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Post by Deepbluedave on Oct 3, 2011 6:48:55 GMT
Vincent those are two great designs, if someone made em I would want them both.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 3, 2011 7:09:59 GMT
Thanks a bunch, Dave; you're free to have just about any of my designs made if you want. The only real exceptions are Ithin and Mé'aré and that's really just 'cause they're rather prominent swords in my novel (wielded by my protagonist and antagonist, respectively) and I'd kinda like to be the first one to own replicas of them.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 3, 2011 11:20:26 GMT
Okay, so I owe J a serious debt of gratitude, because his tip on how to do a curved blade allowed me to give birth to this: That, my friends, is what I'm hoping Ithin will eventually look like. It features a 26" blade, an 8-8.25" hilt, and a 5" wood grip with flutings on the "edges", just like a real jian. The crescent moon is actually a raised feature with almost the entire surface of the guard (and the pommel) being recessed a millimeter or two. I still haven't decided on whether or not to add a fuller as I'm not 100% sure it's necessary. Ideally, the POB should be 3.5"-4", making it a weapon that will cut, but can still be fenced from the wrist, since it is a fantasy cutlass; in fact, since the fittings will be solid bronze/steel, a fuller may actually be detrimental. Plus, I'm not sure how much harder adding a fuller would make having the blade's inscription etched into it, if at all.
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jhart06
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Slowly coming back from the depths...
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Post by jhart06 on Oct 3, 2011 14:50:18 GMT
Glad my fumblings helped!! Beautiful looking blade!! And that warder sword is much nicer than mine!! Great work on the risers for the handle!!
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Post by Neovenetar on Oct 3, 2011 15:07:39 GMT
....katana + jian? YOU HAVE SOLVED WORLD HUNGER!
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 3, 2011 22:33:46 GMT
:lol: Ithin has been my dream sword for quite some time. j: Thanks. It really is just a matter of playing with the nodes until they look right. To get the hilt to look right, I actually had to do the grip in two stages, so it has 10 different nodes: 2 at the base of both pommel and guard, 2 in the center, and 2 each where the spacers end. If I didn't include those last four, the spacers wouldn't have properly lined up with the grip the way they're supposed to, so I needed extra nodes for the alignment. As for the guard and pommel, I'm just glad I had a reference; even with it, I still screwed it up several times just getting the basic shape down. I also made the habaki significantly shorter so that it's about the size of an actual habaki. 1/2" protrudes from the guard while the other 1/2" is hidden by the guard's langets (that's the only term I can think of to describe how a jian's guard extends past the blade and overlaps with the scabbard when sheathed) as opposed to before where almost the entire length was shown.
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Oct 4, 2011 1:06:26 GMT
Jianatana O___O now we need to see the baby of a particularly rough night of sex between a Great Sword of War and a Katana
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 4, 2011 1:13:38 GMT
It's funny; Ithin's design has stayed pretty much the same (minus slight changes in size) since I started this thread and it's only now that it's getting comments. :lol:
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Oct 4, 2011 1:31:58 GMT
honestly i wasnt paying a whole lot of attention to the thread until recently. i had to go back and look at the first page lol
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 4, 2011 1:57:44 GMT
By the way, when you mentioned a Great Sword of War + Katana dirty, dirty sex baby, were you thinking of something like this? I couldn't get the guard quite right and the antique gray grip came out a little brighter than I'd have liked, but it's almost the exact same hilt measurements as the GSOW: 11.5" hilt, 9.25" hilt, and for the blade, I used a Dynasty Forge O-katana as the base, as I thought a standard 27-28" katana wouldn't look right on it, so I upped it to the longer 32". I left the habaki to really drive it home that "this is a katana, son"; plus, it gives it a little splash of color in an otherwise gray sword.
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Oct 4, 2011 1:59:54 GMT
thats pretty close to what i immagined, i immagined a coffin shaped scent stopper pommel, and a bit longer blade. but you captured the spirit of it quite well.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 4, 2011 2:08:55 GMT
Well, the first thing that popped into my head at Great Sword of War was the H/T GSOW, so that's what I went with. If I were to make one of these for myself, I'd have gone with a Style 7 guard with turned-in finials, a Type T pommel (faceted scent-stopper like on the Malatesta), a two-part grip like on the Albion Earl, and about a 34" katana blade with a true moroha-zukuri geometry (double edged the full length of the blade with a shobu-zukuri shaped tip as opposed to the spear point of the only partially doubled edged kissaki-moroha-zukuri).
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Oct 4, 2011 2:11:41 GMT
im currently making that sword right now. the blade is a 36 inch shinogi, its gonna have a 2 piece leather wrapped grip, scent stopper pommel, and a slightly curved guard with quillions ending in a clawed point
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 4, 2011 2:58:48 GMT
I think I saw that. Anyways, which is better? A katana or a viking sword? In the immortal words of that little girl from the taco commercials... Why not both? The blade is only 27" to balance out the extra mass in the blade; the guard and pommel are based on the H/T Viking, though I think they came out a little bulky.
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Oct 4, 2011 3:26:14 GMT
looks good, little bulky but not bad at all
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jhart06
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Slowly coming back from the depths...
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Post by jhart06 on Oct 4, 2011 3:42:06 GMT
*craps self at awesomness* You just going to keep adding katana blades to everything, aren't you?? It's like all-spice *BAM*... kick it up a notch eh??
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 4, 2011 3:48:01 GMT
:lol: I might. It's just, I really like the shape of the katana blade; I don't buy into the mythology around it or the hype and I'm certainly not a fanboy, but there's something about the gentle curves of it that appeals to me. It's certainly better than the often extreme curve of conventional Western cavalry sabers. I mean, part of what got me to design Ithin was seeing a basket hilted katana, so it really got me wondering how the blade would work with other cultural sword styles. The answer is that it works pretty well if you do it right.
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jhart06
Member
Slowly coming back from the depths...
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Post by jhart06 on Oct 4, 2011 3:52:14 GMT
It's why i'm currently trying to make a sica pairing. The WoT liking we both share may influence it.
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Oct 4, 2011 3:56:12 GMT
vincent, you should do a katana blade, shobu zukuri with a sidesword type hilt....it would be epic
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 4, 2011 4:23:37 GMT
I can give it a shot; I can't guarantee anything, though. Complex hilts are rather difficult. In the meantime, I'm facing something of a dilemma regarding Mé'aré. I'm not quite sure whether I'd rather have an antique red scabbard to match the grip or an antique gray with an antique red suspension system. Thoughts?
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