I've been thinking, how would one go about to attach jewels or decorative stones on the cross or pommel of a sword? I suppose one could always superglue them in place somehow, but I was wondering if there was a proper historical way of putting some bling on your sword.

(Mind, I'm talking about actually making the hilt furniture for this purpose, not gluing diamonds to your Albion or something.)

Look up "gypsy setting." Basically, you can drill a hole in the sword furniture, then press in a gold or silver tube. The gem is then fit into the tube and the metal is pressed around to hold the gem in place.

Walter Stockwell wrote:

Look up "gypsy setting." Basically, you can drill a hole in the sword furniture, then press in a gold or silver tube. The gem is then fit into the tube and the metal is pressed around to hold the gem in place.

Another alternative would be a bezel setting (your description is close to that) thin tube soldered/brazed to the surface that snugly fits a cabochon cut stone (extending slightly higher than the base of it, that is then burnished (pushed with a hard polished surface) over the stone holding it in place.

This can be used to create a stud (solder the tube to a backing plate with a protrusion on it) that is then riveted in place (found on decorative metalwork around the C10th.

And then there is also Cloisonné (where cells are formed and cut jems inserted then the cell wall burnished to hold it in place), such as this example of a sword hilt in gold and garnet from the Staffordshire hoard.

[ Linked Image ]
Flickr - portableantiquities - Hilt Fitting [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], by portableantiquities (Hilt Fitting), from Wikimedia Commons


HTH
N.

Thanks, you guys. This information may come in handy. :)

A few pictures of Patrick Barta's recreation of the Sutton Hoo sword showing the cloisonne construction:

http://www.templ.net/english/making-decoration.php#cloisonne