[Stephen Wheatley]

Having tried my hand at making a few proto-mortuarys,hangers and other 17th century swords for my collection I decided to take a deep breath and have a go at the sword of the English Civil Wars, ie the Mortuary Sword. I decided to cut as much of the hilt fron a single sheet of 3mm mild steel (the less welding the better as far as I'm concerned! I've cut a few basket hilts from single sheets and assumed a Mortuary would be a bit easier. For the cut I borrowed a chum's plasma cutter - a great tool, but one which you need a bit of experience to use, so probably back to the grinder for me!

Thus far I've cut and fullered one blade with the option to re-use the blade from a rather nasty ''John Barnett Museum Quality Mortuary'' I've had for a while. I've also cut two boat-hilt guards, one of which will require the side bars to be welded to it.

As you'll see from the pictures, I have a fair way to go, it took me three hours to grind the pommel from a length of 1&1/2'' crankshaft! What I'd really like is to chisel in the ''fishy monster'' design from one of Bill's albums into the hilt, but have no experience chiseling or etching so that can wait until I can practice on some scrap.

One of the reasons I've avoided making this type of sword until now is my abysmal welding; the langets in particular I foresee being a pain, however I'll keep the pictures coming as I progress although I predict an even longer wait for decently made turk's heads (just can't seem to crack those).

[William Goodwin]

nice.....rather chuffed about the recent attention my beloved mortuary hilts are getting......

[Stephen Wheatley]

I can't find the ''fishy monster'' mort hilt pctures that I think Bill posted a while back. Can anyone help please? I'm having an evening of chisel experimentation; should please the neighbours when I flatten my thumb and the air turns blue again!

Steve Wheatley

[William Goodwin]

is this the one your looking for ?




cheers,

Bill

[Stephen Wheatley]

Spot on Bill. Many thanks for the pic.

Steve