Painting swords -- myArmoury.com

Greyson Brown · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: Painting swords

There have been several discussions about swords having been painted historically. This got me thinking that I may want to paint the blade and/or hilt furniture on one or two of my swords. Can anyone give me some information on what type of paint would be appropriate for this kind of thing? I could go buy some flat black spay paint, but if there is something that is more historically accurate, I would like to know. If it makes any difference, I haven't decided on what color I want, but I will probably go with something conservative, like black or white, though a light blue does kind of appeal as well.

Along the same lines, does anyone know of certain colors that would be inappropriate?

-Grey

Jonathan Blair · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 7:13 am Post subject:

Inappropriate colors: Dayglo fuschia and lime green. Just a guess there.

Greyson Brown · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 7:25 am Post subject:

Jonathan Blair · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 8:09 am Post subject:

This is my best guess as I am no expert on medieval painting. Light blue would probably be OK if you had access to woad, which IIRC was used to make the blue face paint the Picts and Scots wore. Mulberry and other berry reds would also be available as well as a reddish orange from clay. Yellow would be from saffron and green from grass. Chalk or limestone might provide white. Black would have likely been done during forging, otherwise black iron oxide could have been used. Basically it would depend on what materials were available to make dyes and paint.

Greyson Brown · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 8:54 am Post subject:

My efforts with using grass to dye leather were only half successful. The color tends to fade. I'm guessing that green paint, while possible, might not be the most appropriate. The Maciejowski Bible shows one sword with a green guard and pommel, and two swords with green grips. Other than that, most of the green is found as clothing.

I'm really hoping to not have to make my own paint. I'm not sure I'm that dedicated to historical accuracy. If I can find a feasible oil based paint (I'm guessing that would be better than water or acrylic), I'll just go with that. If all else fails, I'll just resort to the spray paint idea.

-Grey

Kenton Spaulding · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 9:15 am Post subject:

What sword are you considering painting? I think I could picture a hot pink Crecy, and a poka-dot Poiters. Go for it!

Kenton

Gary Grzybek · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 9:50 am Post subject:

I never heard of swords being painted. That is most interesting although I'd never want it done to any of mine. The fittings on my Talhoffer are blued to a very deep, almost black color. I love the way it looks against the red grip Cool

Greyson Brown · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 11:08 am Post subject:

This thread (though not about swords specifically) mentions some.

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=6115

-Grey

Don Stanko · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 1:37 pm Post subject:

Generally I've found that black is the most common color used on the examples I own. The items painted are the guard and pommel and in one example the armourers marks on the blade (in that case they maker used a deep red color). In most cases the paint was worn to the point where only 20% or less remained, but the paint remaining usually appeared fairly glossy and smooth. Hopefully this helps.

Don

David Quivey · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 4:11 pm Post subject:

Hi Grey - Interesting idea. I knew about painted helms, but never noticed the swords. What period sword are you thinking of? Off the top of my head, generic period pigments are woads, terra verdes, madder, lamp black and of course lappis. As far as paints, any range of "earth tone" colour is possible.

You might scroll through some of the pigment supplies and articles listed here - a great resource and good company:
http://www.naturalpigments.com/

Steve Maly · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 5:17 pm Post subject:

In Records of the Medieval Sword, Oakeshott mentions that XV.4 retains most of it's original blue color on the hilt. From the pic, it appears to be the pommel AND cross (from what I can tell with a B&W pic). This was paired with a red velvet grip bound with silver wire. It sounds striking (pun intended)... Big Grin

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Wed 08 Mar, 2006 5:51 pm Post subject:

Greyson;

Not knowing much about paints in general and what was used in Medieval Europe in particular I'm mostly going to guess here.

First, what paints did they use on helms ? I would assume they would use the same on swords.

I wouldn't want to use a paint that would peel off easily in strips so the adhesion to the metal should be stronger than to itself ?

Lacquers like the Japanese ? Or would enamel type paints make sense?

Oil, based as with portrait paintings ?

Resistant to scratching paint or easy to retouch ? Decorative or mostly for rust protection in period when used on blades as well as furniture ?

Lots of ???? Few answers from me. Eek!

But sometimes figuring out the questions is the place to start ! Hope this helps a bit, at least that is the intention. Big Grin

Greyson Brown · Posted: Thu 09 Mar, 2006 9:51 am Post subject:

David, thanks for the link. I'll have to investigate that site a little more thouroughly when I have the chance.

My main inspiration for this idea was seeing what I am fairly certain are painted swords in the Maceijowski Bible. There is one sword where the blade seems to be painted black, and several different colors are shown for guards and pommels. Other than that black blade, I don't recall that many swords where the blade was painted, but I wonder if it wasn't done occasionaly, anyhow. It would make sense for rust protect, just like painting modern axe heads, hammers, shovels, etc. I would like to have a little stronger evidence before painting the blade (I think the guard and pommel can be justified), as that appeals to me a bit more than the hilt furniture.

At this point, I am inclined to go with black, white, gray, or light blue (basically, colors that have a semi-metalic hue to them anyway). I might consider something like red for the hilt, but not for the blade.

I haven't decided which sword I will paint, but I doubt it will be my Crecy or Poitier (or any of my Albions). I have been thinking that my MRL Archer's short sword might look good with some color, but I'm more inclined to antique that one. I might paint my Windlass/Atlanta cutlery viking sword (like the one that Jan Downs is doing improvedments on) when I finally get around to making my intended changes on it (currently leaning towards Type E pommel, with Style 1 guard). I could also paint my MRL European sword, 13th Century Sword of War (my brother will probably mount a protest if I do that), or German Falchion (in which case I would go with a darker color, I think). The MRL Norman sword (which is probably going to get heavily vandalized and modified), or whatever it gets turned into might be another option.

I won't have any opurtunity to do this until I see my swords again, and that will be late May at the very earliest. I may end up changing my mind and simply antiquing them or leaving them plain. Sorry I can't answer your questions any better than that; I'll let you know if/when I decide anything.

-Grey