Vincent's Hall of Blades

I've got three new designs to post, mostly because one of them wouldn't quite bugging me, one is far overdo, and the other was mainly to round out the bunch; I still rather like it, though. With that said, here they are:



Overall Length: 16 1/4"
Blade Length: 11"
Blade Width: 1 1/4" @ base; 1" @ profile taper (4" from tip); 3/8" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/2"
Guard Width: 3"
Pommel Dimensions: N/A

This one's been a long time coming. I think I first decided I wanted to make an attempt at redesigning the Ruby Hilted Dagger from Shadar Logoth, the cursed dagger that causes many of the woes in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, some time back in 2012. I think that makes this the longest I've gone between wanting to design something and actually designing something; the main issue was the fact that I could never find anything I felt worth basing the design off of because I've never been fully sure of how I picture the blade. The description given is as follows:

"A curved dagger with a gold scabbard worked in strange symbols. Fine gold wrapped the hilt, which was capped by a ruby as big as Rand's thumbnail, and the quillons were golden-scaled serpents baring their fangs."

Well, about a year or two ago, I finally found a blade that fit that image for me, an agate-hilted Ottoman dagger from the early 18th century. It had a curved blade, ornate gold scabbard, curled quillons, the only thing it was missing was the ruby and the snakes; but those were easy fixes, relatively speaking. The biggest issue with it was the grip that sharply curved at the end, a feature fairly typical of Islamic blades, so for the longest time, I let it languish, even though I found a fairly decent image of a snake's head I could use to add to the quillons. I thought about using the more hourglass shape grip from a jambiya, particularly as I've found a couple that are really nicely proportioned, but adding quillons onto them just didn't look right.

As a result, I ended up basically copying that Ottoman dagger wholesale and making the necessary changes to get closer to the description; particularly as says that the ruby caps the hilt. It never says anything about the hilt being straight. Now, that said, I'm not 100% satisfied with how it came out, but I am content. The wire wrap about the grip doesn't curve with the grip, something I haven't quite figured out how to do, the quillons should probably have scales and the scabbard should be far more ornate, things I technically could do, but when I tried, they just would not come out looking right. The lacked the sharpness, instead looking like vaguely different shaded blobs, so I opted to forgo them rather than ruin the design in my eyes. Still, as I said, I'm rather content with how it came out in the end, if not fully satisfied.



Overall Length: 33"
Blade Length: 27"
Blade Width: 1 1/8" @ base; 7/8" @ profile taper (2 3/4" from tip); 9/16" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 3/8"
Guard Dimensions: 5 3/8"L x 3 1/2"W
Pommel Dimensions: 2 1/4"L x 1 3/8"W

About four years ago now, I redesigned my Shobu Sidesword, a weapon I'm still quite proud of to this day. Well, as any of my regular lurkers are aware, I'm very fond of complex hilted sabers. However, when I started this blade, I didn't actually set out to design a saber, I was actually trying to design a rapier... Yeah, I don't know how I ended up with this either. And if you believed that, I've got a bridge in London to sell you. Anyway, I don't know why, but I have an odd fondness for the concept of a rapier with a bell guard of the kind you might see on certain types of cavalry saber. I actually set out to design one of those (again; yes, I've tried before; obviously they didn't turn out), only for it to just not come together at all.

I still felt like designing something with a complex hilt, however, so I went trolling through my recently created folder for complex hilts (makes things so much easier) and came across a smallsword hilt from Lutel I like. But, I didn't want to just do a smallsword, that would have been boring, and I remembered the aforementioned Shobu Sidesword; I figured, "what the hell?", and yanked the blade off it and put it on the smallsword hilt. Surprisingly, it came out looking very much like a cutlass, but that doesn't stop me from liking it one bit. To complement the earlier design, naturally, I call this one the Shobu Smallsword.



Overall Length: 54 5/8"
Blade Length: 42"
Blade Width: 2" @ base; 1 9/16" @ profile taper (3 5/8" from tip); 3/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 10"
Guard Dimensions: 4 1/2"L x 4 1/4"W
Pommel Dimensions: 2"L x 1 3/4"W

So... I really hope this is the last time this happens, because I started my design thread anew to get away from the clutter that redesigning something repeatedly brings. However, with the way the guard turned out previously on this design, it kept bugging me and bugging me and bugging me, especially once Mikko designed his Euroto last month with a similar concept that makes mine just look awful; particularly the blackening, which was far too dark. Anyway, I asked a bit of advice and decided to take another crack at it, if only to stop it bugging me. I'm still not 100% on how it came out, but it's close enough and I'm actually rather proud of how the redesigned back scabbard came out... And I damn well should be, since the thing took two days to get right.

