[Greyson Brown]

I have posted in several threads that I was going to redo one or another of my sword grips when I get a chance. Well, my dad sent me the grips from my swords that have threaded tangs (because of my housing situation (i.e. Army barracks) I can't have the whole sword at the moment), and sent them to me. Here are some pictures of what I have done. At the moment I pictures of only the grips, but I will update this with pictures of the grips on their respective swords when the grips make it back to Colorado, and dad sends me some pictures.

The first picture is of all four grips as they were when I had started.
Upper Left: Windlass/MRL Archer's Short Sword.
Upper Right: Windlass/MRL Type XVa. (I believe that this was called the "Medieval Bastard Sword," or something equally vague. It is based on XVa.2 from the Spotlight on XV's)
Lower Left: I actually made this grip. It goes on my re-forge/re-hilt of a Windlass/MRL 500574 (discussed in this thread).
Lower Right: Depeeka Dagger. I don't know a name or model number, as I got it from a friend. I don't think they carry this particular piece any more. The grip was originally covered in low-quality black leather.

The leather for all of these was a chamios.

For the Archer's Short Sword, I used natural cord from the local hardware store. I am not able to decipher the single German word on the packaging, but it would seem that it is made from cherry trees It came in a variety pack with several thicknesses. I used the 1.7 mm thickness for the base wrap, and 2 mm for the risers. The risers are four seperate pieces. You can also just make out (in the bottom "square") that I used buttons to ensure pressure inside each square during drying. I wanted green leather, and could find no green leather dye or polish, so I used weeds from the sidewalk to stain the leather. You can just rub it on (rather like grass-staining ones clothing, though more deliberate), but I would recommend bruising the leaves with a bit of sandpaper first. This will keep your leather from streatching too much. Also, because chlorophyll is more like working with water-colors, don't expect too deep a color. This may not survive real well (I hope it doesn't turn a sickly brown, but I don't know), but I can always just cover it up with black shoe polish. I found that the natural cord that I used left fibers attached to the grip where excess glue had leaked out at the seam. Chlorophyll does not do a good job of covering this, or the seam itself, up.

For the type XVa sword, I needed the grip to be the same thickness as it had been originally at top and bottom (so that it would fir the guard and pommel), but wanted to increase the diameter of the rest of the grip as it was too small. Therefore, I used "550 cord" (often called parachute cord, it is a nylon cord sheath with seven smaller bits of cord inside), despite the fact that it is historically inaccurate. I "gutted" the 550 cord (removed the inner cords), and laid the sheath out flat against the grip core in order to keep the diameter of the grip close enough to original dimentions. after the first wrap, I began twisting the cord to make it round, and increase the thickness. I finished by making the last wrap flat as well. The risers are also made from gutted, twisted 550 cord. I used the inner cords to do the exterior wrap during drying, which resulted in a lot of the detail from the interior wrap (the cord under the leather) showing through. It also highlighted a few mistakes. The leather was colored with Kiwi shoe polish. First I laid down some brown higlights, and then covered the whole thing with cordovan (Kiwi's cordovan is more like a dark brown).

After improving the shape of the wooden core (this one was real clunky) by carving and filing, the Windlass 500574 re-hilt was wrapped in 1.7 mm cord, and I used some 2.5 mm stuff for the risers. I used 1.7 mm cord for the exterior wrap during drying, and once again found that the natural cord tended to leave fibers attached to the grip. Shoe polish (I used Kiwi brown, with a little bit of cordovan for higlights) did a much better job of covering up the ones that could not be plucked off, and it also disguised the seam rather well.

I first carved down the dagger grip to create a hexagonal cross-section, and then wrapped it in 1.2 mm cord. I used multiple wraps of the same cord in order to create the risers. The leather was stained using red "Leather Rejuvinator" (a paste-like substance for restoring color to shoes, which just might be a fany name for polish) from Mister Minit, an on-post shoe repair place. Just a little bit of cordovan brushed onto the leather beforehand resulted in some interesting highlights. The exterior wrap on this one was done with the inner pieces from 550 cord. They are about 1.2 mm (a little less, but not much), and because they are synthetic, they don't leave any fibers on the grip.

I'll go ahead and post some of the lessons learned when I get a chance, but at the moment the library is about to close.

