I have just completed a new Poitiers scabbard for forum member Andrew Babbini. Andrew wanted a fairly simple scabbard, so i tried to follow that in the simple decoration of the mounts and chape.
The body of the scabbard is a poplar core covered in chocolate brown leather. The suspension is oxblood leather with hand forged buckles/belt-mounts. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Dan

P.S. Sorry for the poor quality pics, photography is apparently not one of my talents.

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A shot of the back.

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Looks good. How did you make the chape?

I made it out of sheet metal with the seam up the back and the finial on the end welded on. I then removed the material from the cut-out decoration.

That's nice, I really like how the chape turned out.

I'd like to see a close up of the chape construction. It looks very good. Is it a one piece with welded seam up the back, or is only the finial welded on? Also, how did you make the finial?

I formed the chape out of sheet into a flattened cone with the ends meeting at the back, then inserted the finial into the small end. I then welded the seam at the back and around the end. The finial is a piece of steel rod that has been decoratively turned.
Hope this explanation helps,
Dan

Really nice! Just one question: why no matching hardware at the "hilt" end of the scabbard?

Looks great! How did You fix the chape?

I apologize if this is getting little old. I have made one scabbard in my life. The carving went well but inefficiently and I used too hard a wood. however I had to recycle a chape from a windlass scabbard as I had no idea mow to form one from commonly available hardware supplies. This is the main piece of information I look for in every scabbard thread. I read people talking of forming them on mandrel but what do you use for a mandrel? I also hear of using bee's wax when fitting leather wraps to both grips and scabbards but don't understand why or how? I don't want to badger you about the chape but the forming process has me stymied. Do you do your own welding and with what?

Thomas Parsons wrote:
Really nice! Just one question: why no matching hardware at the "hilt" end of the scabbard?


While there are a number of examples of metal fittings at both ends of the scabbard (and often in between), it was not always done. In fact, there are many examples of scabbards in art with metal only on the point end of the scabbard.



- I was just wondering if there was any particular reason for having opted for this layout...

Ok, let's see if i can keep the questions straight. First, the chape is fitted to the scabbard using a friction fit...i.e. shaped to fit quite closely placed as far as hand pressure will allow and then tapped into place the rest of the way with a rubber mallet.
Secondly, I didn't use a mandil for most of the shaping, but instead slowly bent it a little at a time, using a vice and rubber mallet and finishing with an armourer's stake towards the end. I'm afraid I don't do my own welding yet, but had a friend who own a body shop weld it with a MIG welder. After it was welded together I used the scabbard as a reference as I adjusted the fit. As far as beeswax.....I'm assuming that the reference you're referring to is using it as a sealant/reconditioner once the leather is in place.....not as a glue. For glue I used a commercially available leather cement.

Finally, as to why there is no locket at the mouth end of the scabbard:
Althoughs cabbards that often accompany many lower-end swords have lockets at the mouth, very few medieval scabbards (at least that i am aware of) had metal bands around the mouth just to have them there. Rather, most metal mounts found on the upper portions of scabbards seem to have served as attachment points for suspension rings .....since this scabbard uses knotted leather straps to attach it to the belt, metal mounts did not seem to fit/seem authentic.

I hope this helps,
Dan

Allen:
Here's the chape I made for a dagger scabbard. See this thread for details about the project:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ght=rondel

I cut a dummy chape from flexible foam sheet (look in the scrapbooking supplies at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc.) This stuff is the same thickness as the 16 gauge steel I used for the final product. It's easy to trim the foam to shape and experiment, then use it as a template to cut the steel. I should have used thinner steel, but the good news is that this thickness was very forgiving of my trial-and-error forming. I used a bench vise for the majority of the forming, positioning the steel just-so and carefully tightening the vise, bending the steel the way I wanted. I see that Dan did the same thing, so that's two recommendations for a cheap bench vise. I'd recommend a $30 anvil, too. I used a pair of needle-nose pliers, inserted into the rough chape, as an internal support/mandrel while I hammered the piece lightly on an anvil to refine the form. Then I filed it, ground it, drilled and cut it, sanded and polished it, etc. I screwed up my original plans for the decorative cutout ( a trefoil pattern) because I had the wrong bit size and tried to improvise. To fix the resulting ugliness I just drilled one big hole and cut a "v" shape down to it. I actually like the finished cutout better than my original plan. The chape worked out O.K. in the end, but I'll do it differently next time, using a lighter gauge steel and forming it a bit more gently so I don't have to file out vise marks, etc.

I jokingly wrote at the time that the only way this could have been harder would be if had carved it from a single block of steel. That's an exaggeration, of course, but the point is that this would have been much easier with a lighter gauge steel. There's not welding here--just a tight seam up the back. Fits tight with friction alone, but I added a drop of JB Weld just to be safe.

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Did you make the buckles, too, Dan? I need to make some, and although I have some idea how to do it, I'm not sure how to make the main part of the buckle (the male part of this hinge). I could use brass and forge weld the ends of it using propane, but that won't work with steel. I wonder if it would be safe to leave the loose ends of that piece (concealed by the female part of the hinge) unjoined.

I did make the buckles (they took and awfully long time for as small as they are). They should be a fairly simple forge weld (though not with propane). MAPP and oxy-acetelyn would probably work. Alternatively silver-soldering or brazing should to a good job. You could probably leave the ends butted if you use heavy enough material, though I'd worry about the ends interfering with the free movement of the tounge. Personally I used a piece of bar stock that I placed a hole in the center of and expanded outward to its present shape (thus avoiding the need to weld).
Hope this helps,
Dan

Sean:

You could also buy some solid steel/brass/etc. plate, and saw/drill/file a buckle from that. It's a tedious process, it wastes a good deal of material, but it works.

Johan Schubert Moen