[Bob Uhl]

Does anyone have any good references for late 15th century scabbards?

The reason that I ask is that I'm soon to purchase the German branch sword from A&A and will be having a scabbard made by Tritonworks. I do historical recreation, and I'd like to get as much of my clothing accurate as possible. My drop-dead date is 1497, FWIW.

Thanks for any illumination you might be able to offer.

[Peter Johnsson]

The main thing to think about is that the wood needs to be cut *thin*.
It should not be much more than 3 mm thick.

The outline of the scabbard should be close to the shape of the blade.

The cross section should be a tight oval or of a diamond section, depending on the section of the blade.

The wood is thin slats cut to fit the shape of the blade for a well balanced press fit. Not too tight, not too loose.

No clunky rectangulalr sections. That is an absolute no-no.
One must avoid scabbards that look like a pair of slalom ski wrapped in upholstery leather.

The belt attachment for this period is very often simply a specialized knot.

No upper locket.

No felt or fur lining. That belongs to other periods.

Unless you want to have a very upper class scabbard (depending on yor persona) you want to keep the scabbard simple, tight and clean in shape.

Scabbard chape is a cone topped of with an acorn shaped finial.
There can be gotic cut outs in this.

A well made scabbard is quite a task. Especially if you do reenatment it is important to get this part right. It is very easy to mess it up, making the whole set up look less than believable.

Hope this helps.

[Mathieu Harlaut]

If you are into living history, I would advice the following technique:

For a diamond shaped blade:

Take 2 thin boards of poplar (2mm-3mm) of the length of your blade. Poplar is very supple and dry, it seems to have been very common to use it for scabbards at all period. I know poplar is sometime used in naval modelling.

Make a cut with a modelling knife to mark the central spine of the blade, but do not cut trough the wood. Then you will gently bend the wood along this cut creating a half diamond section. Then cut the board to the shape of your blade, slightly larger to allow the blade too slide easily out of the scabbard, but not too large so it won't fall out. Repeat that on for the other side of the scabbard.

Protect the sword and the hilt with something like plastic and assemble the 2 parts of the scabbard on the blade. Cover and glue the whole outer surface of the scabbard with a piece of light linen cloth (if you are into living history preferably with bone-glue or hide-glue, I am not sure of the name in English). Wait for the whole thing to dry and cover and glue vegetal tanned leather, that you can stitch on the back or not, as you prefer. I would advice to wet the leather, so it will be easier to make it follow the shape of the scabbard.

This way you will have a light weight and thin scabbard but strong and flexible.

I hope it helps, good luck

[Bob Uhl]

Thanks for the ideas on construction; I suppose I should have been a mite clearer. I'm going to commission a scabbard from Tritonworks; what I'm interested in discovering is the proper suspension of a scabbard in the late 15th century, e.g. what sort of belt would the scabbard hang from, how would it be attached--that kind of thing. Illumination would, of course, be heartily appreciated.