Thank you very much for your kind words, gentlemen!

I must confess that with this sword, I also became a fan of katzbalgers. As it is, I already have blueprints for the next one almost ready in my mind...

Also, I have to point out that this one is still looking for a home...

Now that I finally got the sword & scabbard ready, I must say that despite the amount of work involved in the process, this one was a fun thing to do. All the forging & filing, I quite enjoyed it all. The only thing I didn't like was the tight timetable - as always, I had cut it too fine before the Solingen show...

JT

Nathan Robinson wrote

Quote:

What a beautiful sword! I can only suggest one thing to improve it. it would look even better in my hand.

Without being too picky I have to say that you are completely wrong about this. I have given the matter some thought and can only say that only a fool would think such a thing.

Clearly the hand it should be in is mine.

Stunning in every respect.

On a separate point though; was a wholly leather scabbard usual for katzbalgers or don't we know or was this a personal choice?

Tod

Thank you Tod, that coming from an another maker is quite a compliment...

Still at this point, the hilt is still free for any hand to grasp...!

Of the scabbard: It is purely a personal choice, over the years I have developed a serious aversion to swordblade-sized wooden liners. With puukko-sized pieces, I've no problem carving a liner, but with bigger ones, I seem to have no patience with.
Hence, I make my scabbards the way I do, and dang the historical correctness!
Besides, these scabbards take the dings and bangs of life quite well and instead of saying "crack" when bent, they just bend without any damage done.

JT

Öh, this picture should have been posted with the previous post, but here it is now.
This shows something of the sturdiness-factor of the all-leather scabbard...

JT

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I believe this is the finest katzbalger I've ever seen. Truly breathtaking, sir. For the guard/quillons, at what stage of the process do you bend the quillons? Does that come at the very end?

Thank you very much Brian!

The quillons are bent (with the help of acetylene torch) after the filework is finished - and after that you do the finish again, in order to get rid of the scale...

Here's two pictures of the process that I remembered to take while working...

JT
(from roasting hot smithy in Suomenlinna)

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Okay, that's what I thought, thanks for the pictures. Did you then hot/fire blue them?

Argh. Every time this topic is bumped to the top I'm reminded how much I'd love to own this piece. Dammit.

Brian: Trying not to go too much into technical, but here goes: the parts are first chemically blued, then heated up and oiled, finally "bleached" with fine grit sanding paper & steel wool.

Nathan: I'm so sorry. Btw. the sword is still up for grabs...

JT

I had not seen this thread before.

Fantastically beautiful. The finish on the fittings is just lovely. I think this is a object lesson in function becomes art