Been busy lately, I was barely done with modifying the hilt of the Henry V that a friend of mine told me he wanted to purchase an MRL Coustille, and that he would request sharpening service on it. I had ordered a towton with sharpening service before and thought the edge had been done with care, I though the visible bevel reduced the appeal of the sword a great deal.

So I ordered a blunt one for him, and did a few modification while I was at it.

1- Established a secondary bevel with a file, then blended it to an appleseed edge. This took a while, but was well worth it. The bevel is invisible unless you use a magnifier, but yet the sword cuts very well (cuts paper with ease but you can hold the sword's blade with your bare hand without cutting yourself).

2- Cleaned the blade of grind marks, repolished to a satin finish.

3- blued the hilt, then use salt and vinegar to etch the blade, hilt furniture’s and scabbard mountings. I wanted to experiment with that, and it really improved the finish. This technique I learned from Sean in the instant antique guide works very well, isn’t permanent and adds a lot of character to the sword.

4- removed the glossy handle leather, placed raisers on the wooden core, and rewrap using chamois. I improved my technique: after two hours of drying, remove the cord around the grip. It will allow you to check if raisers formed correctly, and you'll be able to correct oddities as the glue isn’t dry yet. The most common issue is around the raisers, as when you glue the cord in place using instant glue, it sometimes hardens the cord and can cause ugly things when covered with leather. Sand the cord lightly to solve the issue. I improved the leather overlap too, then put everything back into place, damped the leather with an extra coating of dye, rewrap, leave it for the night...done. The grip would have looked average at best if I hadn't done that.

5- Removed the scabbard dye rubbing patiently with solvent, and died it again to match the new grip colour.

I really like how it all turned out...the bad news is that I will have to ship it to my friend soon, and I don’t feel like parting with it now:)

Hope you enjoy.

J

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coustille before

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hilt detail

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Really well done Julien! You are really getting good at this; just makes me want to get started on my own projects!

From costume to custom. Nice work

*F*antastic.

M.

As you and some others have shown, some of these pieces can really be made to look much nicer with a bit of work. I have no idea how much labor really went into this. Perhaps its labor cost prohibitive but it would be nice to see more of these upgrades adopted into standard production runs.

That is really impressive - 100% improvement on the original sword.

It's amazing to see the difference that your work has made. The first coustille I wouldn't even consider ordering based upon its appearance alone, whereas the second looks like an quality reproduction.

Wonderful work my friend, don't forget my futur "payback" : the Encyclopédie Médiévale by Viollet Le Duc !

Did you talk with "Alexi Goranov" ? Interested by this unoble weapon (that I ever wanted call "basillard" made with nozes of broken swords...)

A +

Thanks for your comments guys. much appreciated!

David Sutton wrote:

just makes me want to get started on my own projects!

You should mate, it's very rewarding. There is something really cool about taking an entry level piece and making it closer to the more expensive replicas out there. I see Windlass steelcraft as the ultimate DIY kit now, providing a solid frame for home improvments: cheap (so that your hands don't shake when approaching the blade with anything more threatening than sandpaper), dismoutable, they also often feature nice hilts furnitures and their blade, thought soft tempered, are appropriate for anything the size of a one handler or below (even if some of their bastards swords proved better lately).
All in all, they end up very nicely with some elbow grease and some patience, plus I have gathered enough confidence to tackle more expensive swords now (just changed the color of my A Crecy grip).

Joe Fults wrote:

I have no idea how much labor really went into this.

Thanks Joe. I'd say hours spread accross a all week. (two or 3 per night) But sharpening/repolishing and antiquing were unknown to me and I had to acquire the skills and experimented along the way.

Cheers,

J

Hi Ole,

I'm glad that documenting the scabbard project was of any use to you. I did try to match the color of the scabbard (I might get sick of that burgundy color very soon :) ), and it was no easy task as removing the dye from a windlass scabbard such as this one was a piece of cake compared to that crecy handle. Quality materials, quality dye...made to last. Lots of patience is requiered, lots of alcool (90 degree) too, only to remove very little dye and expose very little leather. Black to oxblood is a very hard transition to make. Mostly I managed to remove the upper layer, on the raisers and other raised pattern, but I uspected that it would be enough to set the new color, with a black undertone which I like anyway. It worked very well in the end I think, but the bad news is that I tried to undertone the scabbard too, in order to match the darker grip color....using dark brown shoe polish. Mistake: got a really convincing match, but the grip has a very matte finish and the scabbard is much too shiny. I've washed and rubbed the scabbard, with litlle succes so far. I will figure out something, or will do the wrap again...

have a look for yourself,

Cheers.

J

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You seem to be enjoying what you're doing, and that is what is most important. Very nice work indeed.

"From costume to custom. Nice work"

I agree with this sentiment very much.

Thanks a lot Brian,

Indeed I do enjoy working on such projects, partly I think to remedy to the frustration of not having the means (nor skills) to produce a blade from forge to finish. So I'm going the other way around, from cosmetic to structural. I'll try on more hilts and pommel alterations as soon as I can, then forging lessons for a blade someday (there are forging schools in London that I surely will visit)...long term perspective...

Anyway I stopped smoking 3 weeks ago, which does explain this sudden burst of sword related activity (a repentant smoker needs to be busier than an ant if he's to succeed :) )

Cheers,

J

Well, Julien, your post was the straw that broke the camel's back. I finally had to do it, I ran to the store and picked up some supplies last night, and spent the next couple hours tearing apart my Cas/Hanwie Practical Arming Sword. It turned into a much bigger project than originally thought when I found out that the risers under the original wrap were plastic, and in fact, the whole handle was plastic, pretty much melted onto the tang. After cutting and sanding off all these plastic risers, I was about to start wrapping when I noticed a weird gap that had been created in the quillon. After filling it with epoxy and cord, started the rewrap. Overall, I'm pleased with how my first try came out, but now I may be feeling the pangs of addiction. Thanks for the incentive! Not as pretty as yours, but I'll keep trying! Also going to try my hand at antiquing the furniture.

Notes: I need to clean up the pommel end of the wrap still, and give it a good beeswax buff, also need to finish polishing the quillon after engraving, just too excited not to post. Thanks for looking.





Some links of the plastic bits I ran into.

http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq167/mkbergstrom/uglyGrip.jpg
http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq167/mkbe...edgrip.jpg
http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq167/mkbergstrom/wierdgap.jpg
http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq167/mkbe...ndgrip.jpg

Not bad at all for a first go.

M.

Hello Julien. I put the engraving in with the Dremel tool, planning on going back with the diamond file and very fine sand paper. Good idea with the blueing paste, I'll give it a shot. I went back last night and tore everything off, down to the tang. I'm carving a whole new handle this weekend. I'll post the pics when I'm done. In a new thread, so I stop hijacking yours ;)

Look what you've done....

Ok, Probably very easy explanation to it. But how did you do risers in the grip? Is it just cord under the leather? I know Im probably thinking way to hard on this but I need to know
I gots the MRL 14th century long sword that I oil blackened the hilt and pommel and redid the wire wrap in copper and mild steel wire. Now I need to know the riser part.
Thanks!