Ritter scabbard finished! -- myArmoury.com

Aaron Schnatterly · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 6:08 pm Post subject: Ritter scabbard finished!

Here are a few pics of the scabbard I made for my Albion Next Gen Ritter. Thought they may be of some interest.

Poplar wood core, handstitched calf skin, integral belt suspension, handforged chape. It was a lot of fun to create.

Comments are certainly welcome!

Larger, clearer images can be found in my "Scabbard Work" photo album.

Wish the lighting were better... Mother Nature really hasn't been cooperating lately, and I had to use less-than-optimal flash work... Worried

Jeremy V. Krause · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 6:27 pm Post subject:

Hi Aaron,

Man that looks great! I especially like seeing the oxblood colour as my Templar shares this. How did you come by the buckle? Could you provide a shot of the stitching up the back.

Again that is a great looking scabbard! What was the most difficult part of the construction?

Jeremy

James Holczer · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 6:58 pm Post subject:

Sweet! Excellent work, looks like you did a really nice job of matching and complementing the grip color. The Ritter has always been one of my favorites.

Pamela Muir · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 7:01 pm Post subject:

Hi Aaron,

That is exquisite. I especially admire the belt suspension. Beautifully done!

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 7:23 pm Post subject:

Aaron;

Really nice work and hopefully you will have a quieter and easier winter than your recent over windy weather that will give you more time to do more of these.

Handforged chape ? Did you forge it yourself or had it done ? Sorry if I don't remember if you have mentioned before doing any metal work.

Aaron Schnatterly · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 7:49 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

The whole project had it's issues. Due to the complex geometry of the Ritter's blade, profiling it in wood was an interesting process. I really had to study the blade to fit the core. Leatherwork was interesting in trying to match the grip's color. It took some playing with dye combinations and concentrations to get this close. Definitely was not a straight "bust open a bottle and smear it on" job. The black dye, for some reason, was extremely aggressive, pulling all the natural oils out of the leather, so I had to treat it heavily. Fitting the suspension was probably the easiest part of the project. The interwoven buckle and belt attachments were done in 2 strands instead of 1 - that was harder than I thought it would be... The nastiest part, though, was the metalwork. I hammered this chape out of a single piece, then trimmed, fitted, readjusted, tweaked, refitted, polished, mounted... I really learned a lot in this stage. Metals are my weakest link.

The buckle is a modern one that I did some reshaping to. It's the only piece I didn't start from scratch with on this project. I may try to make a new, more accurate one in the future.

I have 2 more close to finished (a Knight and my Squire), and a few more on the drawing board. Not likely that I will get to any more this year, though - of the roughly 8 weeks left in 2005, I'm working 4 and traveling 2.5, so that gives me very little time actually anywhere near my shop.

A few more pics to provide a bit more details - some Jeremy asked for, some just for the sake of getting a better view.

In order to provide a little contrast, I dyed the inside of the mouth black. The wood core was carved to the blade's profile.

Here's a better pic of the suspension integration... colors are truer in this pic, too...

Sword and scabbard in profile.

View of the back - the stitching is the alternating X X X X method.

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 8:20 pm Post subject:

Aaron;

After your last post giving more details about how you put this together and the metal work I'm even more impressed.

Don't know if this is useful or not but Allan Senefelder might be able to give you a few tips on how to best go about making complex shapes through forging. Well, not just because making armour would have a lot in common with making scabbard parts but because Allan is such a nice guy I'm sure he would be happy to give advice if you need it.

Decades ago I got to be fairly good at welding with an acetylene torch and did a bit of braising mostly for one of my sculpture University classes. Some minor attempts at hammer forging also. My biggest problem was trying to get a big enough peace of steel at the right forging temperature and keeping it that way long enough to forge two pieces together before one part or the other cooled down too much. With a real forge set-up this might be easy, with a hand held torch and only two hands: Not so much.

In any case, I know just enough to appreciate how difficult this can be if one is improvising without the right equipment

Russ Ellis · Industry Professional

Nice job Aaron! You are really going the extra mile in your efforts and it shows.