In the description of the previous version, I mentioned that the thought process for the guard was a double side ring, much like a Japanese mokko sukashi tsuba; I actually ended up having to use one as a base for getting the general shape and the measurements correct (which I left in the image to give a better idea of the shape than just what 2D can show). Now it's basically the dirty sex baby of a Japanese tsuba and a European side-ring. The blade, pommel, and grip are all unchanged from the previous version. The biggest change, as I alluded to, is the back scabbard. Now, while I was reworking the blade, I considered giving it a more conventional hip scabbard, as it is possible to wear such a long blade at the hip; rapiers were carried at the hip and could have blades longer than this one. However, I imagine doing so would be very awkward and prone to bumping into, well, everything, you can pretty much forget drawing it in a timely manner, and the length makes it very easy to foul the draw, so I gave up on it.

So, back to the back scabbard. The previous version was just copied from something I found on Google, a design I've mentioned several times over the years when discussing back scabbards; it's essentially just a baldric with a leather bag at one end and a pair of curved posts at the end for the guard to lock into. It'll get the job done, but it's not exactly pretty and I imagine it wouldn't stay put that well. Additionally, those scabbards tend to place the guard about 2" or so below the shoulder, which is where you'd want it to make it easier to draw (although, since you only have to draw the blade about a foot instead of the full length, I have to wonder as to the point) and that's great... If all you have is a crosspiece or a single side-ring. It doesn't work so great if you've got a 360° guard like this one, something I forgot to take into account on the previous version. Thus, I pretty much had to redesign it from the ground up and I think I came up with something really cool.

Essentially, what I've done is combine the previous back scabbard's concept (guard posts, wide baldric, short scabbard for the tip) with a Civil War era saber sword belt; the saber belts would buckle around the waist like a regular belt and then had a strap that went over the dominant shoulder, I presume to help support the load of the sword. However, instead of a hook for a scabbard ring, the lower belt features a 9" leather over wood scabbard with brass chape and throat. I took into account the quad-ring guard this time, as it now rests on the shoulder instead of digging into it; the broad baldric portion should help distribute the weight of the sword, as well.

Through a bit of experimentation with a tape measure and the cordura scabbards from my machetes, I've figured that, on me (5'9" in height), the pommel would stick maybe an inch or two above my head while the tip of the scabbard would be level with my left knee, but several inches further to the left, so the sword would likely not get in the way of walking, running, or jumping; when the sword is drawn, the demi-scabbard would most likely hang either behind the left knee or between them, so it might get in the way of certain actions, but probably no more than any other soft leather scabbard. Resheathing obviously wouldn't be like in movies and such where you just kinda toss it over your shoulder and it magically sheathes itself. Instead, you would reach back, grab the demi-scabbard with your off hand, sheath that portion of your blade, and then pull the sword around the left side of your body to your back before settling the posts in the fore-n-aft rings of the guard. A bit of a process, yes, but I'd rather a quick draw and a slow resheath than the other way around any day.

Whew. Sorry for all that, but there was a lot that went into that redesign, if it was the scabbard that got redesigned more than the actual sword; never thought I'd see the day. Well, that's all for now, folks. Ja mata.

Finally! Success at last! These swords, or, well, two of them anyway, have been keeping me up nights since last week; one because I couldn't figure out what I wanted it to be, the other because I had a hell of a time figuring out how to get it to work. I'm not entirely sure I succeeded, but I did the best I could, which included days of reading up on the mechanics. Well, that aside, the following swords are from one of those story ideas I've actually written bits of I mentioned last time; to be precise, these are the swords of the three protagonists.



