Ye Olde Englishe Machette
- Thread starter tombear
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Cheers folk, the encouragement is appreciated.
The calf skins still drying, I'm letting it happen at a cool room temp rather than sticking it on a radiator as is my want. In the meantime I've bashed on with the narrow baldric / sling , I'm not very good with the tiny copper rivets but can live with them. I've applied a tiny bit of decoration, none would have looked odd. The Daegrad leather stamps work well. When the stamped areas are dry I can start rubbing the edges ( looking at the York finds I can't see any chamfering or other treatment of edges ).
With a scrap of the calfskin i'll make a little roll for the stamps,
More when there's owt to show!
atb
Tom
The calf skins still drying, I'm letting it happen at a cool room temp rather than sticking it on a radiator as is my want. In the meantime I've bashed on with the narrow baldric / sling , I'm not very good with the tiny copper rivets but can live with them. I've applied a tiny bit of decoration, none would have looked odd. The Daegrad leather stamps work well. When the stamped areas are dry I can start rubbing the edges ( looking at the York finds I can't see any chamfering or other treatment of edges ).
With a scrap of the calfskin i'll make a little roll for the stamps,
More when there's owt to show!
atb
Tom
PS one thing I need to do is make up the leather dressing. Ill probably base it on the beeswax/ tallow / pine resin stuff I have already, maybe add more resin? It would be aesthetically pleasing to me if, without dyeing, I could darken the leather a bit, like after repeated applications of dressing and use over several years.
Yes I am a tart, I know.
ATB
Tom
Yes I am a tart, I know.
ATB
Tom
Neetsfoot darkens it easily Tom - plenty of other leather dressing recipes out there based on tallow, beeswax etc. A Propolis dissolved in a VOC base with some beeswax would give a stunning finish - stradivarius made a varnish from it for his fiddles. It would cost a fortune to buy - but you do happen to know a beekeeper 
Hi Red,
i had to look up VOC as I'm more familiar win it being the Dutch East India Company! Would real turps be volatile enough? How much do you reckon I'd need to do the job properly?
Reading up on it, have you ever used it on cuts and abrasions?
The pipes are starting to creak (actually a ticking noise) so the heating must be coming on which means the kids will be back from school any minute. Better get their tea on!
Cheers!
Tom
i had to look up VOC as I'm more familiar win it being the Dutch East India Company! Would real turps be volatile enough? How much do you reckon I'd need to do the job properly?
Reading up on it, have you ever used it on cuts and abrasions?
The pipes are starting to creak (actually a ticking noise) so the heating must be coming on which means the kids will be back from school any minute. Better get their tea on!
Cheers!
Tom
In the end to get it finished and not mess anyone around I used the leather dressing I had already made, over the next few weeks ill apply a lot more and it will darken off some.
its far from perfect but I'm happy with it.
Thanks for all the help !
ATB
Tom
its far from perfect but I'm happy with it.
Thanks for all the help !
ATB
Tom
Thanks for the kind words!
Sorry it dragged on, if I had got the materials first it could have been done in a week of spare time. But since my life doesn't work out like that.....
Just need to wax it some more and get more lanolin into the sheepskin.
The part about the wooden scales and sheepskin lining can of course be scaled down for any large knife.
Cheers!
Tom
Sorry it dragged on, if I had got the materials first it could have been done in a week of spare time. But since my life doesn't work out like that.....
Just need to wax it some more and get more lanolin into the sheepskin.
The part about the wooden scales and sheepskin lining can of course be scaled down for any large knife.
Cheers!
Tom
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Well, the lanolin went on easier than I thought, I mixed equal parts of it and the isopropyl alchahol and gave it a prolonged shake, I dare say it would have dissolved faster had heat been applied But I was watching the repeat of the first Sharpe film and was being lazy.
In the end I just applied it to the blade and pulled it in and out and repeated that until I was happy. Of course there's more at the mouth and it has soaked out of the stitching there but it just adds character...
I'm leaving the blade in the practice, Roman period Germanic sheath while the isopropyl evaporates away and have applied another coat of the leather dressing to both scabbards. The left over mixed gloop ill save to reapply to the blade should it ever need it.
atb
Tom
In the end I just applied it to the blade and pulled it in and out and repeated that until I was happy. Of course there's more at the mouth and it has soaked out of the stitching there but it just adds character...
I'm leaving the blade in the practice, Roman period Germanic sheath while the isopropyl evaporates away and have applied another coat of the leather dressing to both scabbards. The left over mixed gloop ill save to reapply to the blade should it ever need it.
atb
Tom
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thanks again! i found a real camera so heres a pic to show the lanolin seeping from the mouth seam. It may dry the same colout as the tallow and bees wax anyway. No matter. I need to reread the texts to see if 9th C swords still had the "healing" stones/ sword stones or if that was pagan thing and find out more about the cloth bindings around the mouths which from my first readings seem to have replaced the metal bindings of earlier. Then I'll have to see if i can score a short length of natural dyed tablet woven tape.
