myArmoury.com - Scabbard project for the Albion Next Gen Knight

Posts: 1,532 Location: Tennessee

Sat 22 Apr, 2006 8:09 am

Jeff,

I went through a series of trials for a 1st generation Crecey Grete. Be cautious about how tighly you attempt to make the mouth of the core fit around the fuller of the sword.

The 1st generation model was much thicker at the centerline of the blade where the fuller transitioned to a diamond profile (about 1 half down the length of the blade) than it was up where the fuller met the guard. This meant that the scabbard mouth could not fit very tightly around the blade fuller. Attempting to partially mirror a fuller shape at the mouth of the scabbard tended to result in binding when inserting the sword if insertion was not done with extreme care so as to go in straight.

A basic canoe shaped opening scabbard core worked much better for me. What ever you do, be sure to clamp the slats to togather and practice inserting and withdrawing the sword before you glue it up.

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Leo Todeschini

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Posts: 1,725 Location: Oxford, UK

Tue 24 Jun, 2008 1:05 am

Hi,

I just found this thread linked through from another-the power of myArmoury I guess is the ever widening circle of knowledge.

I would like to congratulate Aaron on a cracking looking scabbard and certainly enough to make more established scabbard makers nervous.

I have in the past had nasty experiences with PVA wood glue (the white stuff), if you smell it, you can smell a 'sharpness' to it that I have taken to mean it is acidic and the reason I started sniffing wood glue was because a sword scabbard I made was inexplicably making the sword rusty. Maybe it was a bad batch, or bad materials combination or whatever, but not a risk I was going to run again, so I now make all my scabbards with epoxy or hide glue.

Good luck

Tod

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Russ Ellis

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Posts: 2,608

Tue 24 Jun, 2008 6:35 am

Leo Todeschini wrote:

Hi,

I just found this thread linked through from another-the power of myArmoury I guess is the ever widening circle of knowledge.

I would like to congratulate Aaron on a cracking looking scabbard and certainly enough to make more established scabbard makers nervous.

I have in the past had nasty experiences with PVA wood glue (the white stuff), if you smell it, you can smell a 'sharpness' to it that I have taken to mean it is acidic and the reason I started sniffing wood glue was because a sword scabbard I made was inexplicably making the sword rusty. Maybe it was a bad batch, or bad materials combination or whatever, but not a risk I was going to run again, so I now make all my scabbards with epoxy or hide glue.

Good luck

Tod

Just as an aside Aaron, has since gone on to become Albion Armorers scabbard maker. As you say he does absolutely outstanding work, Albion recognized that fact and snapped him up!

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Leo Todeschini

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Posts: 1,725 Location: Oxford, UK

Tue 24 Jun, 2008 10:42 am

Thanks Russ
Apologies Aaron
I have a feeling I should have known that

Tod

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Christopher VaughnStrever

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Posts: 382 Location: San Antonio, TX

Tue 24 Jun, 2008 12:17 pm

I am curious and while every one is on the subject; I once heard (Or even made up myself... I don't remember from where) I once thought that the sound in movies of drawing a sword from the scabbard was actually made in history for the reason that every time the sword was placed and drawn from the scabbard the blade would be sharpened by the scabbard, is this another myth or is there any truth to this?

geeze I hope y'all can make sense of that question><

p.s. Nice work!

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Tue 24 Jun, 2008 1:47 pm

Christopher VaughnStrever wrote:

I am curious and while every one is on the subject; I once heard (Or even made up myself... I don't remember from where) I once thought that the sound in movies of drawing a sword from the scabbard was actually made in history for the reason that every time the sword was placed and drawn from the scabbard the blade would be sharpened by the scabbard, is this another myth or is there any truth to this?

geeze I hope y'all can make sense of that question><

p.s. Nice work!

Well the sound in the movies is usually added after and you get all sorts of ridiculous things like the sound of someone taking the safety off a revolver. :eek: :p

So don't base anything on what you saw or heard in a movie.

As far as a historical precedent for a scabbard sharpening a blade each time the sword is drawn of put back in is ZERO.
If anything one would try to make a scabbard that would not touch the edges as this " dulls " the blade every time the sword is taken out of the scabbard or just rattled inside the scabbard.

Designing a scabbard that would do this sharpening well and consistently as the edge of the blade wears down would be technically very difficult today even with our best technology and why would one want to ? Accelerated edge wear and an edge that is just taken out of a scabbard and put back in shouldn't need any sharpening unless the scabbard is actually dulling the blade. ( Oh, and depending on what a blade was used for resharpening isn't needed every time. )

This sort of " gimmick " sound like something one would see in a T.V. informercial about knives that never dull even after cutting bricks in half. ( Oh, even if this worked I wouldn't use it with a valuable sword or knife because I should decide when the edge needs sharpening and not have it done for me even if the edge is still sharp ).

Interesting question anyway: A lot of low quality information is out there because it sounds cool or is advertising hype or something based on " gamer pseudo historical instruction manuals " explaining the game play strength and weaknesses of different units in the game.

Hope this was helpful to you. :D :cool:

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Christopher VaughnStrever

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Posts: 382 Location: San Antonio, TX

Tue 24 Jun, 2008 2:21 pm

Extremly informative, thank you very much. Since I have stumbled onto this society I learn a different peice to a masssive puzzle^^

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Douglas S

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Posts: 177

Tue 24 Jun, 2008 3:50 pm

There are machete scabbards that sharpen the blade as it is drawn. Probably not really necessary for a sword.

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Nate C.

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Posts: 301 Location: Palo Alto, CA

Sat 28 Mar, 2009 11:23 pm

Jean Thibodeau wrote:

Well the sound in the movies is usually added after and you get all sorts of ridiculous things like the sound of someone taking the safety off a revolver. :eek: :p

So don't base anything on what you saw or heard in a movie.
...

Jean,

That is so very true. One of my favorite sword movie anecdotes relates to this sound question. According to cast interviews on "The Princess Bride", Christopher Guest (AKA the six fingered man AKA Count Rugen) actually had to stop himself from doing his own sound effects during the fight scenes :p .

That being said, my theory would be that some sound guy tried drawing a bayonet or civil war era saber from its STEEL scabbard, figured it was the right sound for all swords and it became the norm. After all, it just doesn't sound as heroic/sinister without the "sshhiiing!" of drawing the sword.

Cheers,

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