Overall Length: 33 3/4"
Blade Length: 28"
Blade Width: 2" @ base; 1 15/16" @ profile taper (7 3/8" from tip); 7/16" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 4"
Guard Width: 7"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 1/2"L x 2 5/8"W

This is the falchion of the primary protagonist and view point character, James Dean; yes, I'm aware of the namesake, though that didn't really factor into the naming process. Besides, technically, James doesn't actually have a last name. He's an orphan who grew up in the Dean Orphanage, so he uses the name of the orphanage when necessary, but otherwise, he's just James. Anyway, James' story is set in a post-apocalyptic world that, about a decade prior, lost 50% of its population (roughly 8 billion at the time) due to a pathogen of vampiric origin. These vampires have incredible regenerative capabilities, able to regrow entire limbs in hours so long as they have enough blood, so bullets are basically worthless against them; as a result, swords have come back into vogue, which they chose over polearms for pretty much the same reason the sword isn't an obscure footnote compared to the spear: it's convenient to wear about. Humans tend to favor chopping and hacking weapons in order to delimb their vampiric enemies, because what good is stabbing something that can close the wound pretty much as soon as the blade is free of their body?

James' choice is a pretty basic falchion, which he chose almost solely because he thought it looked "mean". And it's kinda hard not to agree with him with all the pointy bits on it. It's also a relatively easy weapon to learn as opposed to some, a plus as swordsmanship has been distilled into its most basic form and a falchion doesn't really suffer from the lack of some of the more advanced techniques. Mind, the way I wrote what little I have of James' story, I've already characterized him as being driven to the exclusion of almost all else when it comes to vampire killing, so I've had to restrain myself significantly on things like that. Anyway, as to the sword itself: the blade was inspired by the old Tried & True/Gus Trim falchion prototype (the one with the long false edge), but with a slightly shorter and more robust point (again, why stab something that regenerates?); the guard was also inspired by said sword, while the pommel was inspired by that of the Albion Ritter. I've always had a bit of trouble finding appropriate swords to use that style of pommel on, so I'm glad it turned out well with this one. The fittings are bronze, as these vampires are weak to bronze, while everything else about it is pretty basic, including the scabbard, which I pictured being carried in a sword frog for convenience.



Overall Length: 38 3/8"
Blade Length: 30"
Blade Width: 1 1/4" @ base; 1" @ profile taper (2" from tip); 3/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/2"
Guard Width: 3 5/8"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 3/4"L x 1 5/8"W

As if to contrast the relative plainness of James' falchion, here's the sword of Michael Dubois, another orphan from the Dean Orphanage and a good friend of James'; he's also a vampire. So perhaps I should have said "former" friend? This story was originally inspired by an anime series, Owari no Seraph (Seraph of the End), with pretty much the same setting I mentioned above: apocalypse brought about by vampiric pathogen, lotta people dead, the main characters, both orphans from the same orphanage, captured and raised as cattle for the vampires. During their escape (with the rest of the kids from their orphanage who don't survive the first episode), one gets away, one, unbeknownst to the other, becomes a vampire (albeit unwillingly). Years later, they reunite on opposite sides of a war. Sounds like the perfect setup for an action series that ends in tragedy, right? That's what I thought, as well. Instead, it focuses on the two boys' relationship to almost Brokeback Mountain levels (it's even reflected in the choice of music for the second season!) while pretty much ignoring character development for everyone else and with the action (this being an action genre show) becoming increasingly infrequent; it annoyed the hell out of me, so I stopped watching it. But that core, that potential for tragedy, was really captivating. I couldn't help but wonder what could be done if such a tale were written with the goal of a tragic ending in mind and decided to write it out for myself, if only to stop it bugging me; I've really only written the intros for James and Michael in an old notebook I bought specifically for the purpose of having something to write down those ideas that bug me right before bed.

All that aside, the way I envisioned the vampires functioning, they're stuck in the past and so carry swords as a matter of course; they also overwhelmingly prefer thrust-oriented swords because they can reach out and prick you, allowing them a little taste of your blood, like that first sip of wine or that first, tentative bite of a steak before you dig in with abandon. Michael, however, hates vampires (and himself, naturally), so he'd rather do away with the whole thing, but he has to keep up appearances. As a result, I eventually decided on a jian, which, at first blush, seems like a thrust oriented sword, but most are equally capable in the cut. It took me quite some time to decide what to use as the basis for his sword and I originally decided to use the long discontinued Hanwei Qing Sword, because of its upswept guard in the shape of a bat; I envisioned Michael chuckling at the irony, since these vampires can't transform into bats (that he knows of). However, while I managed to get the guard and the even more complex pommel rendered fairly well, it just struck me as too busy (plus, the fact that the pommel alone seemed like it had more sections that Dainsleif's entire hilt didn't help), so I scrapped it and tried again the next day.

