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Post by steelhound on Jan 1, 2011 22:46:01 GMT
Congratulations on your purchase, Greg, the 1557 is a fantastic sword. I personally always lean towards one ATrim over multiple cheaper swords, and the 1557 is one of Gus' better models, so you definitely made the right choice IMO.
Were you able to order just a chape from Christian? I'm in the middle of building my first two wood core scabbards and would love to get some chapes...
I also plan on trying a castillion grip for my 1557, and was wondering what the difficulties were for this style. Does the shape make wrapping difficult?
Tom, your 1557 is absolutely beautiful. Christian did a great job with the etching and the grip (like an Elvish cut-n-thrust sword).
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TomK
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Post by TomK on Jan 2, 2011 1:05:27 GMT
actually I think the shape of the castillion grip makes it easier to do pretty much anything you want. I like the shape a lot.
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Post by steelhound on Jan 2, 2011 1:34:04 GMT
Well, it will be my first try at making a cord wrapped grip, and it promises to be a very good shape in hand. These projects always seem so simple in my head, it's when I actually start trying them that things get difficult.  |
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TomK
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Post by TomK on Jan 2, 2011 3:59:28 GMT
ha! that's a fact! I have the same problem.
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Greg
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Post by Greg on Jan 3, 2011 4:37:16 GMT
Christian said that he can't sell me an individual chape because he has to fit them to the scabbard. This is a shame, and I was willing to just take the stock chape and fit my scabbard to the chape, but he did not sell me the chape without a scabbard.
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Post by steelhound on Jan 3, 2011 9:57:07 GMT
That's too bad, finding someone who sells stock chapes would be awesome. I am thinking of just using some brass sheet stock from the hardware store and making a strip-chape for the edge (I'm sure there's a better term for that). That's if I don't make one out of sole leather or kydex, since my scabbard will just be for storage.
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Greg
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Post by Greg on Jan 5, 2011 7:35:01 GMT
I picked up one of tho's brass push plates from Lowes. You can find em in the door section. I haven't tried the strip chape, but I did try and shape it and I think that it would work better as a strip.
However, brass doesn't look good with any of my current swords, so I should have gotten the brushed aluminum or stainless if they had it (although I don't remember seeing stainless.)
Now that I think about it, I could probably just make a small cone instead of the 2-3 inches of chape that there normally is.
I also have an old cookie sheet that I've been wanting to do something with. Originally I was thinking about making a guard out of it, but making a strip chape would also work.
I DO know that Gaffer has a link to some stock chapes. All of them were a little to fancy for my tastes tho.
Here is a the excerpt from Gaffer's site on chapes:
The twojs.me.uk site has the best price for em, but once you add in the shipping, us North American customers would end up paying just as much as the other sites.
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Post by steelhound on Jan 6, 2011 0:01:52 GMT
Thanks for the links, Greg (and Gaffer), there are some really nice chapes on those sites, but maybe a little fancy for what I need. I didn't find any on that UK site, but they could just be out of stock at the moment.
Brass is looking like the best option for making some type of chape, despite none of my swords having brass fittings either. (*edit* Perhaps using brass and then finishing it black? I know there are readily available finishes for brass, but I don't know how they would hold up to some abuse.)
I'm not sure if aluminum or stainless would be pliable enough to shape into a chape without breaking, but I did pick up a welding sheet of non-stainless steel. While very thin, I have this vague notion of folding it for thickness and pounding/bending it into shape.
The cookie sheet is sounding like a good idea, as well. Would some tin snips work for cutting that, do you think? Or maybe just the dremel...
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