Simple DIY Handle Upgrade-Albion Style
Apr 21, 2007 17:23:14 GMT
Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2007 17:23:14 GMT
Hello,
My name is Chris, i wanted to post some info on simple upgrade anyone can do on the handle of their sword. This is inspired by that Albion finish on some of their swords, not all of us can afford an Albion sword, so here is a easy upgrade to give your weapon that Albion look.
First, we start with a handle, u can use an existing one or carve out a new piece. I went with this new handle i carved out for my Hanwei rapier.
Now, we create a pattern for our handle, i chose a 4 riser look, simply take some round cord and glue it to the handle in the shape you wish to achieve. I used 2mm round cord for the risers.
While our risers are drying up, we move on to the handle cover. You want to use thin leather for this. You can find it at any upholstery shop or auto trim shop, but i went to my local Walmart and purchased a leather Chamois (car cleaning cloth) from the auto department. We cut a piece that will be big enough to cover our handle, than we dye the leather to our desired color. I chose Oxblood color leather dye, purchased of Ebay for $5 per bottle.
We let our dye dry out overnight and in the meantime we securely wrap our handle (in between the risers) with a thin twine (i used a -1mm butchers twine, any similiar twine/cord will work), this will help us to achieve our finished texture/look later.
Now that our handle is wrapped and our dyed leather cover is dried, we proceed to glue the cover around the handle. Use a quick drying glue on the beginning edge of the wrap and a longer drying glue on the rest of the handle. I used a contact cement applied with a brush. Work the leather in around the contours of the handle until you get a pretty good fit. You will need a pretty sharp detail knife to finish the seam cleanly. It takes a bit of practice to get good at this so don't be discouraged if your first attemps don't come out perfect.
With your handle cover in place (and the glue on the handle still fresh), make a temporary tight wrap with the twine between the risers, this will help us achieve that final cord relief look.
With the twine secured in place with some tape, we let the entire assembly dry over night. The next day, we unwrapp the temporary top cord wrap to reveal our handle. You can see the general shape that we were going after with the clear cord relief showing through.
Now we move on to our finish coat. I used a simple medium brown shoe polish ($5 at Walmart) , with a rag work the shoe polish into the handle, go with the shape of the cord relief working in the polish all the way around. Let it dry, and apply another coat if u wish to darken the overall look. The shoe polish does a nice job of covering any bad spots and the seam.
And here we are, VI - OLA !! our finished Albion look alike handle. Ok, it's not perfect and it's not exactly albion, but a nice look anyway. A simple do it yourself project anyone can try.
And here are a couple of shots of the Hanwei rapier with the new handle. I chose to upgrade this sword for two reasons. First the original handle was in bad shape, and second, the original handle was PLASTIC!!, horrible plastic, unforgivable in my opinion.
I hope this post will be informative and interesting to some readers, or at least inspire you to work on your own blades.
Thanku,
Chris
My name is Chris, i wanted to post some info on simple upgrade anyone can do on the handle of their sword. This is inspired by that Albion finish on some of their swords, not all of us can afford an Albion sword, so here is a easy upgrade to give your weapon that Albion look.
First, we start with a handle, u can use an existing one or carve out a new piece. I went with this new handle i carved out for my Hanwei rapier.
Now, we create a pattern for our handle, i chose a 4 riser look, simply take some round cord and glue it to the handle in the shape you wish to achieve. I used 2mm round cord for the risers.
While our risers are drying up, we move on to the handle cover. You want to use thin leather for this. You can find it at any upholstery shop or auto trim shop, but i went to my local Walmart and purchased a leather Chamois (car cleaning cloth) from the auto department. We cut a piece that will be big enough to cover our handle, than we dye the leather to our desired color. I chose Oxblood color leather dye, purchased of Ebay for $5 per bottle.
We let our dye dry out overnight and in the meantime we securely wrap our handle (in between the risers) with a thin twine (i used a -1mm butchers twine, any similiar twine/cord will work), this will help us to achieve our finished texture/look later.
Now that our handle is wrapped and our dyed leather cover is dried, we proceed to glue the cover around the handle. Use a quick drying glue on the beginning edge of the wrap and a longer drying glue on the rest of the handle. I used a contact cement applied with a brush. Work the leather in around the contours of the handle until you get a pretty good fit. You will need a pretty sharp detail knife to finish the seam cleanly. It takes a bit of practice to get good at this so don't be discouraged if your first attemps don't come out perfect.
With your handle cover in place (and the glue on the handle still fresh), make a temporary tight wrap with the twine between the risers, this will help us achieve that final cord relief look.
With the twine secured in place with some tape, we let the entire assembly dry over night. The next day, we unwrapp the temporary top cord wrap to reveal our handle. You can see the general shape that we were going after with the clear cord relief showing through.
Now we move on to our finish coat. I used a simple medium brown shoe polish ($5 at Walmart) , with a rag work the shoe polish into the handle, go with the shape of the cord relief working in the polish all the way around. Let it dry, and apply another coat if u wish to darken the overall look. The shoe polish does a nice job of covering any bad spots and the seam.
And here we are, VI - OLA !! our finished Albion look alike handle. Ok, it's not perfect and it's not exactly albion, but a nice look anyway. A simple do it yourself project anyone can try.
And here are a couple of shots of the Hanwei rapier with the new handle. I chose to upgrade this sword for two reasons. First the original handle was in bad shape, and second, the original handle was PLASTIC!!, horrible plastic, unforgivable in my opinion.
I hope this post will be informative and interesting to some readers, or at least inspire you to work on your own blades.
Thanku,
Chris