I eventually settled on the Huanuo/Seven Stars Trading Royal Peony Jian as the basis, as the spade shaped guard is rather unusual among production jian. The downside of it, though, was that it had very complex floral decorations on both guard & pommel (as well as the scabbard fittings), which was easy enough to get rid of by dint of simply not rendering them, but that left me without anything bat related and I rather liked that bit of characterization for Michael choosing the sword partly because of the bat decorations (the other reason is his parents, before they died, were big wuxia fans, so he grew up on wuxia films). Plus, without some decoration, the sword looks a little boring, so I had to find something bat-related and eventually found a tribal bat tattoo that I really liked; for added amusement, the medallion on both pommel and chape is the Bat symbol from Batman Knightfall, chosen because of its almost circular design that mimics the circular shape on the original pommel.



Overall Length (Open): 55 1/4"
Overall Length (Closed): 30 7/16"
Blade Length: 30"
Blade Width: 1 1/8" @ base; 1 3/8" @ choil; 7/16" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 25 1/4"
Guard Width: N/A
Pommel Dimensions: N/A

The last two designs, and all of the jian's headaches, were a walk in the park compared to this design. This is the sword of Nishimura Saeko, direct superior to James. As mentioned before, this story was based on how Seraph could have gone (should have gone, really), so it shares a fair amount with its progenitor; the equivalent character here was a female superior who wielded a giant magical scythe (she was also the best character in the show and probably its biggest victim in terms of getting sidelined), so her name is a nod to its origins (Nishimura means "West Village" in Japanese and, from a technical standpoint, Japan is West of the US; Saeko is the given name of one of my favorite female characters in anime, so was a given), as is her weapon. Funnily enough, though, I originally had her wielding a pretty standard falx, the kind that wouldn't look all that out of place on a Roman battlefield, partly because I wanted to allude to her original, but also because I wanted the three major characters' weapons to belong to three different cultures. However, somewhere along the line, I realized that a full-sized falx would be almost as impractical to carry around day-to-day as a polearm, so I became fixated on the idea of making it fold like some giant pocket knife.

To that end, I spent several days on and off reading up on various folding knife locking mechanisms, trying to find the strongest I could, something that could realistically be scaled up to sword size and function properly; yes, I realize the inherent irony in aiming for realism in a story that involves vampires, but I seem to be almost chronically incapable of designing a weapon that wouldn't function in real life. Eventually, I found that the consensus seems to be either the balisong, which makes sense as the catch locks the arms and you're holding the arms, so it's not going anywhere you don't want it, or Cold Steel's Tri-Ad lock. Between those two, I chose the Tri-Ad mainly for aesthetics: in order for a curved balisong to function, the arms have to curve in the opposite direction as the blade. With smaller blades, this is less of an issue, particularly as they're upswept rather than recurved, but when you get to this size and with such a comparatively deeply recurved blade, I'd have ended up with a shallow S-shape, which just didn't look good in my mind's eye. Plus, there's just something kinda satisfying, mentally, about being able to flick out such a large blade, so the Tri-Ad won out.

That said, it wasn't quite that simple. The falx I originally used as the basis was significantly more recurved, to the point it was a (-shape, so folding it just didn't work out; there was a large amount of open space between the grip and blade when folded. Then I tried the first iteration of this blade and, while it looked fine open, I had a pretty difficult time trying to get the innards to cooperate, but nothing was working, be it getting the lock or pivot points right, finding the right angle to represent its closed state, so I scrapped it and decided to sleep on it. I started considering giving her a more conventional sword, albeit still recurved, mainly something like a Middle Eastern kirach (essentially a forward curved talwar), but it just didn't have the same flair, so I decided to give it one last shot before going that route and whatta ya know: third time really was the charm. I got everything to work the way it should, though I still didn't know what to do with the excess blade not covered by the grip. I had originally considered a system like on the discontinued Benchmade LFK, which had a little cover that would fold out to cover the edge and tip when folded and would fold in when opened, all done automatically by connector bars inside the knife. However, that didn't get past the brainstorming because of the complexity, so I settled on a small leather pouch to house the sword and cover the exposed edge and point, which would be attached to a baldric, something I think is an all around simpler idea; less to go wrong.

That's it for now, folks; ja mata.

So, I didn't figure on posting more designs so soon, but after redoing Regalis the other day, I got to wondering what else might be hiding in my old folders. With that, I present three really old designs, two of which I've never posted before, though one I've alluded to before.



