I don't know why...but I love red scabbards..and I really like all wood scabbards. I am not a major stickler for purely historical , although I do prefer historical to pure fantasy. Here is my latest attempt at a scabbard. I have done a few so far and am learning more and more as I go.

This one is poplar, sandwich style, not routed and I left it purposely a bit chunky. I think it fits with this particular sword. I finished it with a red alcohol dye and a satin top coat. It actually ended up a darker, almost brownish rust color than I expected but I still think it works. The scroll work was done with a very fine dremel engraving bit and is meant to reflect the basic design on the Clontarf cross guard. I was going to inlay some twisted steel wire into the latitude grooves...but decided against it. I may add those in the future but who knows. The bridge I kept pretty simple in its profile as I felt that fit the aesthetics of the sword. It is maple and is finished simply in several coats of mineral oil buffed in. I lined the scabbard with wool felt and it provides a super smooth draw.

Thanks for looking.

I bought some red stain a couple months ago to finish off my Clotarf SL. This might get me off my butt to do it. Very nice and simple. Love it.

I'm with you on the appeal of red. It's also nice to see how clean and nice looking a tip can look without a chape. I know chape-less scabbards are underrepresented in most repros.
Dremel-ing leather is a new concept to me. Did you find it had any pros or cons versus normal tooling? From the photos the end result looks to be pretty similar.
Looks nice! Decorated enough to keep it interesting but minimal enough that it still looks very clean. It fits the design of the hilt very well.

The scabbard is not leathered covered, but wood. So the dremeling was done in wood.

Wow, how did I miss that one? Come to think of it you did mention that right from the get go...
Well forget what I said about tooling and just hang onto the comments about clean lines and a cool color, then.

Thanks for the comments guys and what Greg said, its a non leather covered scabbard, wood only.

Nicely accomplished, Bryan. Every bit as nice as the scabbard you did for The Reeve I
have that was once yours. B-)

I also owned a Clontarf at one time. Still a hope of mine to add a more traditional lookng
Viking Sword back into my collection -- like those wide blades. But the little extra bulk of
the scabbard you made does it proud ...

The Clontarf's scabbard looks superb, especially the colour.

I LOVE the effect of the alcohol based dye, as opposed to a traditional Minwax type oil dye. Used to use alcohol dyes on gunstocks - not sure why I have never done this with sword scabbards. Stunning work as always :).

Really nice work, I like that you carried on the 'vine' motif on the scabbard. It really did turn out well