Greetings myArmoury,

I'd like to share with this community a non-commissioned 'personal' build for the Arms & Armor Edward III sword. I've always admired this sword, and when I finally got my hands on one I knew a scabbard must be made.

For this particular build I wanted to feature a blog, or a diary of sorts, so followers of DBK can watch the progress of a scabbard build. This isn't necessarily meant to be a tutorial, but more of a demonstration of a build shown at each phase. This particular build will feature locket's and utilize a kingly 14th century suspension harness for non-armored wear, or 'civilian' wear meaning over cloth.

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Shown here is the chape I came up with to compliment the sword and scabbard.
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Shown here is the wood core before being sanded.
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and sanded...
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My locket design I came up with.
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Shown here; the belt hardware.
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Belt hardware shown up close.
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Shown here; the tooling is finished on the leather, and permanently affixed to the wood core.
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More to come as I finish each stage...

Excellent work Brian. I really like the design choices you have made. Looks great so far.

Craig

That is going to look FAN-DAMN-TASTIC!! I cannot wait to see it finished!! Be sure to include a shot of it being worn! Excellent job!! ........McM

Ain't no biggy.....a sword and scabbard that fine would make a pair of holey jeans look good. :lol: ..........McM

... BK, I haven't posted on your threads for awhile -- uh, not like you miss me I'm
sure B-) -- because, well, my dang theasaurusus ran out of synonyms for the
word superlative --

su-per-la-tive
səˈpərlədiv/

adjective
1.of the highest quality or degree. "a superlative piece of skill"

synonyms: excellent, magnificent, wonderful, marvelous, supreme, consummate,
outstanding, remarkable, fine, choice, first-rate, first-class, premier, prime, unsurpassed,
unequaled, unparalleled, unrivaled, preeminent; informal : crack, ace, wicked, brilliant
"a superlative photographer"

... plus, all this praise has got to have gone to your head. Though the ONLY result
seems to be that you try to one-up yourself with the next scabbard, and then the
next one after that ... B-)

Informal: DA BOMB!... ;) ..McM

Thanks for the very nice complimentary words! I appreciate it gentlemen.

Here is the latest progress update. The base colors are applied and the hand painting is finished. Such fine & precise work is very strenuous on time, hands and the back. But, it's looking good I think.
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Looking good? More like absolutely outstanding!

A wonderful bit of praise I recently received from a well known personality, Mike Loades - https://www.facebook.com/mikeloades/

"This scabbard and many others on the dbkcustomswords page are breathtakingly beautiful. The art of medieval scabbards is much neglected. For obvious reasons they do not exist in such brightly coloured splendour in present-day collections. However this is exactly what high status scabbards would have looked like at the time. Pure art. Pure delight. And all this before it receives added bling with the stunning chape and locket that have been fashioned for it. It is extraordinary how Hollywood has peddled the grubby, faded faux-medieval look for so long, when the reality was such sumptuous splendour. The patient, painstaking, exquisite work by artists such as Brian Kunz (the man who made this scabbard) along with a whole army of craftsmen who bring the middle ages back to life in colour in various métiers, continues to build a new image of this misrepresented period in our collective mind’s eye. All power to all of them. We appreciate what you do."

Nice, too bad Mike does come to post this here :)

Here is a preview of the final details on the scabbard. Next stage is finishing the locket, and midband.

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Very nice! That delivers quiet a punch Brian. The color contrasts are stunning. I like the black wash in the recesses and background that highlight the stamping/carving (ink? diluted dye?). Did you used model paint for the gold (tamiya/heller kind of stuff) - I've been tempted to do that for a long time...
This is a very busy scabbard for my taste (top with criss cross pattern and fleur de lys, bottom with lions rampants and middle with flowery pattern - there is enough here to dress up 3 scabbards :) ) but this is purely subjective and without a doubt this piece is a technical and artistic achievement. Looking forward to see this complete with metal bits.
Cheers,
J

Thanks Julien. The feedback is very much appreciated. The 'blackwash' is a combination of hand-painting and antiquing gel. Yes, the gold is a special type of paint.

Amount of decoration on the scabbard is definitely subjective to ones taste, but I decided for a king the scabbard would most likely be 'all out' dressed up as per the sword itself demonstrates.

Brian---Julien----I wonder what the two of you together could come up with!?! It would be mind-blowing.......McM

That. Is. Freaking. Awesome.

Loving it: everything about it! Raising the bar again, Brian!

Thanks Mark, Ant. It's been a lot of work, but lots of fun at the same time. I should have the lockets completed in another week or so.