Tom Carr · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 10:34 pm Post subject:

Beautiful job Aaron! Cool

Matthew G.M. Korenkiewicz · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 10:43 pm Post subject:

Well done ! I really like the color scheme of the scabbard matching
the grip of the Ritter. B-)

Eric Nower · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 11:01 pm Post subject:

So Aaron,

When are you taking orders? Wink

Stephen Hand · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 11:07 pm Post subject:

Dear Aaron,

Nice job. Serendipitously I am about to make a scabbard for a sword of much the same period and was looking at a picture of an original almost identical to your scabbard today. If it's OK, I'd like to pick your brains. The stitching up the back has me troubled. I can't see whether it's butted or overlapped. It looks to have been done right side out (I was wondering whether to do it right side out or to do it inside out, peel it off and put it back on right side out. I can see difficulties with both methods, so would be very interested in hearing how you got such a nice result).

With the stitching at the top, I assume from the picture, that you've just rolled it and used a glove stitch to stitch it down?

Oh, and what tools did you use to hollow out the two sections of wood?

I've made scabbards before, but my last one was 15 years ago and was pretty ordinary.

Thanks in advance
Stephen

Patrick Kelly · Posted: Tue 01 Nov, 2005 11:13 pm Post subject:

Stephen,

This isn't Aaron's scabbard but here's a close-up of some stitching. Hopefully this is helpful.

Aaron,

I think the one-piece chape came out well. Needs a little file work on that inside curve though. Wink

David Etienne · Posted: Wed 02 Nov, 2005 4:20 am Post subject:

Congratulations, Aaron ! All I can add is that this exceptionnal and under-estimated sword has now the most beautiful matching scabbard it could have. I wish I had your talent for my Laird...

Cheers,

David

Jesse Frank · Industry Professional

Great job!

Edward Hitchens · Posted: Wed 02 Nov, 2005 6:49 am Post subject:

Wow Aaron! That's outstanding! I may have to commission a scabbard from you for my Talhoffer! Razz

The color on your scabbard matches the sword's grip perfectly. I'm starting to like the Ritter more and more. -Ted

Thomas Hoogendam · Posted: Wed 02 Nov, 2005 9:26 am Post subject:

Very impressive. Great work Aaron, I can't wait to see the scabbard for the Knight.

Aaron Schnatterly · Posted: Wed 02 Nov, 2005 1:43 pm Post subject:

Aaron Schnatterly · Posted: Wed 02 Nov, 2005 2:24 pm Post subject:

Thanks to everyone for their kind words! It's been really neat to share this with the community - glad it's been recieved so well!

I've been asked a lot of good questions about this project - some in person, some via PM/email, and some in various responses to this thread. Here's a consolidation of some of them with answers:

Matching the core to the grip - yeah, this was a royal pain. I had to mix dyes, and use a base dye/overdye 2-coat process to get it this close. I intentionally left it a slight bit redder than the grip itself - the grip would pick up grime and grit from use, so this gives the suite a little more "real" feel - subtle, but it does make a difference. There is no possible way I could match colors this closely with a high degree of consistency, nor would it be remotely possible to do so without having that specific sword in hand.

How long did it take? Guessing, core: 4 hours, leather: 4 hours, metal bits: 2 days, lots of oxyacetalyne, a bag of ice for the shoulder, and a case of Bass Ale. Metals are not my forte'... Practice, practice, practice...

How did I make the chape? One strip of 22 gauge steel, and a lot of time with careful heat distribution and "gentle application" of a variety of hammers, with 4-letter words interspersed where appropriate (and some extra ones tossed in just for fun here and there). Lots of patience...

Do I take commissions? Hmm... At this point, no. Sorry. I won't be home but for about a week until after the new year - and that's a day here, a day there - and I have about 15 other projects in the queue. I can't begin to estimate any time when I could get this stuff turned around... Perhaps once I get some of these other things finished, I'll consider it. Ted, Eric, if you guys are serious, we'll chat in the future.

Is it heavy? I can't weigh it - would have to take it to the post office or something to weigh it on a scale/balance with that degree of accuracy. The scabbard and belt are very light... With the sword in it, I barely notice it's on my hip.

Why didn't I "fancy up" this chape? This sword/scabbard is to be part of my Templar kit. I wanted to keep it very functional without ornamentation to fit the supposedly modest nature of these Knights. I'll get a lot more wild with future projects... I have some serious thoughts about the one for my Regent, but that's a ways off.

Why didn't I make the buckle from scratch? Honestly, my shoulder and arm hurt. I just couldn't much stand the thought of swinging a hammer again. Also, I was using a friend's metal shop - some of these tools I don't have, and don't have space for. His shop is about an hour from my house, so it's not like I can just slide outside and knock something out.

Hopefully, that answers some of the questions you might have had (or didn't think of, but now you know anyway).

Stephen Hand · Posted: Wed 02 Nov, 2005 2:34 pm Post subject: