One of the items that recently occupied my time, was this custom scabbard.

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The sabre itself is purely a re-enactment weapon, thus the customer's wish was for something relatively plain; the main effort was its historical correctness. This give me a chance to work without paying special attention on sanding, polishing and so, but to create an item literally "made by human hands". So, seeing all the flaws I made, just have in mind that much of them are intentional.

As the Cuman people influenced the history of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe for quite long time (from 11th to 14th C.), they left us an enormous cultural heritage, including vast number of artifacts of interest - scabbard and belt fittings. So, while researching, I had really great volume to choose from. Interestingly, this was also hard - almost as hard, as when working on something with quite limited information about.
Well, knowing customer's main period, I limited my effort to middle of 14th C. on the lands of modern-day Middle and Western Ukraine.
The main motiff of the decoration is a herring-bone pattern from actual artifact (the greenish plate right from the center)

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It was used on each bronze plate of the belt, just applied with different working techniques.

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The repousee of the buckle and tongue plates was particular interesting for me. Anyway, it was easier than I anticipated.

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Of particular interest (at least for me) was the method for securing the rings for the carrying straps to the brackets of the scabbard - by riveting and is shown in the first volume of Anatoliy Kirpichnikov's book "Drevneruskoe oruzhie" ("Old-russian Weaponry").

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For some more pictures not included in two posts, check Custom Scabbards album on my FB page.