Have you thought about trying to do gilding, as on the Bayerisches sword? Or, perhaps something painted/enamelled, engraved. It could make that pommel look really interesting!
The leather work looks quite good, I look forward to seeing this sword done.

Best,

Hadrian

Julien, Great stuff as always. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

Just out of interest, what kind of cord did you use for the underwrap on the grip?

Ok - Tried another approach, and this one might just work for this shallow leather (see tooling at the bottom of the picture).

Unfortunately this is a piece of scrap leather, things for me are always harder on the real piece, the hand tends to be less assured.
I'll start from scratch with that technique, I think it captures details well, even on this leather and fits historical sources.

a very good job, really. this "dotting" creates nice, contrasting background.
Julien, the tools you are using for drawing the lines are also from a bone, or are they steel / brass / something else?

Hi Radovan,

I draw the lines with an empty ball pen. I try not to use the bone folder too much. Though it works great to push down leather, it gives a "saddler" effect that I don't like. Once I have my main lines down, I cut the shape, very superficially. Two passes on that leather is enough to mess it up. This is rather stressful considering the time it takes :)

other tools are mostly clay forming stuff, wooden, metal. I have cut sticks of bones. I will tool them with a dremel for stamping work, should be hard enough to create deep enough impressions.

Do you have a swivel knife to carve the leather? I think that carving would help with the crispness, rather than just relying on compression. Compression only gives rounded shapes which has a softer appearance. You mentioned "cutting the shape" and was curious what you used to do that.


When I was learning leatherwork so many years ago, I found these useful. They are basic but might be of interest to the reader of topics like this:

https://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/books-patterns/66056-00.aspx
https://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/books-patterns/6047-00.aspx
https://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/books-patterns/6009-00.aspx

And here is a nice little tutorial:

http://www.onestopcandle.com/leather/carveinstr01.php

Having said this, I have no idea what would give the correct impression for the period.

Thanks for the links Nathan. Yep, got a one of these swivel things. I works great on thicker leather, once you get around using these.

You're quiet right, I realised that I needed the cut too to further outline the design. I do it with a flat awl blade, mounted on a pen.
Do you think the design is still shallow? I'm quiet happy with it now (below). I think it will look right once the all grip will be tooled like that.

Posting pictures here actually really helps to see what you otherwise would not...I can see that I need to further emphasise the branch. Small steps, and one at the time (time consuming stuff!).

Very nice work looking forward to seeing the final result. ..

That's looking fantastic, Julien. Great job.

Some progress...(yeah, it is very slow). I have to keep focused as I am now impatient to dye the piece, that's the perfect recipe for a mistake.

I shaped tools to emboss the leather in a similar fashion that on the Munich.
Very quick job on the sander. These are screwdriver bits that come with furniture, we all have some lying around the house. They will shape quickly and leave a much more defined stamp than bone. I also tried shaping some with epoxy putty but it does not work at all (details crumble after a few stamps in contact with the damp leather).

That looks fantastic. Your eye for these small but important details is very inspiring. keep up the great work.

One side done. This is not glued so the placement looks awkward in places as the leather isn't pressed down around the raisers etc. but everything should line up nicely once permanently glued on the grip. I won't be in a hurry to undertake such carving work again anytime soon - it's rather tedious work...on this leather anyway.

Got a third of the other side down. Will then stitch on both sides on the grip in the coming days...and at last, apply dye.
Then harden the rain guard, decorate, and stitch to the grip.

Glue is setting...which means I will be able to dye the grip in a few hours and see if the carving stands out properly....that's my favorite part in any leather projects.

I had to give up the stitching on both sides, as the damp leather soften by the glue was torn by the needle and thread. I will still decorate the seams with dots, to pretend there is one :)

And dyed...Temptation was great to go black. Overworked areas of the leather always come out looking "burned" and look darker.
I will find some finishing product to go around that, or will dye it black. I kind of like this shade of brown though.

Very impressive and bold! I just picked up some good leather for a dagger scabbard. I was planning to follow your lead on that project but initial tests make me feel weak and ignorant. :lol: Might stick to stamping so I don't embarrass myself too badly.

That's looking fantastic!

That is a VERY intricate, and well executed grip. I wish my skills at carving were half as good as yours. I would not give up on stitching yet - look again after a day or so, after the leather has DRIED. You may find that the "wet leather tissue paper" effect has taken care of itself :).

Thanks guys!

Sean Flynt wrote:

initial tests make me feel weak and ignorant. :lol: Might stick to stamping so I don't embarrass myself too badly.

Nonsense Sean! You just need tools you feel comfortable with (and for me anything goes (wooden clay tools, steel dentist tools, swivel, awl, you name it)- the rest is more a matter of time an patience rather than skill (at least for such foral patterns - just long and sometimes tedious work (here both sides of the grip are carved, quiet a lot of surface to detail, with an almost identical pattern (though no template was used), I was planning to carve the sides like on the Munich but got lazy :)). The cut is always rough (you then look at your piece and think: this looks ridiculous), but with a bit of moulding you smooth stuff out, and refine it all. Simple carved patterns, push down the background. Done. Don't fuss around on details too much, you can easily damage the leather. The quicker the better. In fact I stretched the first quarter of the grip carving over days, not adding much. The rest was done much more quickly, and in the end it looks better. Quality leather is again key. This is the last time I'm using this one for carving purposes (the same you have). For the time I invested on this grip, a high quality veg tan, slightly thicker would have likely yielded more definition and a much better finish, I think. But I'm happy with it now, and with finishing product (beeswax etc) it will look the part, but I still feel I'm complicating my life needlessly by not spending a few dollars on a decent hide.

Ok sorting the dye issue was easy. Just went on with another pass undiluted and it smoothed out the darker areas.



side view, showing the seam - that I could not stitch and that's too bad as it looked damn good for the 2 cm I managed to do it for before tearing a few points and remove it.



I have plenty of room at the bottom of the grip to play around with the rain guard attachment. I'm planning to mimic the shape of the scallop, extending down on the rain guard.

Quick shot of the full sword with all bits on.

Really nice work Julien! I like the choice of brown too, I think it shows the tooling better than balck anyway, doesn't it? Really looking forward to see the rain guard attached and the whole thing finished! Great work!