Hello everyone, this is a WIP thread for a commission for forumite Benjamin Joy. He contacted me asking about working on an Albion riding sword bare blade for him, and I'm excited to share the project with you as it progresses.

I spent a couple of days working out possible designs for Ben, and he decided on doing a type H pommel coupled with style 6 guard for the hilt. I'll also be making a wood-core and leather-wrapped scabbard for this piece.

We were fortunate that Albion happened to have a riding sword blade in stock, so I received it this past Saturday. Here are a couple pictures of the blade right out of the box. I previously got a XVI bare blade for my personal use, and the riding sword had a rougher finish than my blade.

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I starting working on this yesterday, and did the initial cleanup of the blade using a 1x30" belt sander. On my XVI I used a flap wheel on an angle grinder and it was too aggressive, so I decided to use the belt sander this time. It takes a little longer, but the result is better IMO.

Here is the blade after removing the scale.

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That's as far as I've gotten with the blade so far. I've also got the guard mostly rough forged to shape, but it needs a little more tuning.

Thanks for looking,
Alan

Looking forward to your progress on this one.

What are the stats on the blade? Is this the really old version Albion Riding Sword that had like a 22-24" blade?

Chris,

Albion offers a "Riding Sword" blade under the list of "Bare Blades": http://www.albion-swords.com/bareblades.htm
The blade length is 26 inches.

Beautiful blade, and very happy to see this project kicking off. It'll be great to be able to actively watch this progress. Again, thank you Alan for picking up the project.

Chris Lampe wrote:

What are the stats on the blade? Is this the really old version Albion Riding Sword that had like a 22-24" blade?

Craig nails it from Albion's site. It's 32.75" overall length with a 26" blade. This particular blade is also heat-treated. According to Albion's representative, the heat-treated blades have a quality comparable to the blades used in the Next Generation line of swords, when properly finished; and it looks like Alan is doing a great job cleaning it up and getting it up to that quality level.

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The tricky thing in finding the right blade, for the kind of sword I wanted, is that I was having such a hard time finding anyone out there offering blade lengths under 30" in the right style that I was after. I eventually found Albion's blade blanks, with the perfect fit for the blade, but Albion won't take commissions to finish their own blade blanks (mildly annoying for someone like me without the facilities to finish my own blade . . . but understandable given their purpose as "project blades").

However, as luck would have it, Alan had very recently made himself known here as a business (as Paladin Forge) being able to do the exact kind of work I'd need (and his other works look great). I'm really happy that Alan was willing to work with me and sketch out some concepts on making the sword that I really and truly want.

I could have sworn I updated this the other day... Anyway, thanks for the kind words, Ben!

Ben wanted to get as much length out of the tang as possible for a longer grip so we decided to use a recessed nut for the assembly. I entertained the idea of forging out the tang but I didn't want to risk messing with the heat treat, so I threaded the last 1.5 inches or so of the tang for 1/4x20.

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As said earlier I had forged the guard out to its rough shape, but unfortunately I messed up the slot and had to start over, so no pictures of that yet. I did get the pommel finished except that once I make the nut the slot will be widened to accommodate it.

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Thanks for looking,
Alan

I started working on the new guard today, finished the rough forging. It started off as a 3.5 inch piece of 1/2 inch square stock, it's now 6.5 inches wide.

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Thanks for looking,
Alan

So after a rainy weekend I was able to get back to work on this project, and the guard is pretty much finished except for some final hand polishing. I'll finish the blade edges today and get working on the grip and scabbard.

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Thanks for looking,
Alan

The blade and hilt pieces are all done, as well as the grip and scabbard cores. I just have to do the leather now.

Here are a couple pics of the sword without the grip.

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And I figured this would be a good place to show how I make my wood cores. I generally use a two-piece core to keep things as slim as possible. I start out with 1/4 inch poplar and mark the outline of the tang/blade.

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Then I use a router to carve out the space.

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Repeat for the other side and glue together.

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Then I use a bandsaw to taper the core and a belt sander to finish shaping it.

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Thanks for looking,
Alan

Looking great and thrilled to see it progressing as rapidly as it is. Excellent work!

I look forward to seeing the completed sword and scabbard!

And it's finished! Ben had asked for dark red leather for the grip and scabbard so I experimented with mixing brown and red dye. The result is very nice, IMO, and Ben said it pretty much perfectly matched what he had in mind. The leather is 2-3 oz veg-tanned cowhide. The grip was wrapped in cord to add texture and the scabbard includes two belt loops. As Ben requested the grip is longer than the average single hander, and I can fit both hands comfortably on the hilt by gripping the pommel.

The blade, guard, and pommel are polished to be reflective but not to a full mirror shine. The blade is sharp enough to cut paper but not razor sharp. Definitely sharp enough for bottles/tatami or for cutting flesh. Actually the sword has already tasted blood a couple times from my thumb. :)

Here are the stats:

Overall length: 33.5 inches
Blade length: 26 inches
Blade width at guard: 1.6 inches
Guard width: 5.9 inches
Grip length: 5.125 inches
PoB: 3.5 inches from guard
CoP: 17 inches from guard
Weight: 1.9 pounds

And pics:

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It has been a pleasure getting to work on this, and working with Ben. I had a couple of hiccups with the guard and scabbard but in the end it came out rather well.

Thanks for looking,
Alan

Absolutely beautiful work, Alan. I can't wait to have it in my hands.

Although I don't plan on having the sword taste flesh anytime soon, it's nice to know it'll be perfect for the job, should need arise . . . um . . . sorry about your thumb, though.

You could alway use to cut large pigs , chickens, Turkeys dear, cow, etc, to grill for parties and family gatherings.