Both scabbards have now had two coats of dressing.
ATB
Tom
[
Both scabbards have now had two coats of dressing.
ATB
Tom
[
Ta! Shame you can't see the carved ash scales which were th best made bit of it. The Saxon sheath is just for show but the other I intend to use, if there's ever a situation re chopping stuff, that requires a 20 inch blade. Truth be said I've rarely neaded the Golock I acquired or the smegging great Lofty Wiseman Oakwood thing Herself bought me when we were courting. Now that really was a surprise present!
We are waiting on a 14 to 16 inch broken back seax for the lad but that's going to be a pure reenactment piece, live still but just for show, I will have to make a sheath forit . Ill probably just do a simple fold over leather job with sheepskin lining the blade section. Once that's done I can use the left over 3mm veg tan for my own nefarious perposes!
ATB
Tom
We are waiting on a 14 to 16 inch broken back seax for the lad but that's going to be a pure reenactment piece, live still but just for show, I will have to make a sheath forit . Ill probably just do a simple fold over leather job with sheepskin lining the blade section. Once that's done I can use the left over 3mm veg tan for my own nefarious perposes!
ATB
Tom
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By the time we put on the fourth coat of wax and tallow the isopropyl alcohol had evaporated away and the dark stain has disappeared.
To make sure the lanolin has got all the way down I used this trick. I took a length of 1/8th ally tube from my stock of aeromodelling bits and used it a very long dropper. I tilted the gloop as I inserted the tube to get the greatest length of liquid in the tube, sealed the top end with a finger tip, stuck the tube inside the scabbard to the point I wanted the lanolin to go and released the seal. It worked a treat! Very obvious I know but I'd not transferred a liquid like that since chemistry at school back in about '84.
Not being au fait with rocks etc short of trawling the beach at Whitby and being run off by the locals what's the cheapest way of getting a relatively large chunk of raw amber? I'm taking about the size of a 2 pence piece, maybe twice as thick. Herself would take a very dim view of my raiding the worked stuff I got for her! I'd like to make a big bead/button/toggle to use with a peace cord/strap.
incidentally, further reading has led me to believe I could have made my life easier by not going to the trouble of making what was really a inner sheath of the sheepskin liner but should have simply cut out two outlines of the blade, remembering to flip the blade so there would be left and right pieces and simply glued them to the relevant sides before glueing the two scales together. In one excavated example the sheepskin didn't even come to the edge of the hollow where the blade fits into the scale so the pieces glued in must have been 5mm or so smaller than the blade all away around except at the mouth end where it was still long enough to be sewn to the outer.
Some illustrations show the sword very high up on the left hand side of the wearers body, almost to the ampit. My own preference was to have it at waist height.
Now it's done I better put a proper edge on the thing. Ill use the axe puck thing I was recommended and finish it with a copy of a Norse pocket sized hone I have, made from the same stuff as they were shipping out of of Norway back in the day.
ATB
TOM
To make sure the lanolin has got all the way down I used this trick. I took a length of 1/8th ally tube from my stock of aeromodelling bits and used it a very long dropper. I tilted the gloop as I inserted the tube to get the greatest length of liquid in the tube, sealed the top end with a finger tip, stuck the tube inside the scabbard to the point I wanted the lanolin to go and released the seal. It worked a treat! Very obvious I know but I'd not transferred a liquid like that since chemistry at school back in about '84.
Not being au fait with rocks etc short of trawling the beach at Whitby and being run off by the locals what's the cheapest way of getting a relatively large chunk of raw amber? I'm taking about the size of a 2 pence piece, maybe twice as thick. Herself would take a very dim view of my raiding the worked stuff I got for her! I'd like to make a big bead/button/toggle to use with a peace cord/strap.
incidentally, further reading has led me to believe I could have made my life easier by not going to the trouble of making what was really a inner sheath of the sheepskin liner but should have simply cut out two outlines of the blade, remembering to flip the blade so there would be left and right pieces and simply glued them to the relevant sides before glueing the two scales together. In one excavated example the sheepskin didn't even come to the edge of the hollow where the blade fits into the scale so the pieces glued in must have been 5mm or so smaller than the blade all away around except at the mouth end where it was still long enough to be sewn to the outer.
Some illustrations show the sword very high up on the left hand side of the wearers body, almost to the ampit. My own preference was to have it at waist height.
Now it's done I better put a proper edge on the thing. Ill use the axe puck thing I was recommended and finish it with a copy of a Norse pocket sized hone I have, made from the same stuff as they were shipping out of of Norway back in the day.
ATB
TOM
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