A Few Projects in Progress
Jul 2, 2012 5:48:23 GMT
Post by LeMal on Jul 2, 2012 5:48:23 GMT
Well, and that I'll probably continue to procrastinate on finishing fully. A perennial problem of mine; once they're in the functional stage I tend to get lazy about the finishing touches--and with a probable cross-country move in the near future my motivation on that's even worse than usual. :roll:
Still, they demonstrate "proof of concept."
First up is a project I just tried as a lark--and was astonished it worked so well! As a kid I always used to see hayknives in barns, garages and antique stores and pondered how it might be a good weapon with the excess material cut off. Last year I was looking at one again, and noticed it had a great edge and distal taper I had never before noticed. Plus, hey, don't the blades look all nice and flamberge-y?
So I cut off the side handle and some other material, fashioned a handle of poplar scales, and attached them.
What's amazing is what happened when I took it to some bottles to test. My God, can this thing cut! Seriously, it's a match for anything else in my collection or that I've ever owned. I really, really recommend anybody interested in the look of a weaponized hayknife make one.
Next up, my modified Cold Steel 1796. I always liked it as it came, just so long as you keep in mind it's limitations. Yeah, a slight bit overbuilt--slight--compared to historical examples. But not outside of earlier Polish-Hungarian and late medieval examples. (There's even a current MyArmoury thread related to this, after someone reviewed Winglass's Hungarian sabre.) So long as you think of it as a hard hitting cutter for either from horseback or with a shield the CS is just fine.
Just fine, but odd-looking, out of period. So I figured I'd fashion a vaguely more medieval, cruciform hilt on mine instead.
As with many of my rehilts, you can see that I don't do guards in the normal way. I fashion and attach the handle first, then the guard is in two pieces wrapped around it, and riveted on the ends.
Which is what I did with the third example, a second Dark Sentinel I had bought and wanted to rehilt, but more lightly than my earlier "Kriegsmesser," which some of you might remember. Before I disassembled the hilting it came with, though, I was ruminating on how solid it already seemed--and came up with a new idea that wouldn't necessitate taking it apart.
This guard is also in two pieces, wrapped around the blade just above the round guard that came on the DS, then the guard riveted on the ends. Plus I drilled a tiny hole and put a rivet in the ricasso section of the blade to also help hold the guard in place. The leather sections cover it up, and I'm planning on eventually tooling pieces of leather to go over the ones already in place.
This was only all made possible by adding a "pommel" though. I originally cut the handle shorter, like Shooter Mike did, but found that totally threw off the original leverage and cutting ability of the DS. It needed counterweight.
Of all things, I realized a plumbing pipe cap would work. I epoxied it over the butt of the handle, then wrapped rawhide around that and cheated it up the handle for a good grip, then covered all that with more epoxy. It's all solid as hell now and just needs to be sanded smooth and aesthetic. Not only does this give it a nice balance nearly at the guard and a wicked whip-around cutting ability, the pommel really is mace-like and could "pummel" and adversary beautifully.
Finally, there's my poor man's falx. Not much fancy to say on this one. Just as I've done with turning some scythe blades into swords, I took a large cradle scythe blade and cut out enough of a section to make a two-handed handle.
And yes, it cuts just as wickedly as you'd suspect.
Well, those are what's been haunting my workbench lately. And given my habits, probably will continue to for a while.
Still, they demonstrate "proof of concept."
First up is a project I just tried as a lark--and was astonished it worked so well! As a kid I always used to see hayknives in barns, garages and antique stores and pondered how it might be a good weapon with the excess material cut off. Last year I was looking at one again, and noticed it had a great edge and distal taper I had never before noticed. Plus, hey, don't the blades look all nice and flamberge-y?
So I cut off the side handle and some other material, fashioned a handle of poplar scales, and attached them.
What's amazing is what happened when I took it to some bottles to test. My God, can this thing cut! Seriously, it's a match for anything else in my collection or that I've ever owned. I really, really recommend anybody interested in the look of a weaponized hayknife make one.
Next up, my modified Cold Steel 1796. I always liked it as it came, just so long as you keep in mind it's limitations. Yeah, a slight bit overbuilt--slight--compared to historical examples. But not outside of earlier Polish-Hungarian and late medieval examples. (There's even a current MyArmoury thread related to this, after someone reviewed Winglass's Hungarian sabre.) So long as you think of it as a hard hitting cutter for either from horseback or with a shield the CS is just fine.
Just fine, but odd-looking, out of period. So I figured I'd fashion a vaguely more medieval, cruciform hilt on mine instead.
As with many of my rehilts, you can see that I don't do guards in the normal way. I fashion and attach the handle first, then the guard is in two pieces wrapped around it, and riveted on the ends.
Which is what I did with the third example, a second Dark Sentinel I had bought and wanted to rehilt, but more lightly than my earlier "Kriegsmesser," which some of you might remember. Before I disassembled the hilting it came with, though, I was ruminating on how solid it already seemed--and came up with a new idea that wouldn't necessitate taking it apart.
This guard is also in two pieces, wrapped around the blade just above the round guard that came on the DS, then the guard riveted on the ends. Plus I drilled a tiny hole and put a rivet in the ricasso section of the blade to also help hold the guard in place. The leather sections cover it up, and I'm planning on eventually tooling pieces of leather to go over the ones already in place.
This was only all made possible by adding a "pommel" though. I originally cut the handle shorter, like Shooter Mike did, but found that totally threw off the original leverage and cutting ability of the DS. It needed counterweight.
Of all things, I realized a plumbing pipe cap would work. I epoxied it over the butt of the handle, then wrapped rawhide around that and cheated it up the handle for a good grip, then covered all that with more epoxy. It's all solid as hell now and just needs to be sanded smooth and aesthetic. Not only does this give it a nice balance nearly at the guard and a wicked whip-around cutting ability, the pommel really is mace-like and could "pummel" and adversary beautifully.
Finally, there's my poor man's falx. Not much fancy to say on this one. Just as I've done with turning some scythe blades into swords, I took a large cradle scythe blade and cut out enough of a section to make a two-handed handle.
And yes, it cuts just as wickedly as you'd suspect.
Well, those are what's been haunting my workbench lately. And given my habits, probably will continue to for a while.