the way it folds when crossing the slits.

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  2. For the covering i used some very soft calfskin. ca. 0,6-0,8mm thick. For the belt and thongs i used 2mm thick cowskin.
    Both are vegetable tanned.

    If you sew on the cowering while it is wet it will shring a lillte and give a tighter fit.

    The black colour is from iron oxide.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, really very nice work.

    It's my first time here, and I must thanks it to Axil.

    I'm doing my first one for a dagger and my biggest problem is just the end.

    Have you only put inside the skin or have you sewn it also?

    Do you have any other picture showing it? I'll be very pleased if you can share it with.

    Be sure I'll follow your work since today.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aa what a wee beauty!
    I´m especially fond of the folded tip, great fitting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now that's a lovely job. Between this and Axil's work I'm not tempted to replace my leather-only scabbard.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @David Templar:

    I am just makeing another scabbard right now. I can post some pictures of the process when I'm done.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have the same comment as Axil, wish I had seen this earlier.

    ReplyDelete
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