DIY: Short 16th cent. Swiss sword -- myArmoury.com

Radovan Geist

I´ve started to work on the blades I´ve made last autumn ( http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=29410 ). They were all sent to a professional company for normalization, hardening and tempering, and I´ve received them back last week.
So, the first one is a short 16th century Swiss sword - at least I thought so, as it comes with a story. I was very intrigued by a piece I´d found on one online auction (pic.). I like the simple functional design of these swords and an unusually broad, short blade made it even more interesting. I could not find more info on it, beside a blade length, so I calculated it from the picture as much as I could.
Now, after finishing the blade in the autumn, i´ve found exactly the same sword on another auction (this time it was Hermann Historica), with the description saying that it is "in the style of 16th cent. Swiss sword"... Well, I tend to believe descriptions on HH, so now I knew that "my sword" is probably a replica (19th cent.?). However, I still liked it and as it was not completely off-mark for a proper period weapon, I´ve decided to continue with the project.

Radovan Geist · Posted: Mon 10 Feb, 2014 1:18 am Post subject:

Now, for the project itself:
The blade was cut from a spring steel, 6.5 cm in width, 58 cm in length overall, with 45 cm for blade itself. I´ve decided not to use the flat diamond cross-section, but a lenticular one (I did it purely as my personal preference, plus lenticular profile has been used on historical pieces). It is 5 mm thick close to the hilt, thinning down to some 3 mm in the last third. It is made blunt as it will be used for stage-fencing. At that point it weighted slightly above 500 g (picture 1 - the longer blade)

When I received it from heat-treatment, it had some dents from hammer. I´ve removed them on a belt-grinder, working super-slow and cooling the blade regularly, and then polished it with send-papers. I´ve managed to remove most of those marks, except for a handful of deeper ones near the hilt. Now the weight has lost some 50g (picture 2).

With the blade nearly finished (it will be polished further before the final assembly), I started to work on the cross-guard. It was cut from an old piece of soft steel and bended to a crescent shape (picture 3).

I drilled a hole for the tang and enlarged it with files (picture 4), and filed a recess for a handle (picture 5). Then the crossguard was cleaned on the belt grinder and fitted to the blade (picture 6).

Next came the handle. I had a piece of wood I always wanted to use on this project - it was a piece from some 50 years old plank. Originally it formed a deck of a barn in our old house. The plank was nearly all rotten, except for some 30 cm in the middle, which I kept when I was reconstructing the house two years back. I have no clue what type of wood it is, but it has an interesting deep-orange/red colour, and it is very hard (picture 7).

With a hand-saw, I´ve cut a plank of it, and marked the future handle (picture 8). Then I drilled the hole for the tang, cleaned it with rasp, rough-shaped the handle and fitted it to the blade. I´ve also made a thin spacer from a copper sheet, as it could be often seen on swords from that period (picture 9).

Next steps: a pommel sheet, lots of shaping and cleaning on the handle, polishing, and the final assembly.
As always, I´m very interested in your comments, remarks, advices...

Radovan Geist · Posted: Mon 10 Feb, 2014 1:19 am Post subject:

...and the last picture which was not added to the previous post.

Radovan Geist · Posted: Sun 23 Feb, 2014 11:35 pm Post subject:

I´ve managed to find few hours to work on my projects, so here are some progress pictures.
First, the original handle cracked:( I was really pissed because I did not have enough wood left from the piece I wanted to use, so I had to make a new one from another wood. I took a nice piece of dry oak and shaped a new handle (Pic.1).

Next came the chape at the end of the handle: I have cut a strip of 4mm thick mild steel, drilled the hole for a tang and bent it to shape (Pic. 2). Then it was gridded to lenticular shape, polished, and two additional holes were drilled for securing rivets (pic. 3).

So, that´s as far as I got for now. If things go well, I shall finish it in a week or two.

Radovan Geist · Posted: Sun 06 Apr, 2014 10:59 pm Post subject:

this weekend i´ve managed to put everything together, clean it and peen the "pommel". Here is it, so the only thing missing is the scabbard. Any ideas about a proper suspension method? I´ll check some period artwork, but any advice would be really appreciated.

Shahril Dzulkifli · Posted: Sun 27 Apr, 2014 6:57 am Post subject: DIY: Short 16th cent. Swiss sword

What a nice sword! Big Grin

Radovan Geist · Posted: Sun 27 Jul, 2014 10:56 pm Post subject:

I did not have much time to spend in my workshop lately, but I have used that little I had on finishing some older projects, working mostly on scabbards, final polishing, etc. Here is the scabbard I´ve made for a short Swiss sword. At the end, I did cnot want anything very elaborate, so I went for a simple wooden core scabbard, covered with black leather, with some simple linear risers.
Now, this project is closed:)