Redesign a classic fantasy sword!

I forgot to post them here, but I also redesigned the rest of Paolini's swords; you can see them here, in my design thread. However, since I don't want to mix them with this post's topic, I'm only linking them. A few hours ago, Nihontoman, posted a thread in the design section wanting to see if anyone could redesign Guts' Dragon Slayer from the manga series Berserk since he's not that great at drawing. Well, I had the free time, so here's what I came up with:



Overall Length: 45"
Blade Length: 35"
Blade Width: 3" at the base; 2.4" right before the point taper
Grip Length: 7"
Guard Width: 5" (2" long)

Even with my reductions, it's still really huge considering the wide blade and almost complete lack of profile taper (for comparison, my recent fishtail XIV design that I tried to keep as close in dimension to the real thing as possible exhibits profile taper of 1.4" and is almost a foot shorter overall). I tried to give it as much distal taper as possible while starting from relatively thin stock (1/8"), but I've got no real idea how to do distal taper properly. It's probably futile, but I'm also hoping the massive guard and pommel would at least make it somewhat swingable. You can see more about it here in Nihontoman's thread.

Ice looks cool. *rimshot*

Certainly better than the official replica - the parallel-edged blade on that one just looks clumsy as all hell. I might go for a longer and more substantial grip, though. With a 45-inch blade that broad, that's a hell of a lot of sword in one package!

Here's my latest thing: a Martian longsword, from the Barsoom stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs.





The funny thing about this is, it's really more of an alternate take than a redesign. The long sword is part of the standard armament of a Martian warrior, along with a dagger, a short sword, a lance, a pistol and a long rifle. In the original stories these weapons are given essentially no description at all apart from the basic workings of the guns and their explosive projectiles, although I think it safe to assume that the long swords are longer than the short swords. The iconic designs come from the awesome paintings of Frank Frazetta, one of which was made reality by Albion a while back.

But while I'm a huge fan of Albion's hilt, especially the less shiny non-limited edition, I really would've preferred the less excessively tapered blade shape from the cover of Thuvia, Maid of Mars. And then, Barsoom is an entire planet with dozens of very distinct cultures, and there's bound to be more than one type of long sword, especially considering that Carter got his first sword from the green Martians, who stand about fifteen feet tall - so here's my take on what that one might have been like, a rather more massive two-handed weapon that Carter with his Earthling super-strength would've easily used in one hand (the green Martians themselves have four hands, so a two-handed design makes sense).







It's fifty inches long overall, with a 38-inch blade (36.5 if you only count the actual sharp edge) and an 8-inch grip (plus 3.5 inches of very grippable ball pommel). I copied Albion's fantastic green-and-bronze color scheme, although my rendition really doesn't do justice to the wonderful uneven finish of their bronze hilt. The blade is 2 inches wide at the base and tapers to 1.6 inches before the point. It has a hexagonal cross-section and could probably be classified as a large type XIX but for the lack of a ricasso and the long fuller - in fact, the forte has two fullers, until the central ridge suddenly fades out about halfway down the blade and they combine into one.





The guard is somewhat complex, combining katzbalger style S-shaped quillons with a knucklebow and two finger rings. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble had I not thought to make the quillons slope towards the pommel a bit, which did make the whole a lot more dynamic-looking but also made them hell to plan out in perspective... The grip is green leather, probably from one of Barsoom's hairless beasts of burden so it's quite smooth, but the core underneath is carved with a spiral pattern to improve grip. There's a bronze ferrule at the bottom end of the grip and a broader one in the middle. The pommel is spherical, with a long "neck" that adds several more inches to the grip.





And of course it really needs a sheath, because in the sweltering hot daytime the people of Barsoom use no clothes aside from jewelry and a system of straps and pouches in lieu of pockets - you seriously don't want to carry a naked blade while naked yourself! I'm not all that happy with the locket, to be honest: I had to shape it to fit the guard, of course, but it looks kinda fiddly. A leather "rain guard" might have been better.

100% improvement MOK, you should try to do the fathers sword and original atlantean for semprinis and giggles

I like that. If I had the money, I would get this custom made (of course with your permission first) like, right now.

J mentioning that he was doing Tam al'Thor's Heron Mark sword reminded me that I've been wanting to do that very thing forever; in fact, I've been contemplating what it would cost to buy the Windlass Heron Mark and ship it off to Sonny for a new grip of dark blue leather with risers, cord markings, and a bronze heron pressed into the grip, similar to the French Knight by Castle Keep. Since I can't do that for some time, I figured I'd Tam's sword the way I pictured it.



Overall Length: 39"
Blade Length: 30" (the previous one was actually 29.5")
Blade Width: 1.5" at the base; 1 5/16" at the kissaki
Grip Length: 6"
Pommel Length: 2"
Guard Width: 4.5"

Oddly, I pictured it with more of a straight grip like on the Windlass version, but given how Rand uses it for the majority of the first book, I thought the segmented grip suited it much better.

Same way. You can adjust the size to whatever looks best afterwards.

MOK did it near the beginning of this thread, well here I am doing it again. Say hello to the Kurgan:



43" overall, 33" blade, 6" tang held in place by two cutler's rivets, breaks down into three pieces, and concealed in a velvet lined and padded guitar case. It even has the springblades in the guard. More about it in my design thread.

An interesting concept, Larry, but doesn't really match the description in the least.

True, true. I was more thinking of the fact that it's described as having blued fittings and a slightly longer than normal grip, making it just barely a hand-and-a-half sword. Other than that, I actually like what Larry came up with. It's got a nice sturdy feel to it.