Overall Length: 17"
Blade Length: 12"
Blade Width: 1 3/4" @ base; 1 7/16" @ profile taper (3 15/16" from tip); 1/2" @ profile taper
Grip Length: 4 13/16"
Guard Width: 2 3/8"
Pommel Dimensions: N/A

This is, as I hope should be obvious, the Coffin-hilted Seax that I originally designed for Saito at his request. I originally designed it October 9, 2011, about 2 weeks or so after I started using Inkscape; it was actually the same day that I first designed my Ka-Bar Slashar, come to think of it, which may be what prompted Saito to ask me to design this for him. Anyway, to give you some idea of how well it came out, all I really did with this redesign was convert it to my 1/16th scale (as this was originally designed in 1/10th), give it a sheath, and smooth out the gradients in the grip. Otherwise, it looks almost exactly the same (well, I removed the runic engraving on the flat since I've never been able to get engravings to look right, but you get my point). In keeping with the rather simple design, I gave it a rather simple sheath, much like you'd find on most bowie knives; I did have a minor debate on whether to add in the belt stud, since seax are traditionally worn edge up, but seax were also hung from the belt instead of thrust through it, so I decided to add one and it could be worn either edge up on the right side or edge down on the left side, whichever the user preferred.



Overall Length: 27 1/4"
Blade Length: 21"
Blade Width: 1 7/8" @ base; 1 1/2" @ profile taper (3 7/8" from tip); 11/16" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 3/4"
Guard Width: 3"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 1/4"L x 2"W

Here's the other design that I never posted, as it was originally just something I did for a bit of practice; funnily enough, I also designed the original on October 9, 2011, along with several other designs, so it was a bit of a busy day for me (in addition to being a busy month). The idea was for a simple, curved short sword with a double-edged blade, blued furniture, and a somewhat stubby crosspiece. It was actually one of the first times I designed a scabbard to go along with a sword, so I gave it equally simple furniture, as well as a belt loop. I kept virtually everything about it as close to the original as I could, though the blade is slightly different, as I borrowed the blade from my Jack-of-all-Trades design; a little bit of irony, there, since I designed the very first iteration not even a full week after this sword, yet both ended up having brown grips and blued furniture. The crosspiece is a particularly short Style 3, the pommel a Type I, while the scabbard features a very simple suspensions system that just loops around a belt. I call this design The Shrimp on account of its size.



Overall Length: 41"
Blade Length: 33"
Blade Width: 1 1/2" @ base; 1" @ profile taper (7" from tip); 1/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/8"
Guard Width: 5 7/16"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 1/4"L x 1 1/4"W

Back in October 2011, I designed a sword meant to be used by the palace guards from my first novel, set on Shiran; it was a smallsword hilted Type XVIIId that featured a near full length fuller, something that occasionally appears on blades of that type. However, as I'd been using Inkscape for less than a month at that time, the hilt (and particularly the gradients on it) turned out pretty poorly and, as was a common problem of mine then, the fuller was too wide. Of course, there was an even bigger problem with it from a canon standpoint: the setting is primarily medieval, so a smallsword would have been seriously out of place. It may be a fantasy novel, but I like sticking to similar time periods on my weapons. At any rate, I redesigned it about 3 months later into The Imperial design, which is now on this thread's first page. Well, while checking my old designs to see what was hiding there, I came across that old Palace Guard design. Now that I'm a little more experienced at rendering complex-hilted swords, I figured I could really do the design justice.

I think I succeeded in that respect. I kept the overall design and color scheme pretty much the same, but a significant number of things were changed from the original design to reflect the change in experience between the two swords. First and foremost, the previous design overall is barely longer than this one's blade. The previous design's guard was fairly chunky in spots, thin in others, and a little too angular, all of which has been more or less fixed as the new hilt was based on an antique colichemarde hilt I found awhile back. The additional sections in the guard and pommel compared to the original also make it look a little more visually dynamic, I think. As with the last design, the blade is still a Type XVIIId with a near full length fuller, albeit with a better fuller width. The scabbard is almost identical to the previous version, however, I added a second ring to the locket in order to facilitate a smallsword-style belt hook; the chape also features a little finial for visual flare and I removed the design from the locket, as it was originally intended to be the Imperial Seal from the nation the palace guards served, but since it's no longer related to my novels, I didn't see much point in keeping it. Overall, I'm really quite fond of how it came out.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

