James;

I think Russ will be reading your suggestions as I will be giving him a lot of room for his creativity: I'm less set on specifics about the scabbard. My Tritonia scabbard does have a metal wolf's head and Russ said he had other possible metal decorations using the wolf as a theme.

With the guard I am not at the moment planning any inlays as I think engraved initials will make nice shadows while the bigger symbols on the pommel should look better flush with just the colour contrast of steel and copper. Maybe just a single line of copper inlay underlining the JT JT JT JT might give the design the unity you suggest ?

I don't want to overload the sword with fussy decoration though ! The scabbard may well repeat the initials as embossing in the leather.

I'm thinking more baldric than sword belt as that can be made ambidextrous more easily as I'm left handed: The scabbard would be primarily for left handed use but I like the option. Shield and sword for a left handed adapted carry is fine as my Mercenary's Taylor Kite shield is for use by the right hand. ( Allan gave me some strapping extensions so that I can adapt the shield for use by the left hand if needed. I see this mostly so as to not clash when in a group of righties. :p )

A sword or plaque belt might work with some secondary strap or hook to link the baldric to the plaque belt. Or the plaque belt could be used by itself and so could the baldric. ( Since I'm not fussing over historical authenticity I can opt for creative and practical solutions. )

All this is very early as far as the scabbard is concerned and Russ will only start in earnest when he has the sword to work with: There is lots of time here to mull over lots of possibilities before having to commit to something specific.

May not use them all but a few of your suggestions have already influenced the design positively. :D :cool:

Jean,

A single line of inlay would have the same effect, personaly I just like things to match, but it would definitely still look very nice without inlay on the guard. I wasn't even thinking of the contrasts and shadows that an engraving creates, but of course that will give the guard character of its own and inlay may not be needed(or wanted). :D
Perhaps inlay on the guard is being fussy with decoration, as you said, it would be a shame to overload a nice design...

I know what you mean about wanting a baldric so that it can be used with either hand, I too prefer to use my left for the sword and right for a shield, but then without a shield I will often use the sword in the right hand, :eek: :wtf:
It is always good to have the option! :D

-James

Edit: I looked through the whole post but I didn't see this mentioned, perhaps I missed it; will the pommel be threaded or peened?

Hello again! We've had some great movement on Jean's piece over the last week. And thanks again to one and all for reading along and commenting on the post as we work through this project. It's been great to read everyone's thoughts and see what everyone is thinking. I know that Jean really has appreciated everyone’s input.

Jean raised a specific question in his last post about our side of the story when a client changes his/her mind about a design. That is something that I would be more then happy to answer. It boils down to giving the client what they are looking for. It is important to Mark and I that our clients are involved in the design process and that we have their input because in the end it is their piece, their project. Our job is really to guild our clients though the design process in terms of what they are looking for and what is physically possible.

We ask questions, clarify, and try to understand what they are trying to accomplish with their design. It seems many of the designs we work on have classical or historic influences, but the client wants to take the piece in a slightly or even drastically different direction. Many times it comes down to one or two specific elements that are “the most” important (ie it has to balance 22” from the guard, or overall it has to be under 2lbs).

Once we are able to establish the important points it is a matter of tweaking the design to make those points happen. It can be as simple as adjusting the pommel design or material choices. More times then not we can met their requirements. It is important to have a vision of what the piece should look like, but there also needs to be some degree of flexibility so that it is possible to be physically made.

We have been very fortunate to be able to work with some great people and on some great designs. Jean’s piece has been going wonderfully and we are excited to be working on it!

Best,

Matt

If you do go with the inlay underlining i think it would look splendid!

I love the look of a peened pommel, it is more historic (depending on time period of course) and for some reason it just looks good to me :)

Thanks Matt for chiming in, it's great to hear your part of it!

-James

I've been reading along on this thread and it's quite exciting for me personally, especially considering three of my friends Jean, Mark and Matthew being involved, I've never had the pleasure to meet Jean in person "yet" but Jean has always had so many kind things to say to me and been so very supportive to me.
I had the great pleasure to meet Matthew and also the honor to meet Mark this past October at Shane Allee's "Knight of the Sword Plastic Jug slashing Event" which was a whole lot of fun :!:
In my opinion, Mark has a "Lion's Share of Talent"! What really strikes me most about Mark, is that for someone as so abundantly talented, he sure is a humble man :!: And that is an all to rare quality!

Jean, I just know your going to be blown away by what Matthew and Mark come up with for you! And I want to personally thank all three of you for sharing this with all of us, because I do very much enjoy reading the acquisitions of my colleagues and especially when it is something custom being done. Which in this case the sharing of information has been so elaborate that I kind of get a feeling of being part of it all in a way and that is rewarding to me!

