Hello all, I'm new to this site!

Anyways, I have a lovely Darkwood Armoury English baskethilt that I'd like to line with red cloth so I can wield it bare-handed without sweating on the basket. Can anyone point me to where I might obtain one? Russ Ellis, would you be up to it? I could use a leather hilt wrap too. ;)

If it's an early English basket, a full-basket red wool or velvet over buff leather liner would be anachronistic. Those are largely 18th c. touches, according to Oakeshott. I think a thick, uncovered pad of natural-colored buff leather in the bottom (blade end) of the basket would be more appropriate for your weapon. In "Culloden: The Swords and the Sorrows" I think there's a photo of a ca. 1690 portrait whose subject is sporting an elaborate red-lined basket. That may be the earliest depiction of that style. Does anybody know of any earlier usage of red liners? My overall impression has been that ordinary 17th c. basket hilts were simply and minimally lined with thick buff to prevent thrusts.

For what it's worth...I'm using an ordinary chamois as the basis for a padded half-basket liner more appropriate for the first quarter of the 18th c. for my own Scottish basket (the gold-ish leather is beautiful behind the black and gilded hilt). If I remember Oakeshott correctly, the liner's external material should actually be deerskin in this period, but the half-basket size is appropriate. I forget what the liner's innards consisted of at this time. Buff? Wool?

Maybe Mac or ElJay, the resident BH experts, will reply.

Text: John Wallace's "Scottish Swords & Dirks" .....

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Photo: Culloden The Swords & the Sorrows" , National Trust for Scotland.

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Mac

heres another pic ive picked up somewhere- Im pretty sure it's Mac's done by Vince Evans...maybe Eljay..sorry I cant remember.

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Eric,
As an alternative you can always wear gloves. I always do with my swords, both for grippage and safety, and this would also serve your purpose of keeping sweat off quite well. It's less anachronistic, too.