[OT] Sword Handles

[gzornenplat]

I apologise if this isn't a valid subject for here, but I feel sure that the skills of the people here would be really useful for me and a couple of friends.

I won't go into too much detail in case this thread gets deleted right from the start, but here's what I'd be really pleased to get some feedback on.

Three friends and I are going to Butser Hill on a one-day bronze age sword course. There are no places left, so this isn't in any way a promo Not only that, we have two reserves for dropouts

We end up with a cast bronze-age sword blank which we clean up - Hallstatt C, but we're not too sure which one.

After that, adding a handle is entirely up to us (though we can pick the brains of Neil Burridge who is running it). So here, finally, is the question:

Does anyone have any experience of this, and even if you don't, do you have any advice or ideas as to how to finish our sword handles off? A handle is a handle, right?

I've been so impressed with what I've seen here over the few years I've been here that I feel sure that there must be so much I can learn from you guys.

One of the four of us has recently bought and refurbished a forge, and we're looking to cast knives (and other things) via it, but that's for another time (unless you are in Surrey and want to PM me about it).

Anyway, thanks for reading this far - and to the moderators: if this is too far off topic, then apologies, and just delete it.

Thanks again,

Ian

 

[NathanG]

get in ouch with owen bush of bushfire forge, hes made a few swords in the past and can probably help

 

[gzornenplat]

Thanks Nathan,

Thanks for the quick reply - I'll get in touch with him, it looks like a very interesting site.

Cheers,

Ian

 

[Xunil]

Some make handles and pommels from various woods, bone and ivory.

My own thoughts are that handles may well often have been simply twisted rawhide which gives a great grip and can be easily replaced when required, while the more ceremonial and/or status swords would obviously have furnished with more visually appealing (and not necessarily as functional) materials.

I've seen wood cuttings in Norway and Sweden that depict warriors straightening bent blades by standing on them and pulling on the hilt, and in one of the cuttings one chap was busily binding material around the grip of his sword.

Have a search for a thread called "stick tangs and full tangs. Advantages and disadvantages " and you will see a picture of the hilt of a Greek Hoplite sword I forged for an American museum. A little different to your project, but you could easily use the layered material approach with binding top and bottom or fully bound.

It's tough to offer a rounded answer without an idea of which particular sword you will end up with. Good luck with it - bronze swords are a lot of fun

 

[gzornenplat]

Hi Xunil,

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't thought of rawhide as an alternative.

As I said in my original post, the sword we get is a Hallstatt C - here's a picture from the web site of the place we're going to:

 

[Xunil]

What do you intend ending up with - something functional and nice to look at or something tribal chieftan (ish)

You could use ebony to mimic jet with silver pin detail which might not be a million miles away from an original

 

[gzornenplat]

I lean towards functional in an aesthetically pleasing way.

I've never put a handle on anything before (apart from a set of screwdrivers I made while a trainee mechanical engineer many years ago) so while I have some skills, it won't take much to reach (and hopefully extend) my limits.

The others seem to be going for the ceremonial look, embedded amber beads etc. While I'd be able to drill a hole and stuff a bead in it, I quite like the idea of a more workaday, practical look. But done as nicely and skillfully as I can manage.

 

[Xunil]

The thing is the majority would have been decorated for status anyway, so I guess it comes down to your interpretation of what might well have been quite gaudy at times.

I always think high contrast for some reason with swords of this era, hence my suggestion for black and silver.

I'll be very interested to see what you come up with

 

[British Red]

Out of my period so what I will siggest is almost certainly historically nonsense, however it would work from a functional and aesthetic viewpoint. You could easily achieve formed wood scales riveted through the hole in the tang. From a functional perspective though, this wouldn't offer the best of grips. The best grip would be achived by wrapping the grip in shagreen (ray skin) which is bobbly and rough. Historically this was glued and bound on with wire. If you shaped the wooden scales to have a shallow spiral (barley twist), silver, copper or brass wire can be used to bind on shagreen after glueing. This gives a grip that is ridged, slight rough for grip, and lovely to look at. Its how the hilts were made at the end of the "sword period" of military history. Whilst ray or sharkskin might be wrong due to availability, some other form of rough hide would have been available for sure.

Red

 

[Xunil]

Antique ivory billiard/snooker balls could be used to fashion a pommel

Would suit later Roman swords more but...

 

[British Red]

That would look great

 

[Xunil]

I don't use ivory myself but I have used certain timbers to imitate it (Apple and holly for example) and some Roman swords featured ivory, so...

I still keep coming back to bone and garnets or jet, or jet with bone or silver as contrasting combinations - the early bronze age swords were as much about status and even when they became more commonplace the quality and materials of the fittings and scabbard would be how you could judge status.

Any fool can do ordinary

 

[Vincent01]

You are learning a very good art by learning sword skills. make sure that you a right kind of sword. Go for any medieval age sword just for the remembrance of the great wars fought. Search in the internet there are many online stores that sell good quality of swords. I am sure they can help you.