-Grey

[Bill Grandy]

Those look great, Greyson! I've been meaning to rewrap a couple of my swords after Sean's excellent article, I just keep putting it off.

[Sean Flynt]

Outstanding job, Greyson! The grip with the diamond-pattern risers and green hue is especially impressive.
Adapt and overcome! The grip you made is the prettiest, though, IMHO.

[Patrick Kelly]

I agree with Sean. The green cross hatched grip is particularly nice Greyson, very cool.

Neat!

[Steve Grisetti]

Excellent. I have two old MRL's that I need to do.

[Greyson Brown]

Thanks for the comments guys.

As I commented on in my post, I had to do these while they were not attached to the sword. That made a few differences. For the most part it was straight forward, but:

-Expect to glue yourself to stuff. Given that wood glue cleans up pretty easy, this isn't a concern. I was still fairly liberal with the glue, but because the only thing I had to hang onto was the grip itself, I stuck myself to a couple grips.

-You really only need to glue the cord to the grip at the begining and end of the wrap. Not gluing the main portion of your work allows you to correct mistakes (thus getting the wrap tighter), and helps you avoid getting glued to stuff.

-My top and bottom risers had to be closer to the middle of the grip than I think would be needed if the grips had been on the sword. If I put them closer to the ends, the exterior cord (used during drying) would slip off of the ends. This would be negated if there was a pommel or guard to stop it sliding.

-I was able to apply my leather dry and then just dunk the whole grip in a pot of water. With the grip attached, you would probably want to use wet leather or give the grip a sponge bath. I could see wet leather fighting a bit (I don't think it would glue so well), and a sponge bath might not get things wet enough.

-The exterior cord is responsible for about 50% of the texture on a finished grip. Don't just wrap cord around it in a hurry and set it aside to dry. Make sure that it is evenly spaced, and that it applies pressure in the areas that you want to highlight or hide.

-Along with that last comment, try not to use too much pressure when passing the exterior cord over a riser, as it leaves a mark. The best place (in my opinion) for cord to go over a riser is at the seam, that way the pressure that is applied holds the leather tight and helps to hide the seam.

-The leather likes to pucker just a bit on the risers. This makes the seam more visible, but can be avoided be following the above bullet.

Last but not least:

-Shoe polish can hide quite a few sins.

-Grey

[Greyson Brown]

[Sean Flynt]

I read or saw somewhere that some grips were covered in complex, knotted meshes of cord much like what you have produced, though perhaps with smaller openings. I think that's in one of the Oakeshott books (A of W?).

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

[Greyson Brown]

Sean,

I do know that at least some were done that way. Oakeshott does include a plat with such a sword, I believe, and I know that one is pictured on the last page of the 13th century chapter in Edge and Paddock's Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight.

I might give that a try at some point, but it might require more dexterity than I have.

-Grey

[Greyson Brown]

I promised that I would post pictures of the grips on the swords when I got them. Well, I finally have such pictures. I put together a before and after shot of each sword (just the grip area, if somebody wants to see the whole sword, let me know) so that you can compare the new grip with the original.

Unfortunately, the green grip on the MRL Archer's Short Sword has lost a lot of its color. I guess I will have to go over that one with some black shoe polish after all.

Enjoy!

-Grey

[Steve Grisetti]

Nice work, Grey.

[Bill Grandy]

Wow, it's amazing what a difference a nice grip wrap can make! Very cool, Grey.

[Daniel Parry]

They look really good. It struck me how real they look with your new grips. I don't use the word 'authentic' simply because I wouldn't know what was an authentic grip on a medieval sword. But they look somehow more real and practical and used than a lot of reproduction pictures you see. Particularly the sword at the bottom which you said you'd done work on. I don't know about authentic furniture on these swords but I could well imagine a knight riding along on a muddy horse with that slung at his side.


Daniel

[Anton de Vries]

Very useful information. Thanks.

[Greyson Brown]

[Tom Carr]

The green diapered grip is quite interesting, as are they all. Very nice work ! Oakeshott shows several examples in Swords in the Age of Chivalry. Most were done with velvet over wood and silk or wire diaper pattern. I think the technique dates as far back as the 14th century. Most of them seem to be for single handers, but a couple of drawings seem to show the them used on hand and a halfs. Im tempted to try out a velvet and silk cord wrap, just to see how it looks and feels. Keep up the good work!

[Greyson Brown]