[Rob Miller]

Thank you to Nathan and team for allowing space to post some gratuitous self publicising pictures of some of my new work .The Basket is based on one belonging to James Stewart of Balquhidder,commissioned last year by a customer of mine.I have used 5mm stock,raised and tapered down to around 3mm at the top,rayskin grip,all Sterling silverwork,i have a lot more respect now for the people who used to do this without the benefits of power tools,some work!

[Rob Miller]

Ahem seem to have got the sizes wrong,lets try again:

[Rob Miller]

and heres a Petersen type V with composite burr and ivory micarta grip,inlaid silver wire in the pommel and guard.

[Steve Grisetti]

Beautiful work, Rob! I am especially fond of the new basket hilt! Will this design be a part of your regular offerings?

[Tim Lison]

Holy smoke...! That type V is gorgeous!!!!

[Michal Plezia]

Wow! I agree with Tim!It is wonderfull indeed!

[Joe Fults]

Those look nice in the photos.

[Kenton Spaulding]

Yeah that is nice stuff. Was excited about the basket till I saw the Viking....keep it up!

Kenton

[Rob Miller]

thank you.Steve,that is a one off at present,although i have the drawings for it so i could make it again,but not for quite a while.for the Viking fans,here are some other pics,of the Petersen and my own style Irish viking sword using the ballinderry find as inspiration for the vine carvings.a wider blade on this one,@ 2 and 1/2",i will be making this with the composite style grip soon,should look pretty with maybe some bone and burrwood.

[Rob Miller]

and these:

[Thomas Pludra]

Hello, Rob
Wonderful work, especially the basket hilt is stunning.
Congratulations!!
I hope, you´ll get rid of those hackers on castle keep forums.
Cheers
Thomas

[Russ Ellis]

Wow! Outstanding work as usual Rob!

[Geoff Wood]

Mr Miller
Lovely looking swords. Not sure that first viking is a Petersen type V though. Looks more like a cross of an L and an S, maybe.
Regards
Geoff Wood

[Henrik Bjoern Boegh]

Hi Rob,

WOW! That's stunning! Lovely basket hilt and what a scabbard!
Now, when are you making a snouted ribbon hilt..?

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Henrik

[Rob Miller]

thank you again,Henrik,i made a ribbon hilt some years ago,i think they are really ugly,so i haven't tried another one,...yet
Russ,good to see you again,i have been patiently honing my work here on the Island,although as a one man show it is pretty hard to keep up at times.
Geoff,i called it a type V because of the crescent pommel and guard,but don't mind being corrected on that,i was bought a book recently by one of my customers and worked the type from that,if its definitely wrong please tell me and i will alter the name.
Thomas,the Forum may be dead,which is a real shame,i spent a lot of time building up that material,and it was a nice small community we had there.I still don't understand the point in hacking
also attach some pics from today,a sword for a customer and forum regular,the style is close to a lot of West Coast tombstone effigies,apart from the straight tapered guard,in place of the lobated style,again a wide blade 3.7Lb ,44" overall.

[James A. Vargscarr]

All great looking pieces Rob, but I especially like that basket-hilt. That's particularly interesting for me to say because I'm not usually a huge fan of basket-hilts; but this example really catches me.

[Geoff Wood]

Hi Rob
I'm no expert, but I think there may be a confusion between Wheeler's type five (Roman numeral V) and Petersen's type V (alphabetical). Wheeler's type V has the strongly curved upper and lower guard (crescent, as you say) of Petersen's type L. Wheeler's classification was in some ways a later simplification, based on English finds I think, of Petersen's earlier work on Norwegian finds. Neither of them in their schemes seem to have the pommel lobes quite in the way you've got them, hence my suggestion of a cross with a Petersen type S, but that's just me being fussy. I feel sure one of our Scandinavian colleagues could give you the definitive story on this. Whatever they're called, I'd be proud to own them.
Regards
Geoff

Edited to add that I think that last one you've posted is a sweety. I prefer the way you've done the pommell to the Albion version of that style.

[Thomas McDonald]

Beautiful work, Rob !

Here are some shots I took of the original baskethilt that Rob based his recreation on, L1931-67, residing at Edinburgh Castle.

Nice to see this one come alive :-) Mac

*All Photos - T. McDonald, 2005.

[Rob Miller]

Nice one Mac!
those are the pics i could have done with months ago ,the customer had taken a few,but there was a lot of glare,so i spent ages trying to figure out what was where,it seems that its pretty damn close,although the 'leaves' are interestingly welded on the original by the look of things.
I decided to make a fine clean blade to match,rather than the original which looked to be triple fullered but without much detail.i chiselled the lines hot into the blade alongside the fullers,and the blade itself came out very nicely i think.Basket hilts have never reeally tickled my fancy until this one,the original makers have my undying respect for the sheer amount of fettling work they had to do to get things just right.i think it is true to say that the Sword would have been as important a part of the Gentlemans ensemble as a flashy car is nowadays,apparently the costs could be comparable,so the Sword is one of the very few things that has dramatically fallen in price over the Centuries,and as a consequence there is a World full of impoverished Sword Makers with holes in their shoes rather than living off the Patronage of Nobles...ach well,someone has to do it .
Geoff,many thanks for that,i may well have mixed up my references there,i will amend accordingly.

[Thomas McDonald]

Hi Rob

Aye, trying to get decent shots of these cased, poorly lit, museum pieces can be a bit of a daunting task at times !
There is forever a glaring light bulb postioned right where you wish it wasn't :-)

Yes, many of these forward guard fillers tend to be held on by the slightest of welds, so obviously some of them may have been more decoration/fashion statement than any real defensive necessity !
(although if they deflected a blade tip even once I suppose they'd have most certainly been worth having in there )

By the way, might you have any quick stats on your piece (weight, OL, BL, etc.) ?

Again, nice work ! Mac