Greetings,

As I was looking over the messers on Albion's site today I was struck by a question. How would the common soldier have decorated these types of hilts? I mean nowadays we like "simple elegance". In Period the style was conspicuous and garish (at least by our modern tastes). With the leather wraps on other swords you could do different colors and/or tool the leather. With the slab handles this might be more difficult. Would they have been painted instead like a "black" sallet or something?

Thanks,

Maybe intricate carvings on the wood slabs?

-James

i would bet some small studs not unlike what the native americans used to embelish their guns. there are a couple swords in the album section with this sord of decoration.

Hi Nate,

Nate C. wrote:

Greetings, As I was looking over the messers on Albion's site today I was struck by a question. How would the common soldier have decorated these types of hilts? I mean nowadays we like "simple elegance". In Period the style was conspicuous and garish (at least by our modern tastes). With the leather wraps on other swords you could do different colors and/or tool the leather. With the slab handles this might be more difficult. Would they have been painted instead like a "black" sallet or something? Thanks,

My immediate response to this was "would they bother"?

How much of the garishness we do see is on the really really high-end stuff owned by royalty etc? I can see a working soldier's sword being to them like a hammer is to a builder -- a tool with a bit you hold on to when you hit things with it. Something I have noticed is that tools which get used by normal people don't seem to survivie with evidence of much decoration, even in periods where the prevailing aesthetic was for lots of bright decorations on knife sheaths, shoes, clothes etc.