Scottish twohanded sword -- myArmoury.com

Nostro Titus · Industry Professional

Good day

I finished this sword a few weeks ago. The blade is 111cm long and 4cm wide with decorative lines, the sword in total 153cm. The main challenge here was making sure the wrought iron was properly consolidated before I slit and drifted the holes for the quatrefoils so that the material would not tear (I had to discard the first guard because of a tear forming along a rather large hidden slag inclusion, problem solved by folding and refining before take 2). The pommel was forged from a solid lump of wrought-iron and a pilot hole punched at white heat from the bottom about two thirds in and then a narrower hole punched from the top to join up with the first. Then a tapered drift was used to enlarge the tunnel. At this stage the pommel was slightly deformed and a mandrel matching the tang dimensions was inserted and the pommel forged into round shape while the mandrel prevented the tunnel from collapsing. The guard was initially forged in two parts, the cross and then the collar with the langets. After careful fitting the two components were forge-welded together. Punching the lines proved quite tricky to do freehand and in the future a guide rod might give better results (at least they look better than a lot of historical examples :P )

Regarding the blade, the ricasso actually played an important part in controlling the distal taper to get as rigid a blade as possible for one 6mm thick at the base and so long. Made me think that a lot of historical examples actually had long ricassos for structural reasons along with the handling benefits. Center of balance is 12cm from the guard and the weight about 2.4kg.

Nostro Titus

Bartek Strojek · Posted: Sun 24 Jul, 2011 4:50 am Post subject:

This is stunning sword, at least in my opinion.

I really like the ricasso look.

Is it based on some particular antique(s) or on general 'claymority'/claidheamh dà làimh-ty? Wink

Steve Grisetti · Posted: Sun 24 Jul, 2011 6:14 am Post subject:

Lovely work, Mr. Titus!

Larry New · Posted: Sun 24 Jul, 2011 11:43 am Post subject:

Beautiful work! Is this piece spoken for?.....any similar for sale?.................Kudos, Larry

Thom R. · Posted: Sun 24 Jul, 2011 12:06 pm Post subject:

Very very nice work. the proportions all look just right. I love the carved grip reminiscent of the sword at the Kelvingrove. I also really like the slightly curved cross. Huzzah! tr

Brian K. · Industry Professional

Very, very nice work.

D. Swift · Posted: Sun 24 Jul, 2011 3:13 pm Post subject:

Excellent job - love the grip - nice langets and ricasso - thanks for posting!

Alexander Lambrinos · Posted: Sun 24 Jul, 2011 3:22 pm Post subject:

It looks great, I have never seen a claymore like that one before.

Nostro Titus · Industry Professional

Thanks for the kind words.

Sorry Larry, it is currently residing at it's owner's lair Wink

As inspiration I pretty much spent long hours studying pictures of existing historical scottish twohanders and then spent a few weeks trying to design something that captures the essence of everything I liked about this type of sword. Even after coming up with the final concept sketch I still ended up making a few adjustments and changes to the design during it's manufacture. The final curvature of the guard was actually changed after I started polishing it, I simply did not like the original angle (from the polishing table back to the forge Laughing Out Loud

I was fortunate in that the client did not specify pinpoint details (he simply wanted a sword of this type), thus giving me a lot of room to be creative.

Keep well
Nostro