This is going to be one handsome sword Jean, you must be extremely excited :!:

Bob

So here is where we are at on Jean's project. We’ve got details worked out on the design and are gathering information from the rendering looking for what materials will need to be special ordered. We have a good general sense of they will be as we are designing, but as the design changes so do our needs. The biggest thing for us on this piece is the steel. We generally stock 1/4" 1075 steel, but in this case will have to special order 3/8". The steel for the pommel and guard should come from our stock and shouldn’t need to be ordered. Same is true with the leather for the grip.

We'll be meeting on Saturday to go over the order from start to finish and see if there is anything else we either need to have ordered or any remaining questions for Jean. We’ll also be looking to set the schedule for this project as well.

Best,

Matt

This has been an extremely interesting thread to follow as I like to see how things are done. I can say I truly look forward to seeing how things come out with this sword. As a newbie in this whole field it has been extremely informative to follow the process so far.

Scott

You are correct in that I don't use a CNC machine. It's just me, a little bandsaw and my grinder. Oh yeah, and the steel. The grinding is all done freehand as well. I don't use any jigs or rests of any kind, which is what will make this project all the more fun. This is going to one big chunk of steel when it starts off.

I did a couple of blades for Shane that started with 3/8" stock. I want to say the profiled blade was something like 2" wide and maybe 30" overall, and the steel weighed in at a little over 5 lbs. I think it ended up at around 1 3/4 lbs.
http://www.ironagearmoury.com/la_tene_i.htm

I can't imagine how much Jean's piece is going to start off at. I'm sure I'll be getting a workout with it. I am looking forward to the challenge of it though.

How much of the process would everyone like to see? Like everything?

Mark

I know i am a total newbiy and unknown here. I for one would like to see the work in progress. It gives an idea of the amount of work that goes into creating a sword like this. Which is one thing tht I feel a lot of us have forgotten. It would be great if you could give us in progress pictures.

Thank you,
Scott

I think most of us would like to see everything that you can show us, I know I would! The entire process is pretty much foreign to me so I'd love to see it all.

Short Answer: Everything Please! :D

-James

Well, I am intrigued about how one starts those bevels, keeps them strait and catches any deviations ( errors ) early enough to get back on track without having to start over. ( Gulp :eek: )

I did make a few very crude knives ( Short swords actually ) years ago using a hand held angle grinder and I did get " bevel "
of sorts and it was wavy and rounded. Complex fullers using the edges of the angle grinder like a giant dremel using cutting wheels. This particular one was a steel version of a leaf blade. The fullers worked out roughly as intended but the symmetry on each side and the symmetry of each side compared was very so-so.

All this to say that a little taste of handgrinding at least gives me a LOT of admiration for those who have developed the needed control to get the results they intend. One has to do a lot by feel I would guess, because the side of the blade in contact with the grinding belts is basically away from you and you can only see what you just did after a cutting pass.
( Unless there is a better way that I don't know about ? One reason why we all are curious to see how it's done and what approach is used to prepare the work i.e. the attack strategy. )

Because this is handheld grinding a small degree of asymmetry is acceptable as it would be for a near perfect period sword.
I'm sure Mark's challenge to himself it to keep this as small as possible.

The weight of the steel should be an extra challenge. :eek:

Starting hollows isn't that big of a problem. You just have to be sure that you're not taking off more material than you can fix, in the event that you did make a mistake. It's really a good time to learn the subtleties of the blade, which comes in handy when you are cleaning up the and refining the hollows in subsequent grits. At that point, the margin of error gets increasingly narrow, so the more familiar you are with working on the blade, the better off you will be.

The majority of it is feel, but sight and sound are also integral in grinding. You can actually hear a difference if are about to or are making a mistake. Sometimes hollows can be shallow enough where the "feel" doesn't give you much information, and you have to rely on the sound of it.

Mark

Well, since people seem to be interested in seeing all parts of the process, here's a little update. The steel for the blade finally came in a short time ago. Using a template made from the full sized drawing, I marked the blade out on the slab of steel, first by scribing, and following that with marker. You're able to see the marker line easier when sawing it out, but it's not as accurate. The scribed line is for the final profiling of the blade on the grinder.

Sorry about the picture. It's a bit difficult to see the lines on the steel. The lines look pretty much like the edges of the template right next to it, so you can use your imaginations a little.

Mark

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Thats a big chunk of steel! It is going to be fun to watch a beautiful sword evolve from its base elements. I guess for me it is not only informative, it leads to dreams of my own custom project some day. I appreciate the time OlliN takes to post and keep us updated, and Jean for having cool projects in the works that we can share in :D

Nice wide tang as I like them. ;) Close to or slightly over an inch wide. Seeing things evolve almost step by step is also very educational and fun. :cool: