Sword Making Tutorial Make Your Own Gladius

[Titus Publius Saturninus]

Cousin Dave,
I would say negatory re anything else between the steel and timber. The purpose of the scabbard is not only to wear the sword but protect it as well and the wood does that job beautifully provided it is completely finished and smoothed inside. If you plan to clean and oil the blade frequently you might wanna carve a little (non traditional) catch pocket in the bottom of the scabbard tip to retain any dirt or excess oil. This keeps it off the blade. Japanese thing really.

I couldn't imagine carving oak all day long but i guess that is what they used. for general over all scabbard making I would recommend seasoned poplar or ash but everyone has their own formula for what works for them. I love the wonderful, lustrous, tight grained easy to work dark grains of native NZ timbers so use a lot of Rimu, Kauri, macrocarpa and when I can get it Puhutakawa. I use jarrah to make very tough rudius

Here is but one of the many sites on Maori bone carving but not the high caliber stuff this is only a commercial trinket site will find more and get back.

http://www.aotearoa.co.nz/bones/

PAX ET BONUM!

Rick

[AntonivsMarivsCongianocvs]

Salve,

Absolutely!

I'm seriously considering making a Parazonium... I was thinking of picking up a SCA Rodell Dagger (it's about the right size... sorta) and changing the handle and hilt to an eagle's head and fabricating the scabbard.

I'd love to see a 'how to make a sword from scratch' tutorial.

[Titus Publius Saturninus]

Hi Anthony,
Now THAT looks like a noteworthy project idea ya got there!

That would really be interesting and moreso to witness the changes in the item as each stage unfolds. I guess you would already have enough historical and tech info on the Parazonium?

We must be having the same dream sorta. Was going to fit out one of the mainz swords with a standing eagle design the pommel being the eagle head in bone with NZ green stone eyes and green stone accents throughout. Not traditional but something a little different.

Pretty cool stuff Anthony just love it!

You have a good one bud.

Vale

Rick

[Titus Publius Saturninus]

Dave ,
The one thing I would like to mention about scabbard woods is it's got to be as seasoned and dry as. As much as possible. Don't use any kind of gum producing tree if you can avoid it. If I choose a certain green wood for a project I allow it to season for at least a year out of the sun's rays where it won't crack or distort. The wood will be way much lighter also when ready to work as per mositure loss.

Cheers!

Rick

[Magnus]

Hmmm...just a thought on using certain types of wood for scabbards. If you're making your blade out of anything with a high carbon content (Above mild steel, which i believe is 1020), be careful of the sap in the wood. It will corrode that blade VERY quickly.

The japanese use a type of wood called honoki, which is very close to poplar. I am not sure about the sap content in oak, or any residues left behind when cured, so you may want to find out about that.

If you wanted, you could make 2 thin inserts out of poplar to line the scabbard with...heck you could just make it out of poplar too.

[Firmus4474]

Thanks for the help Rick. Oak wouldn't have been my first choice and, I still might go with something else but, I probably won't because if I do it will bother me that I know the original was and, the one I made isn't........
All part of the fun :twisted: . Sometimes I think they did things the hard way just for fun.

Of course I have no idea what type of wood the guards where made from on this one. Oak would've been the logical choice for them.


I had never seen a Parazonium nifty .

Someone did a early Migration era spatha and, made the pommel cap from bone. I don't know what if any proof they had for this but, it looked good and, would explain why the pommel caps are missing on so many swords of this type.
You know put a sword in the ground for a thousand years plus the last thing that should perish is a bronze pommel cap but, I only know of one that has survived :?: .

Well I'm off to bed.
Take care, Dave.

[Titus Publius Saturninus]

Thanks Matt yep ho wood is brilliant stuff (Japanese magnolia) but usually if ordered from a dealer it comes in pre shaped blanks I believe and is God aweful expensive I think. However a must have if you have Nihonto to consider. You can use good quality seasoned polar for that too but ho wood is an absolute joy to work with.

For this kind of project one can just go to their local lumber yard or builders supply and get ready to go poplar for only a few bucks.

Many thanks for your post.

Kind regards,

Rick

[Magnus]

Poplar is like a medium hardness wood too isn't it? Not as soft as pine, but not as tough as maple, ash or oak? I haven't worked much with it, but I heard for it's ease of working it's rather sturdy.

[Firmus4474]

The more I think about it, I think I will go with poplar. Even though it was not the wood used on the original scabbard. I'll be using brass in place of bronze, bone in place of ivory, may as well use poplar in place of oak :lol: .

Besides, it will be covered in leather and, won't show and, easy to work with is a big plus.

[Titus Publius Saturninus]

Poplar is something like poor man's ho wood save much coarser grain wise . If it it still a tad green it's not fun to work like most timbers so must be fully dry. Yes you are right it is somewhere between pine and say walnut in hardness. It machines beautifully if one wishes to forego the traditional hand made bit and it still makes a nice shirasaya if there is nothing else around. nice thing about it is it's cheap and widely availble.
like all other woods there are various grades.

cheers

Rick

[Titus Publius Saturninus]

XXXXX

[Caius Fabius]

first thing seems to me to be important when making a sword or anything like that, would be to research the sword, to find the proper one for the time period of your recreation,..... before starting to visualise or take pictures with your mind. If you don't do the research, where will you be after hours and hours of work, when your art piece (the sword) is unusable in (for example) a 1st century AD recreation?

[Matt Lukes]

A very good point- and the proper source of information is important too since it's really easy to just unwittingly repeat mistakes...

[sulla felix]

...as I know only too well! :oops:

[Titus Publius Saturninus]

Hi gents there is really nothing to research here that is already done. we are going to be addressing standard sword patterns that have already been accepted as authentic and historically correct!!

The item I am focusing on here is the Mainz glaidus. It is simply what it is!
This isn't about time periods or history or anything else it's about sword making techniques.

The thread is about making a sword full stop.

Many thanks for your input.

Cheers!

Rick