[Henrik Granlid]

Some time ago, I made a post about my first sword.
And finally, it arrived.

As it would happen, the sword arrived the same day I picked up my hauberk and a few meters of cloth (wool and linen). And I figured I might as well make a log about the project at hand, i.e. the creation of my 12th-ish century crusader (or, well, newly returned crusader most like).

Our troupe wishes to keep the armour light on plate, and far as I've gathered, gambesons weren't really that commonplace until the 14th century, as such, you wont see any plate, my wallet wont take a beating, and I hope you'll accept a gambe-less chainmail as part of my clothing.

First and foremost, we have the sword. A Pave Moc, custom made for the store from which I bought it. It is called a Coinpommel, but, as far as I've gathered, it uses the same blade as that of the Hastings. All in all, the entire thing stands about 96cm tall (with pommel), with a blade probably around 80-85cm in length. The base is at 5cm, and the edge is blunted.

And I do like it.
It is, however, heavier and harder to control than I'd imagined. I come from eight years of Aikido, as such, I am used to these blade dimensions for a two handed grip rather than a relatively short, one-handed. Mastering the one handed sword will be an interesting challenge and will likely be a part of later updates (once I've finished talking about sewing and scabbards).



Now, such a fine blade does need a scabbard, and rather than paying an arm and a leg for a scabbard (yet), I decided to try my hand at making my own, and today, I've been out hunting.

The bounty? Two 100x10cm pieces of plywood from a modelling and crafts- store, they're 1mm thick and probably intended for use as wings in model aircraft. However, after some cutting and some gauze-binding, this is what I've got thus far:



(More pictures at a later time)
Now, as you can see, it is a bit broad at the top, however, there's still some time before I bind it in leather, as such, I'll keep fiddling with the fit, tweaking it with a knife or a piece of sandpaper to try and slim it down so that it is not quite as wide. It is, however, incredibly slim and I am very happy with where this is going. I oiled up the insides of the plywood planks before I bound them together, and when I pull the blade, droplets of oil are all over it, which is the desired effect I would reckon?

I am probably gonna line the scabbard with some sort of cloth, wool if I get some leftovers, otherwise I'll be looking into linen, or possibly just the samethinn leather that I'll use to dress the whole thing with.


And the last picture of today, my coffer, with my chainmail to the lower right (still wrapped up nice, tight and oiled), the sword inscabbardd across the middle, and a bag of cloth at the bottom left.



The coffer will be refurbished properly (old lining torn out on the bottom and replaced with plastic bags for waterproofing in case of some sort of freak accident).

Now, the colours of the cloth in the bag:

A deep blue, not as clear as indigo, but not as saturated as the clothes of royals, wool, 1.5 metres
A saturated, dark brown, so as not to contrast the blue too much, 1.2 metres
And white, coarse linen, very thick and sturdy, 2 metres.

More updates to come, these next two weeks will be very hectic when it comes to making all of this.

[Josh Wilson]

Henrik,

You have the same project going on as I do. I just finished a medieval hood, and am making a pair of braies now. Once I finish those, I will make a laced scabbard for my hanwei/tinker norman sword, and then will sew together some tunics and chausses. Good luck. Looking forward to your pictures.

[Sebastian Pachmayr]

I'm also looking forward to seeing your progress Have you decided what you want to do with the pommel? I'm going to be working on a similar project, a little earlier period norman, going to be fun

[Henrik Granlid]

There have been progress.

Not the kind measured in pictures I'm afraid, I'll try to get some later this evening.

But, I have:

Washed the two sheets of wool cloth, they're drying and shrinking into proper size to be worked with.

I have cut down the scabbard a bit in width and rounded off the edge somewhat.

I have gotten leather reins to use as a sword belt, and I've been checking out the leatherstraps holding stirrups to use as dress-belts as well, and my father (chief blacksmith of the super-horse-place we live in) suggested he forge me a belt buckle of twined or twisted iron/steel.

I've also picked up two belt-hooks to suspend the scabbard in, leather in the same hue as the swordgrip to dress it in, and a blue, twined cord (made of wooden fibre, looks like silk, score) to tie around the scabbard and use for the suspension if the sword-belt plan fails. Do note that the blue cord is the same colour as my coming tabbard.

I'll see what I can do picture-wise, but people, progress! =D