A bit of several handicrafts - Bronze Sword with a leather scabbard/sheath.

[bobnewboy]

Hi All,

I havent had too much time to work on this for quite a while, but I recently got the all leather sword sheath (OK, scabbard ) done after some inspiration from Hamish's work. Hence this post. My original scabbard was going to be a wooden cored, wet moulded leather job, but that isnt yet finished. I have done the wooden part and it is a nice fit, but not the leather covering etc yet. It will come, in time.

I have had a long term hankering to make something complex, which required some varied craft work, such that I could make every single piece of the item myself. After reading quite a lot about them, I decided on a Ewart Park leaf style bronze sword. There is something very natural and sinuous about the shape that just kept me coming back to it. I am no swordsman, but the sword seems to have a nice balance to it. It is not a user - it is only mildly sharp and has no hammered edges, but even so I dont think I would want to be caught round the ear with it!

I cast the sword blade on a Will Lord bronze casting course. Before the prices went up....It was a great long weekend, plenty of hard and dirty work, but there is something about the whole fire and metal thing. I guess I dont need to explain to you lot. The most magical part was when the bronze is flickering in the retort at the correct rate which is telling you it is hot enough, and then pouring the molten metal. That is quite someting.

When I got the blade home I spent some time cleaning the casting up further and then polishing as best I could. Bronze is HARD to work with. After some further research I decided to make the handle scales from hard maple, attached with some glue and rivetted on. Drilling the rivet holes and hammering the rivets were two extremely (!) nervous jobs.

Here is a picture of the sword straight out of the cast, next to the model

Here is a shot of the sword after the polishing:

Here is the finished sword in the leather scabbard. Note the over-the-top pommel made from zebrano. It and the maple scales were oiled. It has a nice chatoyance when rolled around in sunlight. I just couldnt help myself.

There are more pictures and some videos on my active (second) Flickr link below if anyone wants to see more. I will post again when the wood/leather scabbard is done.

Cheers, Bob

 

[forrestdweller]

were bronze swords meant for cutting as well or more as stabbing weapons?! (not that im planning to get or use one--just curious....)

 

[Monikieman]

really impressive. Looks superb.

 

[boatman]

were bronze swords meant for cutting as well or more as stabbing weapons?! (not that im planning to get or use one--just curious....)

The wide blades suggest cutting but a thrust would also do damage. The "carp's tongue" bronze swords may have tried to combine the best of thrusting and cutting.

This is not me just an interesting blog about them https://bronzeageswords.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/i-am-working-on-a-carps-tongue-sword/

The dirks/rapiers in bronze were assumed to be more for thrusting but this is simplistic and efforts are being made to work out the way they were used in fights in the Bronze Age.

 

[cleargreenlight]

Marvellous!

 

[Dreadhead]

Cracking job mate, really nice work on the handle especially looks braw

 

[John Fenna]

Very nice!
I would love to have a go at that kind of thing

 

[richardhomer]

Cracking job mate.

 

[crosslandkelly]

The sword and scabbard look fantastic, great work.

 

[mrcharly]

lovelly work and the polish is pure bling

 

[Paulm]

Lovely work Bob, very special and a treat to see.

Cheers, Paul

 

[HillBill]

Swords were generally for both, and the egyptians had bronze swords that were pure slashers.

Bronze is hardened to hold an edge through hammer work, originally they were cast, probably with fairly flat edges and then the edge was hammered into being, which hardened it at the same time.

were bronze swords meant for cutting as well or more as stabbing weapons?! (not that im planning to get or use one--just curious....)

 

[forrestdweller]

The wide blades suggest cutting but a thrust would also do damage. The "carp's tongue" bronze swords may have tried to combine the best of thrusting and cutting.

makes sense....

how common were bronze swords- have they been carried by all warriors or mainly by the upper classes?! I remember reading somewhere that battle axes were more common....(might be wrong or outdated)

 

[HillBill]

Egyptian, and Greek empires were forged using bronze swords /weapons..... as well as plenty others. All had swords of one description or another. Most were short though as bronze wasn't the toughest material.

Nice work on the sword btw. Looks great finished.

 

[bobnewboy]

Hi All, thanks for all the comments. Its nice to have finally finished it in one form or another.

As I understood it, at the time the swords were made, bronze was a much harder and longer lasting edge than the poor low-carbon steel blades that were becoming available. Considering the number of archaeological finds, it seems that bronze swords of various types were widely used over a long time period. Or maybe bronze just lasts a lot better in the ground? Eventually steel became much improved in quality and much more commonly made, so it became the weapons material of choice.

I gather that the toughness/resilience of bronze has a directly inverse correlation with the amount of added tin. That is, the more tin included in the bronze mix, the harder but less tough / more brittle the bronze would become. Evidently the ancient Chinese were well aware of this, and the tens of thousands of arrow heads found at the 'Terracotta Army' were found to be advanced two-part castings. The inner casting - the tang for the arrow heads, which fitted into the bamboo shafts of the arrows - had a lowish tin content, and could withstand the impacts of hitting hard objects without breaking. The outer casting of the actual point was made from bronze with a higher percentage of tin to give good cutting and penetration performance. Amazing technology really, but nothing produces material advances as well as war - human nature

 

[Dean]

Thank you for sharing your project with us.

 

[Dave]

Cracking job.

 

[Robson Valley]

Looks like the Bronze Age is alive and well.
Beautiful design come to life.

 

[Cromm]

Lovely jubbly.

 

[dwardo]

Beautiful thing that. More pictures please.