And the scabbard is finished - dyed in black, covered twice with linseed oil and triple waxed

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WOW that looks great! Very elegant! Bravo!

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It just doesn't get any better than that... STUNNING work.

Thanks, guys!

It's only the belt, that's left to be done.
The buckles for it have 19 mm wide "eye"

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They are little too big, but these were the smallest buckles I was able to find.
The leather straps were cut - good and soft cowhide

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Using a "special" :cool: DIY attachment for my belt-grinder, I calibrated both straps to uniform thickness of 3 mm.
Before dying, I want to figure out the belt-pattern. Thus, I made an experiment, which lead me to this scheme with two buckles and two straps

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It's similar to this one

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from Julien M's thread "Gen2 Henry V upgrades" - http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...p;start=20

Of course, I need some more refinement and adjustments, but for now it works

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Not quite sure about the feeling I've got - personally had never carried a sword in such manner and for me it was absolutely new experience. But in anyway - I think it would work, of course after above-mentioned refinements and adjustments.

Boris - one comment: You are refining your carry rig in EXACTLY the right way. Unlike many others, you are actually putting it ON, and tweaking it to fit YOU. As good as anyone else's design is, it's going to be inferior to a custom fit to YOUR height, leg length, and general physiology - unless they have actually fitted you, in person.

People vary dramatically - there is no "one size fits all" rig. Your native insite continues to amaze me.

As you do this - may I suggest? Walk down a set of stairs (does the sword bang?).. Turn in a doorway. Crouch slightly to see if your scabbard drags on the ground. Make that thing adjust to YOU, rather than you adjusting to it.

The scabbarded sword with the blued fittings and the black scabbard looks as though it is supposed to be just as it is. The amount of black involved in this project and the plain-ish brown of the grip would, on paper, seem not to make the sword stand out much. Seeing it in pictures, it looks like a living thing, real and ready for use. Marvelous to see how it seems to bear an intrinsic sense of understated efficiency.

Well, as I want to dye the belt in "bordeaux" colour (this is the way we in Bulgaria call the wine-red colour, by analogy with the colour of the famous Bordeaux wine), I had some thoughts to dye the grip in such colour also.

Now this idea is almost discounted.
I think all colours achieved so far, and these that would come (the "bordeaux" of the belt and brass of the buckles) will create vivid and balanced coloured scheme - REAL, as Kai said in his previous post.

The belt fittings

* marked, cut and drilled

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** after some minor art-work done and the initial sanding

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Absolutely wonderful :). I, of course, am biased toward the eight pointed stars :).

This project is almost finished also.....

The leather straps for the belt - the colour is again extremely dark "bordeaux" (wine-red colour), due to combined effect of the oil and wax. The upper strap is for the forward knot/belt, whaile the bottom one - the rear.

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And closer to the "tongue" of the rear belt/knot, which will be the proper belt.

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The forward knot/belt - front and back. I think I did it well.

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And the rear knot/belt - front and back too.

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The buckles were riveted recently

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And with this the scabbard was finished also

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The belt wrapped around

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And the finished sword

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Some more

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And this project is already finished also.

I would like to thank to all forum-mates who encouraged and helped me during my work, especially Julien M and Dean F. Marino for their invaluable advise for the scabbard, and Sean Flynt whos own project ("Early 16th c. Longsword Project") made me post mine here.
Thanks a lot, guys!

Again, feel absolutely free to criticize me, especially on the technical issues.

I'll take you up on that one Mr. Bedrosov:

...I got nuthin'. The whole thing looks like some of the museum pieces I've seen of similar type. It's elegant and utterly utilitarian, with the beauty that comes from pure form, with no extra weight or unnecessary bits. It looks real, useful, and deadly. Not a princely piece, but something a man might use to defend and attack in war or in a duel.

That's a lot of words to try to describe how it looks, but it has that 'real' flavor to it that is so often lacking in reproductions; neither very rich and precisely made, not cheap and 'meh'. Made with skill but not for the richest guy.

It's quite nice :)

I must say, that while the sword is fantastic, what really impresses and inspires me the most is the scabbard work! And when I did not think it could be any better, the strapwork with buckle plates and strap-ends just brought it up another level!

Great build along! And beautiful outcome!
Thanks for posting!

Seems I missed the final chapter when this was published.

Technically your scabbard is top notch, and there is not much to criticize really (nice home made strap ends!) not to mention that you did the sword from scratch before that. There are not many non professional craftsmen who can complete such a project from scratch and end up with such a package. Bravo!

To be really really picky I would have chosen thinner straps (half an inch), they are often depicted on period art as being very narrow (they would fit between the two abdominal plates of an armour, just above the waist). I would also aim for more shallow raisers. I've changed in that regard, as the first scabbards I made all features very strong central ridges. After many conversations, I realized that such an emphasis on scabbard raisers are likely a modern concern...I don't see those so prominently featured in period art (nowadays, the blade fueller is often reproduced on with raisers, a trend that we owe to C Fletcher I believe). I'm not saying it's not the way to go or that it does not look great, I'm just moving away from it (though that might vary on the projects at hand. I'll post a scabbard I'll just wrap in a while on another thread, for the first time I went all plain, as I will focus on shape and metal parts (throat et.c).

Again, fantastic journey and great that you continue to take the time to thoroughly document all your endeavour here. You can bet I'll be reading these in the future.

Cheers,

J