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Rob Miller
Industry Professional
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 Posted: Sat 31 Mar, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject: Castle Keep-the Ballinderry Sword |
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i have just completed this reproduction of the Ballinderry find,silver plated fittings with sterling silver wire inlays,exact reproduction of the ulfberht inscription,masur birch and whalebone grip.
Ballinderry sword Specs
Blade Length 31 1/8"
Tang length 5 1/2"
Weight 3Lb 7oz
Point of Balance 6.5"
Width 2 3/8" at cross
1 1/2" at 6" from tip
thickness 5.2mm- 4.5mm at 3" from tip
big blade,devastating.
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Sat 31 Mar, 2007 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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Are your lights directed at the piece or away from it. Several of the shots seem to have some glare that obscures some detail of the piece. Its interesting regardless, I like the whale bone. Is it hard to come by?
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Rob Miller
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Sun 01 Apr, 2007 1:43 am Post subject: |
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Joe,i just use natural light for the pictures,and a 4megapix camera,i do have other shots if there is something you are unclear about.Whalebone is particularily hard to come by,the Whales seem very reluctant to hand it over  I have got some on occasions from Kayaking around the Coast of the Island,old carcasses can be found.
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Steve Grisetti
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| Posted: Sun 01 Apr, 2007 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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Your Ballinderry repro is a beauty, Rob. The pommel appears to be constructed of two pieces - is it so?
Have you considered trying to create a blade with iron inlay?
"...dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skilful, and deadly."
- Sir Toby Belch
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Sun 01 Apr, 2007 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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Perhaps some different shots of the tip/last 3rd of the blade.
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Jared Smith
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| Posted: Sun 01 Apr, 2007 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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I am curious about the inlay on the blade (looks great by the way!) Did you twist wire and hot forge it into the blade? I would have expected the original to have been a pattern welded blade, but can understand not wanting to take the project that far even if the original was....
Absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence!
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Jean Le-Palud
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| Posted: Sun 01 Apr, 2007 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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Jared,
Following Ian Peirce's book "Swords Of The Viking Age" the blade of the Ballinderry sword was NOT pattern-welded...
The exact sentence being : "The blade does not otherwise appear to be pattern-welded."
In fact Ulfberht blades are so usually not pattern-welded that Patrick Barta wrote me about a pattern-welded Ulfberth sword found at Olomouc as something totally unusual.
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Rob Miller
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Mon 02 Apr, 2007 12:15 am Post subject: |
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| Steve Grisetti wrote: | Your Ballinderry repro is a beauty, Rob. The pommel appears to be constructed of two pieces - is it so?
Have you considered trying to create a blade with iron inlay? |
Hi Steve.As you can tell,the Ulfberht and IIXXXII are etched into the blade,Jean had asked me to forge weld them in,but i was really not comfortable with that idea in a mono steel blade.With a pattern welded piece it is a lot easier,but still something that would pose some problems,another instance of having to take ones hat off to the original Smith.
The Pommel is two part with rivets and wire added after the silverwork,it may take a while to work out how that was achieved with a silver finish.
I also attach a pic of the waxes in the early part of the project,to give you an idea of the size of the tang and the fit.the tang is also peened over.
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Rob Miller
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Tue 03 Apr, 2007 1:11 am Post subject: |
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| Joe Fults wrote: | | Perhaps some different shots of the tip/last 3rd of the blade. |
Joe,i have clipped one of the larger pics to give some idea,hope this helps a bit.
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[ Download ]
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Tim Lison
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| Posted: Sun 08 Apr, 2007 8:39 pm Post subject: |
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Rob-
Great work! The grip looks excellent with the whalebone. A very subtle touch. I'm curious; why was the "wire" cast around the bottom part of the pommel but inlaid on the upper part? Wouldn't it have been more accurate to inlay the bottom part as well? Mind you, I still LOVE this sword.....
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Peter Johnsson
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Sun 08 Apr, 2007 11:36 pm Post subject: |
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Beautiful work Rob!
Glad to see it: always insiring to see inspired work like this.
Thanks for showing.
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Rob Miller
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Mon 09 Apr, 2007 12:55 am Post subject: |
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| Tim Lison wrote: | Rob-
Great work! The grip looks excellent with the whalebone. A very subtle touch. I'm curious; why was the "wire" cast around the bottom part of the pommel but inlaid on the upper part? Wouldn't it have been more accurate to inlay the bottom part as well? Mind you, I still LOVE this sword..... |
Thanks Tim,
I was trying to get a match to the silver on the Kilmainham sword,which looks worn and flattened,like one piece of silver rather than two or three,i thought that it would look better carved,i am attaching a pic to show what i mean.
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Rob Miller
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Mon 09 Apr, 2007 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| Peter Johnsson wrote: | Beautiful work Rob!
Glad to see it: always insiring to see inspired work like this.
Thanks for showing.
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Thank you Peter,
it was an enjoyble project,a big brute,but the actual balance point ended up a little less than the original in the end.I wanted to show some pictures of the original inlay with the etched version to illustrate that it is also fairly close.
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