I'd like to show you, my fellow forumites, the result of a commission with
Michael Tinker Pearce. A sword I decided to call The Tinkerbella ....

The sword as first shown to me by its maker ....

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/matthewcarabella.html

After I first received it ...



The sword would then go to Christian Fletcher, who had the task of giving the entire
package a historical face-lift ...

Starting with the scabbard ...



Then moving onto the grip and hilt ...


The scabbard's metal parts proved to be a challenge, as there were many details. The
design would be based on something like the scabbards seen in this picture, taken off
of myArmoury's website no less ! B-)


CF persevered and the project began to come together ...




Finally, the sword came home to me ...


I hope you enjoy the brief pictorial-history of The Tinkerbella. But behind it all
there is a story to tell, which I hope to share with you as well. That will come
next ...

Matthew -

The hilt upgrade alone made a huge, huge improvement on that sword. It looks fantastic now. The original hilt really took so much away from the sword as a whole. I'm glad to see the piece as a whole now and must ask about its dynamic properties.

Go cut something!

Cheers.

That's gorgeous. Congratulations.

That looks fantastic! :D

The scabbard is an excellent fit for the sword and really adds to the character of it. The new leather and wire wrap for the hilt also make it fit the period and model the inspiration of the karabella in the picture very well.

Have to agree with Nathan in that the hilt upgrade alone makes it a totally different sword. Add the super nice scabbard, and that's one heck of a nice piece. Congrats! So let us know how it handles......

Very nice! The whole package is really cool.

OMG! :eek: That is damn nice!!!! That is possibly the most beautiful sabre I've ever seen. Great work.

Not that the original fittings weren't nice, but the new ones are just SO much better...

Let us know how it cuts. :cool:

Congrats on this wonderfull piece !

Congratulations on a beautiful upgrade! It looks much more elegant in the current configuration.

One question though: Is the guard supposed to be that wide? I think it might look better if it were bobbed back a few inches. No offense intended - I'm more curious than anything.

I think it looked a little better before the upgrade, but it still looks like an awesome weapon with the rehilt.
What's the length and weight?

Gentlemen, thankyou for the comments and discussion. I'm glad
you're all enjoying taking a look. As for cutting, well, sad to say I've
no practical skill in that regards as I'm much more the collector
as opposed to the martial artist. I would be interested in sending
it to someone -- for instance somone here at myArmoury -- who
would like to handle and do a different type of review of the sword
and its characteristics.

One thing CF and I discussed was whether or not to completely
redo the guard and thumb-ring with an L-Hilt arrangement --
which was a detail included in the original commission. The
problem as I saw it was, because the curve of the blade is
so shallow, the sword might end up looking like a very large
trench-knife, or -- as others here note -- a messer ...


At certain angles, as in this picture, the blade's curve almost
disappears ...