After a year of storing my swords on some shelves in the guest room I decided it was time for a proper display/storage solution. I am not terribly handy--not because I can't learn how to make things, but in general I lack the tools and the willingness to invest in tools. So, what to do about a display...

I decided that I wanted to buy ready-made rack, but I was not willing to pay very much. After searching eBay and various online retailers I decided to buy an 8-sword wall display for $29.99 (plus shipping for a total of about $40.00) from KultofAthena.com. I decided to buy from Kult of Athena for several reasons; their prices matched those found on eBay for similar products, they have a reputation for great customer service, and they accept PayPal.

8-sword wall display from KoA:


The rack is quite nice for the price. The catch is that it is made for Japanese-style swords, and is therefor too narrow for more hilt-heavy European swords (it measures 13 3/4'' wide x 40'' tall). This was easy to remedy since the rack is held together with dowels. After a short trip to my local home improvement store, I was ready to begin modifying my sword rack.

Tools and supplies:


I cut the dowels so that they were twice the length of the previous dowels. Unfortunately, this means that I need to go back to the store for one more dowel, but at abut $1.50 each, it's not a big deal. Here is the result of my efforts so far:



In addition to adding the third dowel, I will also be painting the dowels. I will use leftover wall paint, so when I am finished the dowels will match the color of the wall in the bedroom (which is also a burgundy color, although not quite as dark). I will update this thread once this rack is complete. So far I am quite pleased with what I have done. The total cost for the project will end up at about $45.

Please feel free to comment or make suggestions, or to post your own sword display/storage projects.

All the best,
Jonathan

Good easy solution. Ingenious.

I'm curious about this solution as I have a lot of basket-hilt type of weapons and larger compound hilts. Will that rack hold such "large-hilted" weapons? Do they hit the wall when held?

Thank you, Nathan. Your question prompted me to see how a basket hilt would work on this rack. The result will depend on how big the basket is, but the rack was able to accommodate my English basket hilt. However, I think that I will add some strips of felt to the arms of the rack to prevent wear to the rack and the swords, and also to prevent the larger-hilted swords from rotating forward. The basket of my sword does rest against the wall, but that does not bother me. I am not sure what difference a scabbard would make because my sword does not have one. If one is concerned about having the basket touch the wall, I am sure that shims could be added to the back of the rack to put some space between the hilt and the wall.

Jonathan

PS--Just wanted to add that the basket hilt and a P1796 heavy cavalry trooper's sword will be the largest hilts in this rack. The swords I will be displaying have little or no inboard guard and will not touch the wall at all.

That sounds about perfect! Like you said, one can always pull it away from the wall with additional blocks/strips of wood. I might have to do this at some point. For me, I'd like to hang the swords on the wall of a walk-in closet. That way, they're out of the way, but still accessible. This would encourage me to look at 'em every now and again :)

I felt motivated today, so I painted the poplar dowels and mounted the rack to the wall. I think it turned out nicely. I just need to decide how I want the swords displayed on the rack:

like this...



...or like this?



The rack holds eight swords, but I only have seven on display now because that is the number of Victorian swords in my collection. I am very happy with this display method, and at some point I will be making one for my Georgian swords and one for my miscellaneous swords and bayonets.

Thanks for looking!

Jonathan

You need one more Victorian sword!

The person who previously owned Earlshall castle, Scotland had a massive collection of Scottish basket hilted swords. He had a fairly simple arrangement for holding all these swords around the room/gallery. They were positioned in the vertical hilt up and it showed these swords very well.

Nice job Jonathan..
Both ways look ok to me, i´d prefer the one with all hilts on one side.
What i don´t like is that all swords are in their scabbards-i think its a drawback one can´t see the blades.

So i would store only 4 swords on the rack beside their scabbards.
If stored in the scabbards i fear they start to rust.

Peter,
Thank you. I decided to display the swords with the hilts all on the same side as you suggest. I think it is a better look for these types of swords. I don’t have the space to display swords and scabbards separately, nor do I feel the need to do so. The swords are in our guest room so they are not in a high traffic area, so having a stunning display of blades is not important to me.

I am not concerned about storing swords in their scabbards. In 15 years of collecting none of my blades have developed rust from being stored in their scabbards. I wipe the blades occasionally with a silicone impregnated cloth, which seems to work well. All of my swords that have scabbards have better preserved blades than swords without scabbards. I guess that has encouraged me to store swords in their scabbards.

Jonathan