[Boris Bedrosov]

One of the items that recently occupied my time, was this custom scabbard.



The sabre itself is purely a re-enactment weapon, thus the customer's wish was for something relatively plain; the main effort was its historical correctness. This give me a chance to work without paying special attention on sanding, polishing and so, but to create an item literally "made by human hands". So, seeing all the flaws I made, just have in mind that much of them are intentional.

As the Cuman people influenced the history of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe for quite long time (from 11th to 14th C.), they left us an enormous cultural heritage, including vast number of artifacts of interest - scabbard and belt fittings. So, while researching, I had really great volume to choose from. Interestingly, this was also hard - almost as hard, as when working on something with quite limited information about.
Well, knowing customer's main period, I limited my effort to middle of 14th C. on the lands of modern-day Middle and Western Ukraine.
The main motiff of the decoration is a herring-bone pattern from actual artifact (the greenish plate right from the center)



It was used on each bronze plate of the belt, just applied with different working techniques.





The repousee of the buckle and tongue plates was particular interesting for me. Anyway, it was easier than I anticipated.

[Boris Bedrosov]

Of particular interest (at least for me) was the method for securing the rings for the carrying straps to the brackets of the scabbard - by riveting and is shown in the first volume of Anatoliy Kirpichnikov's book "Drevneruskoe oruzhie" ("Old-russian Weaponry").






For some more pictures not included in two posts, check Custom Scabbards album on my FB page.