Overall Length: 44 3/4
Blade Length: 35"
Blade Width: 2 3/8" @ base; 1 1/2" @ profile taper (3 1/2" from tip); 3/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 6 1/2"
Guard Width: 7"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 3/4"L x 1 3/8"W

Previously in this thread, I've redesigned Excalibur from the Fate/Stay Night franchise, drawing particular inspiration from its brief appearance during a flashback in the manga adaptation of the series; this was primarily because I'd just discovered such an adaptation even existed at the time and had been reading it. I bring that up mainly because, to be perfectly honest, I've never been totally satisfied with that sword. I think, mainly, it has to do with the way the pommel didn't turn out and that, for such a long blade, the guard looks completely out of place. Anyway, while I was surfing Pinterest for inspiration awhile back, I came across Excalibur Morgan, more commonly known as Black Excalibur, for the first time in ages. More or less at the same time, I came across the Windlass Hero's Warsword (which I've always thought had odd lines), particularly a close-up of its hilt, and an idea coalesced into mind. I thought about reworking Excalibur Morgan into a bit more functional sword as, just like with the standard Excalibur, it has a broad guard and basically no pommel. The idea lounged around in the back of my mind until this morning when I decided to go ahead with it. I'm actually kind of glad I did.

Initially, I'd planned to use a large Type XIIa blade in place of the thick hexagonal blade Excalibur has, but once I actually brought up by blades repository (where I store all my blade blanks so I don't have to hunt down a specific one), I just didn't like how it looked in my head, so I decided to try something else. I eventually settled on a Geibig Type 3 that I widened a bit and lengthened to hand-and-a-half size. Interestingly, it ended up looking almost identical to the standard Excalibur blade, just with lenticular cross-section and a fuller instead of a plain hexagonal cross-section. I left the guard the same breadth as the original as making it narrower just messed up the look of the sword; however, rather than being a massive chunk of metal, I made it a Style 6 guard, as it's essentially a thin steel bar that widens just enough to allow the blade to pass through it. With such a thin guard, it could have the same breadth as the original sword. The Hero's Warsword pommel manages to look small enough to pay homage to the original's lines while doing more for the balance than the tiny little endcap it previously had. I added two sets of risers, as well as cord markings, to the grip for a better visual aesthetic (plus, it'd give a better grip than smooth leather).

As mentioned above, this sword is named Excalibur Morgan, though its title is still The Sword of Promised Victory in canon. However, because this sword only comes about in the Heaven's Feel route of the original visual novel after Saber, its owner, is exposed to the evils of the world contained within the Holy Grail, I feel a better title for it would be something along the lines of The Sword of Corrupted Oaths; which is, actually, the name I originally conceived what would become this redesign under.



Overall Length: 44 3/4
Blade Length: 35"
Blade Width: 2 3/8" @ base; 1 1/2" @ profile taper (3 1/2" from tip); 3/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 6 3/8"
Guard Width: 7"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 3/4"L x 1 3/8"W

I suppose it's only natural, after seeing how well Excalibur Morgan came out, that I'd want to flip it and do the original in the same style. So I did. Unlike my previous redesign of Excalibur, this one is more in line with the sword as it appears in the various media, such as the (relatively) recent Unlimited Blade Works anime. The base sword is virtually identical to Excalibur Morgan with the differences being, primarily in the details, such as the decorations on the guard, the blade collar, the little collar above the grip, and the fairy letters on the blade, which I actually managed to reproduce this time; obviously, the color is also completely different, but if you couldn't tell that, I'm not sure how you're reading this now, because of that whole spiel about bats and blindness. I'm rather fond of out this sword, which I call Excalibur Promise to differentiate it from my previous version, much more so than I am of said previous sword, though I still like that one in its own way.

That said, this design was the source of a huge amount of headaches and disappointment. The sword itself, even the squiggly as hell fairy letters, were easy. However, to really differentiate this design, I wanted to do something I didn't even dream of with the last sword: Avalon. Avalon is the name of Excalibur's scabbard, the very same one that provides a form of limited immortality through constant regeneration. Unfortunately, if you've ever seen Avalon, you might understand where the headaches came from. It's a deceptively simple design consisting of a wide blue scabbard with dozens of gold lines crisscrossing along its length, as well as a trio of large gold sections and a complex chape. Despite all that, I tried my damnedest to render it, but after three hours of continuous fiddling, I was no closer to completing it; no matter what I did, it ended up off-center or lopsided or both. In the end, I gave up on it and I'm disappointed that I did... Not enough to actually go back and take another crack at it, mind, but I am disappointed about it. Well, that aside, as with Excalibur Morgan, the guard is a Style 6, so despite being quite broad, it's actually very narrow; the thing that really sets the two guards apart, though, is the narrow channel that runs down the center of this one, something I think would give it a bit of flare even without the enameled portions.



