Getting ever closer. I decided to wait on the etch work for the blade. I have one more little wire-twist 'riser' to put in, and have to bind the rest of the grip in wire, but you can get a better idea of what I intend. For the first thing I've ever hilted, it's an ambitious project.

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It's more than ambitious, it's mind boggling ambitious! Wow. You jumped in with both feet and more. I have dabbled with projects but never anything like what you are tackling. Keep it up. It looks really great!

Absolutely kick-ass........Can't wait to see it finished. If you put as much effort into a scabbard, you will have a piece that is priceless. Beautiful, man!..............McM

More Ejsbol than an Ejsbol sword....brilliant.
Really nice work.

Looks perfect so far - really waiting to see the result.

Little secret revealed - I'm making something similar, but not so gorgeous. This will be shown in "Show Us Your Seaxes" thread soon.

Inspiring work! For a first sword handle it's almost unbelievable. ;)

You are doing amazing job, that will be spectacular when finished.

Almost there. I'm going to wait on the blade etch until I've done a few. The piece is ready for peening; just a few tiny shims/adjustments left, then the pommel cap. I've added a quick n' dirty sketch of my anticipated kit. I'll start a new thread when I work on the helm, pectoral and 'war belt,' and I'll add photos of my metal scabbard endeavors here.

I've done a quick estimate: roughly 1800 years and more than half the world's land surfaces went in as inspiration for this kit and sword.

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The wire 'inlay, ' as I call it, where a full wrap won't fit. I glue in short wire segments to fill the gaps.

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All the unevenness is rather apparent in the brighter light... [ Download ]

So I'm almost done. I annealed the tang today, and once the blade is etched, I'll assemble the lot of it with brass shims and epoxy, and peen it tight before the epoxy sets (to get a tight, snug fit and let the shims 'cure' to the hilt components). I have a new respect for Kirk Lee Spencer, as drawing clean lines on a gently curved metal surface proved trickier than I thought it'd be. I'm no artistic slouch, but maybe it was my sweaty hands, my fear of messing up and having to erase line, or something else, but I was awfully wiggly with my line work…

The image is a 'serpent in the sword' motif, with a U shaped serpent head, but I wanted the 'body' to look scaly, hence the twists. As I intend to make this a fairly light etch anyway, I'm not too bothered by all the bunching and clumping of the lines.

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Question for the DIY'ers here: should I worry about structural integrity if I want to step down my tang for the last 5mm or so? I'd take it down from 13mm x 4mm to something more like 6mm x 4mm, and partially hold on the grip with the small plate. Everything will be shimmed/glued/friction fit, but the plate will allow for the large tang to take up space in the slightly over-sized upper guard (I'd rather not fill it with JB weld and re-tap it unless I have to) while keeping the final peened bit small enough to pass through the pommel cap. Thoughts?

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That'll be fine I think. Just make sure you have enough material for peening (which isn't much, really). If you're doing a cold peen, too much material is really a huge pain. With a hot peen, it's not as much of a problem.

Looking stellar, btw!!!

Only a few steps left:
1. Scrub parts with scotchbrite
2. Insert brass shims
3. PEEN!!
4. Finish wire wrap

5. Cut stuff!! (I've done this already by just gripping the tang, which was enormous, and the blade performs very well.)

Next steps are the decorated, etched and blued metal scabbard and brass plated baldric…whew!

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The blade is dusty from filing and fitting things…it's not all that scratched up [ Download ]

I still need to clean up the peen and re-wrap places, and maybe a tweak or two here and there, but otherwise it's finished. Sorry for the shirtlessness, my garage is very humid, and I was very excited and had this taken immediately...

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It's done. The faux pattern welding isn't as nice as I'd like it to be, but I'll live with it as a first attempt on a beater sword.

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that grip came out good, I like the transition at the top and bottom of the braded wire wrapped with the single.