The first picture is of all four grips as they were when I had started.
Upper Left: Windlass/MRL Archer's Short Sword.
Upper Right: Windlass/MRL Type XVa. (I believe that this was called the "Medieval Bastard Sword," or something equally vague. It is based on XVa.2 from the Spotlight on XV's)
Lower Left: I actually made this grip. It goes on my re-forge/re-hilt of a Windlass/MRL 500574 (discussed in this thread).
Lower Right: Depeeka Dagger. I don't know a name or model number, as I got it from a friend. I don't think they carry this particular piece any more. The grip was originally covered in low-quality black leather.
The leather for all of these was a chamios.
For the Archer's Short Sword, I used natural cord from the local hardware store. I am not able to decipher the single German word on the packaging, but it would seem that it is made from cherry trees :?: :wtf: It came in a variety pack with several thicknesses. I used the 1.7 mm thickness for the base wrap, and 2 mm for the risers. The risers are four seperate pieces. You can also just make out (in the bottom "square") that I used buttons to ensure pressure inside each square during drying. I wanted green leather, and could find no green leather dye or polish, so I used weeds from the sidewalk to stain the leather. You can just rub it on (rather like grass-staining ones clothing, though more deliberate), but I would recommend bruising the leaves with a bit of sandpaper first. This will keep your leather from streatching too much. Also, because chlorophyll is more like working with water-colors, don't expect too deep a color. This may not survive real well (I hope it doesn't turn a sickly brown, but I don't know), but I can always just cover it up with black shoe polish. I found that the natural cord that I used left fibers attached to the grip where excess glue had leaked out at the seam. Chlorophyll does not do a good job of covering this, or the seam itself, up.
For the type XVa sword, I needed the grip to be the same thickness as it had been originally at top and bottom (so that it would fir the guard and pommel), but wanted to increase the diameter of the rest of the grip as it was too small. Therefore, I used "550 cord" (often called parachute cord, it is a nylon cord sheath with seven smaller bits of cord inside), despite the fact that it is historically inaccurate. I "gutted" the 550 cord (removed the inner cords), and laid the sheath out flat against the grip core in order to keep the diameter of the grip close enough to original dimentions. after the first wrap, I began twisting the cord to make it round, and increase the thickness. I finished by making the last wrap flat as well. The risers are also made from gutted, twisted 550 cord. I used the inner cords to do the exterior wrap during drying, which resulted in a lot of the detail from the interior wrap (the cord under the leather) showing through. It also highlighted a few mistakes. The leather was colored with Kiwi shoe polish. First I laid down some brown higlights, and then covered the whole thing with cordovan (Kiwi's cordovan is more like a dark brown).
After improving the shape of the wooden core (this one was real clunky) by carving and filing, the Windlass 500574 re-hilt was wrapped in 1.7 mm cord, and I used some 2.5 mm stuff for the risers. I used 1.7 mm cord for the exterior wrap during drying, and once again found that the natural cord tended to leave fibers attached to the grip. Shoe polish (I used Kiwi brown, with a little bit of cordovan for higlights) did a much better job of covering up the ones that could not be plucked off, and it also disguised the seam rather well.
I first carved down the dagger grip to create a hexagonal cross-section, and then wrapped it in 1.2 mm cord. I used multiple wraps of the same cord in order to create the risers. The leather was stained using red "Leather Rejuvinator" (a paste-like substance for restoring color to shoes, which just might be a fany name for polish) from Mister Minit, an on-post shoe repair place. Just a little bit of cordovan brushed onto the leather beforehand resulted in some interesting highlights. The exterior wrap on this one was done with the inner pieces from 550 cord. They are about 1.2 mm (a little less, but not much), and because they are synthetic, they don't leave any fibers on the grip.
I'll go ahead and post some of the lessons learned when I get a chance, but at the moment the library is about to close.
-Grey
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All four grips before re-wrapping
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Cord: 1.7mm natural cord with 2 mm natural cord risers
Stain: Chlorophyll
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Cord: Gutted, twisted 550 cord
Stain: Cordovan and brown shoe polishes
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Core: Improved profile and distal tapers
Cord: 1.7 mm natural cord with 2 mm natural cord risers
Stain: Brown and cordovan shoe polishes
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Core: Carved to hexagonal cross-section
Cord: 1.2 mm natural cord
Stain: Red leather rejuvinator with cordovan polish highlights
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If you have left-overs, you can always customize your Mag-Lite