Overall Length: 42 7/8"
Blade Length: 36"
Blade Width: 1 1/8" @ base; 3/4" @ profile taper (6" from tip); 1/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 4"
Guard Width: 5 1/4"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 3/8"L x 1 1/4"W

Initially, I'd seriously considered rounding out this set with a redesign of Caliburn, Saber's sword prior to gaining Excalibur, as well as being the Sword in the Stone. However, after the headache that was Avalon, I would rather break my fingers with a tack hammer bone by bone than even attempt to render Caliburn's scabbard and since, unlike Avalon, which is a separate item from Exaclibur, it has no special properties and is just a scabbard, I couldn't let myself get away with doing just the sword. So, instead, I browsed through my various reference folders and picked something at random. I ended up with a kinda-sorta smallsword hilt from a Spanish sword dated around 1840-ish, so I decided to make a fairly simple rapier. I got rid of the gilding, engraving, and such that the original had and went for a plain, somewhat darkened, steel look; make it look more like an every man's weapon. The blade is modified from what I had originally meant to put on my Taza Svaerd design before adding the stromacione tip.

I kept the blade in my repository, waiting for a use, and I finally found one. I widened the blade a touch and added the little collar from my Pappenheimer design so it wouldn't just look like an overgrown smallsword. In keeping with its more subdued theme, the scabbard and grip are simple, unadorned, with the only real decoration being the finial on the knucklebow. Overall, I think it makes for a nice, laid back weapon, like what a person might wear in the modern day if swords were still fashionable. As such, I call this design the Casual Rapier.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

Time for the next batch of designs I mentioned the other day. I'd uploaded these alongside the previous batch, as I did them all at the same time, but I've been a little out of it the past couple days thanks to the weather, so I wasn't really feeling up to posting them previously (I kinda crashed after posting the last batch); I've still got the mother of all headaches and my knees are killing me because of the rain we've been having, but my allergy meds are starting to kick in, thankfully. Anyway, let's get to it.



Overall Length: 58 1/2"
Blade Length: 45"
Blade Width: 1 7/8" @ base; 1 3/8" @ profile taper (5" from tip) 5/8" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 11"
Guard Width: 10"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 1/8"L x 2"W

This was inspired by a bit of artwork I came across that had an element I really liked; namely, the roughshod leather wrap around the guard, pommel, and upper portion of the blade near the guard. It just gave it a wonderfully brutish aspect that I liked. The sword in question was of vaguely zweihander proportions, so when I decided I wanted to recreate that leather wrapping, I figured I'd also go with a zweihander for it. For the fittings, I chose a relatively simple Style 2 crosspiece with a square cross-section and a Type H pommel with a peen block. Believe it or not, the blade actually started life as a Dolan Type XIb that I lengthened, added a diamond cross-section to, and did away with the fuller. I'd initially planned on using a long XVIIIb for the blade, but the way it tapered to a point just didn't really fit with the aesthetic. I call this piece the Professional due to the whole no-nonsense, working man's aesthetic it's got going for it.



Overall Length: 70"
Blade Length: 15"
Blade Width: 1 3/8" @ base; 3 1/2" @ wings; 2" @ profile taper (4 1/2" from tip); 5/8" @ 1" from tip
Hammer Length: 2 1/16"
Hammer Width: 1 1/2" @ base; 2 1/8" @ face
Head Width: 18 11/16"
Spike Length: 5 1/16"
Spike Width: 1 3/8" @ base; 1 1/8" @ profile taper (4 1/2" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Haft Length: 60 9/16"
Langet Length: 5 1/16"
Buttcap Dimensions: 2 1/2"L x 1 1/2"W

My very first foray into the world of polearms, the Dreadscythe, was essentially a scythe combined with a poleaxe. I still really like that design to this day, however, awhile back, I had a thought that came out of nowhere: given the issues typically associated with scythes as weapons, why use the scythe blade when you have an axe blade on the other side? And, like that, the initial seed for this design was born. This time, instead of an axe, I gave it a hammer; specifically, the hammer from the Arms & Armor Warhammer, itself based on a 15th-16th century French example. The spike(s), buttcap, and langets, even the octagonal shaft, are also all from that antique warhammer. The scythe blade, on the other hand, is from an anime example I came across awhile back that I rather liked, as it reminded me of spontoon tomahawks. As such, I call this design the Spontoon Scythe.



