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Kirk Lee Spencer
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 Posted: Wed 24 Mar, 2010 8:16 am Post subject: |
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| Jeroen Zuiderwijk wrote: | Gorgeous! A Hallstatt king would definately approve! Welcome to the Mindelheim club  |
Thanks Jeroen...
I am happy to be a member of the Mindelheim club 
To me the Mindelheim is a really "quirky" sword type. At first I was not sure I liked it or not... The ideas of a sword without a point. Even when building the hilt there were times that I was not exactly sure I liked the design.
Yet the process of putting it all together has made the design one of my favorites now. Though to be honest I still not sure why?  Still not sure why it does not have a point. Also the large "Mexican Hat" pommel seems unwieldy to me, especially considering that the one on my Mindelheim is actually a little undersized.
I vaguely remember seeing a sculpture from roughly the time of the Hallstatt culture (maybe from Northern Italy) that had a hat not too dissimilar in shape to the pommel of the Mindelheim. I have wondered if this odd pommel design may be the reflection of a real hat.
thanks again...
ks
Two swords
Lit in Eden’s flame
One of iron and one of ink
To place within a bloody hand
One of God or one of man
Our souls to one of
Two eternities
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Kirk Lee Spencer
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| Posted: Wed 24 Mar, 2010 8:57 am Post subject: |
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| JE Sarge wrote: | Great work on this project, I love the look of the finished blade.
Keep us posted on your next project. These are always a great enjoyment to follow. |
Thanks Jonathan...
I am currently experimenting with using etchants such as mustard and/or ferric chloride to etch the topography of patternwelding in the fuller of a viking sword. I would like to try and perfectly reproduce the surface feature to the point that someone who was familiar with pattern welding would have a hard time telling that it was just a surface phenomenon.
[Which brings to mind something I wanted to say about the false rivet heads on the Mindelheim. I did not mean to imply that the ancients did this, it is just a way that I can make things easier on myself and still have the same cross binding and attachment of true rivets. My method is to create surface authenticity... I am not adverse to taking shortcuts in parts of the sword hidden from view. Let me hasten to add that I have tremendous respect for experimental archeology and those of you who practice "deep" authenticity... I just don't have the patience for it...]
My next project is to finish the gorgeous Chemlsford basket and grip Eljay made for me and attach it to a beautiful swiss saber blade made for me by Vlad Cervenka. This is going to be one light and fast and dangerous sword.!
take care
ks
 Attachment: 131.65 KB
Two swords
Lit in Eden’s flame
One of iron and one of ink
To place within a bloody hand
One of God or one of man
Our souls to one of
Two eternities
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Peter Johnsson
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 24 Mar, 2010 9:54 am Post subject: |
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Kirk,
This is really very good. I so much enjoyed seeing you put this sword together and follow your process and reasoning.
Great work and great sword!
Beautiful texture and color.
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Jeroen Zuiderwijk
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 24 Mar, 2010 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Kirk Lee Spencer wrote: | | Jeroen Zuiderwijk wrote: | | Gorgeous! A Hallstatt king would definately approve! Welcome to the Mindelheim club |
Thanks Jeroen...
I am happy to be a member of the Mindelheim club
To me the Mindelheim is a really "quirky" sword type. At first I was not sure I liked it or not... The ideas of a sword without a point. Even when building the hilt there were times that I was not exactly sure I liked the design.
Yet the process of putting it all together has made the design one of my favorites now. Though to be honest I still not sure why? |
It's one of those swords you need to learn to like. I didn't like it at first, however it's now my favourite sword I have on the wall (this is also though because my Mindelheim is one of the few that I worked on and turned out absolutely perfect).
| Quote: | | Still not sure why it does not have a point. |
I don't know either. Quite a few Mindelheims still do have functional points for thrusting, but the ones that don't are some of the rare examples in history where the thrusting function is removed from the sword. And then the entire sword altogether disappear. There was something going on at that time that made the elegant cutting and trusting Gundlingen turn into these big pure cutting swords. They also went from simple organic hilts to all kinds of experimental material combinations, such as wood/gold, bronze, bronze/iron, ivory, ivory/amber etc. In society at the time, you see the appearance of the very rich Hallstatt kings, which obviously seem to have used the swords to distinguish themselves. Then they do away with swords, and replace them with daggers. Around that time, horses become common in use, and you see chariot burrials. Although I can't prove it, I think that the horses and the disappearance of the sword are linked. At least you see in horse riding civilizations such as the Scythians that daggers are used rather then swords. So perhaps the Mindelheim was a brief adaptation to make the sword work, before it was found that the dagger suited the purpose much better?
Jeroen Zuiderwijk
- Bronze age living history in the Netherlands
- Barbarian metalworking
- Museum photos
- Zip-file with information about saxes
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Kirk Lee Spencer
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| Posted: Thu 25 Mar, 2010 12:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Danny Grigg wrote: | Kirk
Trully gorgeous work on the hilt / pommel and that Neil Burridge blade is extremely beautiful as well.
So when are you going to start to do some reviews on the various swords you have for the REVIEWS page including that masterpiece by Patrick Barta, the Fetter Lane sword?
Danny |
Hi Danny...
Sorry I'm so late in responding... and thanks for the kind words.
If there is a sword of mine that you are interested in then let me know and I would be glad to do a write up. Right now I have two of my swords in the review que at myArmoury... Both are by Vlad Cervenka and both masterpieces IMO. A very nice Sinclair hilt with a falchion blade and a suburb swepthilt rapier/sidesword with a flamberge blade. I will not publish pictures of these swords until the reviews come out.
As for the Fetter Lane sword, I have hopes of writing up an article and maybe getting it published in Blade Magazine. I think the Fetter Lane would be a great opportunity for this because it is a reconstruction of a fragment in the British Museum. If I can't get it published then I will retool it for the REVIEWS page.
thanks again...
take care
ks
Attachment: 138.6 KB
Fetter Lane Fragment Reconstruction by Patrick Barta.
Attachment: 147.83 KB
Fetter Lane Fragment Reconstruction by Patrick Barta.
Two swords
Lit in Eden’s flame
One of iron and one of ink
To place within a bloody hand
One of God or one of man
Our souls to one of
Two eternities
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Kirk Lee Spencer
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| Posted: Thu 25 Mar, 2010 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Peter Johnsson wrote: | Kirk,
This is really very good. I so much enjoyed seeing you put this sword together and follow your process and reasoning.
Great work and great sword!
Beautiful texture and color. |
Hi Peter...
Thanks for the encouragement. The figure in the wood really did create a very nice textureal effect. Something that doesn't show in the images is the topographic effect on the surface of the wood. I used steelwool to burnish the surface between application of the boiled linseed oil and this actually cut deeper into the softer areas of the wood giving it a nice textured topographic effect that follows the figure in the wood. I have seen a similar feature in polished ironwood.
And the color of the bronze is mesmerizing. I really like the golden color of Neil's bronze.
I have his Limehouse sword too... I want to hilt it with some Wenge as soon as I finish the Chelmsford.
take care
ks
Two swords
Lit in Eden’s flame
One of iron and one of ink
To place within a bloody hand
One of God or one of man
Our souls to one of
Two eternities
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This is a standard topic