Posts: 149 Location: scotland
Sat 31 Mar, 2007 1:39 pm
Castle Keep-the Ballinderry Sword
i have just completed this reproduction of the Ballinderry find,silver plated fittings with sterling silver wire inlays,exact reproduction of the ulfberht inscription,masur birch and whalebone grip.
Ballinderry sword Specs
Blade Length 31 1/8"
Tang length 5 1/2"
Weight 3Lb 7oz
Point of Balance 6.5"
Width 2 3/8" at cross
1 1/2" at 6" from tip
thickness 5.2mm- 4.5mm at 3" from tip
big blade,devastating.
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Posts: 3,646 Location: Midwest
Sat 31 Mar, 2007 5:26 pm
Are your lights directed at the piece or away from it. Several of the shots seem to have some glare that obscures some detail of the piece. Its interesting regardless, I like the whale bone. Is it hard to come by?
Posts: 149 Location: scotland
Sun 01 Apr, 2007 12:43 am
Joe,i just use natural light for the pictures,and a 4megapix camera,i do have other shots if there is something you are unclear about.Whalebone is particularily hard to come by,the Whales seem very reluctant to hand it over :D I have got some on occasions from Kayaking around the Coast of the Island,old carcasses can be found.
Posts: 1,812 Location: Washington DC metro area, USA
Sun 01 Apr, 2007 2:24 pm
Your Ballinderry repro is a beauty, Rob. The pommel appears to be constructed of two pieces - is it so?
Have you considered trying to create a blade with iron inlay?
Posts: 3,646 Location: Midwest
Sun 01 Apr, 2007 3:51 pm
Perhaps some different shots of the tip/last 3rd of the blade.
Posts: 1,532 Location: Tennessee
Sun 01 Apr, 2007 5:59 pm
I am curious about the inlay on the blade (looks great by the way!) Did you twist wire and hot forge it into the blade? I would have expected the original to have been a pattern welded blade, but can understand not wanting to take the project that far even if the original was....
Posts: 152 Location: France
Sun 01 Apr, 2007 10:44 pm
Jared,
Following Ian Peirce's book "Swords Of The Viking Age" the blade of the Ballinderry sword was NOT pattern-welded...
The exact sentence being : "The blade does not otherwise appear to be pattern-welded."
In fact Ulfberht blades are so usually not pattern-welded that Patrick Barta wrote me about a pattern-welded Ulfberth sword found at Olomouc as something totally unusual.
Posts: 149 Location: scotland
Sun 01 Apr, 2007 11:15 pm
| Steve Grisetti wrote: |
Your Ballinderry repro is a beauty, Rob. The pommel appears to be constructed of two pieces - is it so?
Have you considered trying to create a blade with iron inlay? |
Hi Steve.As you can tell,the Ulfberht and IIXXXII are etched into the blade,Jean had asked me to forge weld them in,but i was really not comfortable with that idea in a mono steel blade.With a pattern welded piece it is a lot easier,but still something that would pose some problems,another instance of having to take ones hat off to the original Smith.
The Pommel is two part with rivets and wire added after the silverwork,it may take a while to work out how that was achieved with a silver finish.
I also attach a pic of the waxes in the early part of the project,to give you an idea of the size of the tang and the fit.the tang is also peened over.
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Posts: 149 Location: scotland
Tue 03 Apr, 2007 12:11 am
| Joe Fults wrote: |
| Perhaps some different shots of the tip/last 3rd of the blade. |
Joe,i have clipped one of the larger pics to give some idea,hope this helps a bit.
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Posts: 1,606 Location: Chicago, Illinois
Sun 08 Apr, 2007 7:39 pm
Rob-
Great work! The grip looks excellent with the whalebone. A very subtle touch. I'm curious; why was the "wire" cast around the bottom part of the pommel but inlaid on the upper part? Wouldn't it have been more accurate to inlay the bottom part as well? Mind you, I still LOVE this sword.....
Posts: 1,757 Location: Storvreta, Sweden
Sun 08 Apr, 2007 10:36 pm
Beautiful work Rob!
Glad to see it: always insiring to see inspired work like this.
Thanks for showing.
:D
Posts: 149 Location: scotland
Sun 08 Apr, 2007 11:55 pm
| Tim Lison wrote: |
Rob-
Great work! The grip looks excellent with the whalebone. A very subtle touch. I'm curious; why was the "wire" cast around the bottom part of the pommel but inlaid on the upper part? Wouldn't it have been more accurate to inlay the bottom part as well? Mind you, I still LOVE this sword..... |
Thanks Tim,
I was trying to get a match to the silver on the Kilmainham sword,which looks worn and flattened,like one piece of silver rather than two or three,i thought that it would look better carved,i am attaching a pic to show what i mean.
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Posts: 149 Location: scotland
Sun 08 Apr, 2007 11:59 pm
| Peter Johnsson wrote: |
Beautiful work Rob!
Glad to see it: always insiring to see inspired work like this.
Thanks for showing.
:D |
Thank you Peter,
it was an enjoyble project,a big brute,but the actual balance point ended up a little less than the original in the end.I wanted to show some pictures of the original inlay with the etched version to illustrate that it is also fairly close.
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