Neil Burridge Ewart Park Bronze age sword

Hi all,

Just thought I would post up some of my progress on a Ewart park sword from Neil Burridge that I have been working on for a while.

I have been interested in bronze age swords for quite a while as the perfectly preserved blades in museums have fascinated me since early childhood. I just loved seeing how perfectly intact they were in comparison to anything made from Iron and steel. As time and learning progressed I developed a deep appreciation for bronze age swords both in their unusual aesthetics and method of construction. Of course here I am talking about the science of casting swords as opposed to forging. So I eventually decided that I just had to have a bronze age sword in my collection and so started searching around for a suitable maker and also what type I would go for. It didn't take very long until I found Neil Burridge who is most likely the worlds foremost expert in bronze age sword casting and as luck would have it, he is in my country! Perfect!

His website is www.bronze-age-swords.com. Check it out as there is a pretty big range of swords that he makes ranging from the British Isles all the way to Egypt. I can't afford any kind of custom work when it comes to steel swords but the bronze swords he makes are really reasonably priced. Especially when you consider that what you are buying is a fully hand-made sword from copper+tin ingots to a fitted and sharp sword. Good value in my books when you also count that they are made in the UK and not in India or whereever. TL:DR Incredibly good value swords, everybody should have one!

Anyways after I found the smith the next task was of course to choose what sword I wanted. This took quite a bit longer as so many of them just look great. I was thinking of the awesome looking Lime house sword. ( www.bronze-age-swords.com/forsale/Limehouse1.jpg ) but in the end I settled on a Ewart park sword, as this was native to the British isles and was very common. So I thought that due to its historical popularity it should be good sword.

I quite like working on swords myself so I received a sword as per below. Before I go any further with this post, can I say a big thank you to Neil and members of the Bronze age centre for all their help and advice in finishing the sword. z8.invisionfree.com/Bronze_Age_Center

So on the sword that I received, Neil had by this stage done quite a bit of blade finishing along with making a cut-out hilt.
The weight was around 750g, which would be coming down once I started work on the blade.

Sword as I received it.


A few days of file work, along with a few hours of using a flap-disk and a few passes of 280 grit paper. At this point the sword had been reduced down to 715g.


Now that I was happy with the weight I set about polishing the sword up to a mirror shine as this would be difficult to do once the hilt was secured. I used my standard method of using increasing grits in sandpaper and finishing off with a polishing compound.





Now that I was happy with the fully polished blade I set about hilting the sword. This took quite a bit of time as I was really trying to get as close a fit as possible. The method of construction is to sandwich the bronze tang with two bits of wood (scales) and then use bronze rivets to secure the assembly. This is very similar to the full tang knives that are made today.

The hilt may look small but this is not a mistake nor is it a case of ancient peoples hands were smaller than ours. The hilt is designed small as it gives an excellent grip when swinging the sword.




After I was happy with the fit of the handle to the tang I had to do the very very scary step of riveting the handle to the tang. This can be very difficult as it is easy to split the wood and thus ruin a lot of work. I was very lucky to rivet the handle with no problems.... phew.. I had been dreading that step for quite a while. The trick is to make sure that a) you have good quality wood, b) use a ball peen hammer, c) only allow a 1mm protrusion, d) anneal the rivet material, e) counter sink helps

After I took this photo I polished the handle and made the rivets look much more flush. This photo was taking a few moments after the riveting, so you can see the hammer marks.


Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of making the pommel, but essentially it was painstaking work of trying to make a mushroom shape out of a block of wood. I think I was fairly successful in this but I would have preferred I made it more circular. The pommel was hammered and glued onto the grip as per the grips protrusions. Historically they would have only used a friction fit but my pommel was a bit loose so I had to resort to glue.

Anyways here is the sword at the time of writing this post. The edges are blunt so Neil can hammer in the edges, which has a two fold function. Firstly it sharpens the edges and secondly it hardens the edges through bronze work hardening.
The sword is looking a little grubby in this photo as I don't think I will polish it back up to mirror until I get it back from Neil and have made a scabbard so that it stays shiny.



Now that I have the sword as fully assembled I am able to properly dry handle the sword. The grip works very well as you can use this in both hammer and handshake grip. The blade being a leaf blade and being made from bronze has a point of balance quite forward to regular steel swords, creating a powerful cutting weapon for its size. Despite this the sword is very pointy and can give out a barrage of vicious stabs. I really like this sword both in handling and design and I can't wait to start working on my next one.

More updates to come once the edges have been hammered and the blade fully polished!