Overall Length: 27 1/4"
Blade Length: 21 1/4"
Blade Width: 1 1/8" @ base; 2 1/2" @ 4 1/4" from base; 1 5/8" @ profile taper (9 1/4" from tip); 5/8" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/2"
Guard Width: 2 1/2"
Pommel Dimensions: N/A

For the longest time now (wow, about three years, actually), I've had the idea that I wanted to do a tactical-style khopesh... And I just never really got around to it, mainly because I never really came across a khopesh blade that clicked for me. Which is odd, as I have at least a half dozen or more khopesh styled blades in my reference folders, so I recently ended up just picking the one I liked best at the moment and working off that. The end result is what you see above. I think I did a pretty good job. That said, it wasn't quite that easy. As I said, I've wanted to do a tactical-styled khopesh for quite some time, but for the most part, I've actually forgotten about it. In a rather amusing turn of events, when I recently decided to take a stab at it, I originally wanted to give it a knuckle guard, only to come across one of Airborne Leaf's (whose work has inspired me before) designs that was essentially just that: a modern-styled khopesh with a knuckle guard. Of course, his design is for his world, wherein it's a pseudo-WW1 styled blade while mine was more modern day "tactical".

I went ahead and found a knuckle guard I liked, put the whole thing together and found it just didn't really work. It ended up looking not too dissimilar to a scaled up version of this atrocity. So I, somewhat regretfully, axed the knuckle guard (though, naturally, I didn't just delete it, so I may find a use for it in the future) and left it as it is above. The sheath for it was probably the biggest annoyance of the whole thing, since I didn't want it to just be some big amorphous blob covering the whole thing, so I took a page out of Zombie Tools' book with their Reaver Cleaver's open sheath. Almost the entire back half of the sheath is open, so you just pop that strap and you can draw the blade pretty easily. It's not quite how I imagined the design coming out, but I think I did a decent job of it in the end.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

I thought it would take longer for this update, particularly as the second sword in this set took me about 3 days to complete, but the final sword, despite being perhaps the most complex of the three, only took about 5-6 hours to do; but then, in both cases, the complexity is mainly just tedium when you get right down to it and the second was far more monotonous. Anyway, enough griping. Here they are:



Overall Length: 47"
Blade Length: 36 3/8"
Blade Width: 1 7/8" @ base; 1/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 8"
Guard Width: 9"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 1/4"L x 1 5/8"W

I initially wanted this sword to be something inspired by the movie 300 due to this set containing my 300th design for this thread. Unfortunately, no matter how I worked it, the blade I was using just didn't look right and using a different blade would have messed with the spirit of the design, so I nixed it. I tried a few other designs I'd considered over the years only for none of them to really work out; I ended up with the design above. That said, despite how that sounds, I'm actually fairly pleased with it, as I tried the grip/fittings color combination once before on my initial Sword of Tesni design and, due to my inexperience at the time, it didn't work. I think it works now, though. Amusingly, despite its resemblance to the Albion Talhoffer, a sword I'm rather fond of, the hilt, and guard in particular, were actually inspired by their Maestro line Liechtenauer, as the guard is deceptively plain; it's rather simple, but has a few notches that give it some visual flair upon closer inspection. I've personally never really considered feders for sparring simply because of the cost (cost of the sword, cost of the necessary level of protective gear), but I've always thought that the Liechtenauer'd be the one I'd get if I ever did. Since this sword was as unplanned as one half of a pair of twins, I didn't really give much thought to a name and ended up just calling it The Fencer.



Overall Length: 43 1/8"
Blade Length: 34"
Blade Width: 1 7/8" @ base; 1 1/8" @ profile taper (8" from tip); 3/8" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 6 1/4"
Guard Width: 8"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 1/2"L x 2 5/8"W

This, as I hope you could figure out by the pommel, is my interpretation of Longclaw, the Valyrian steel bastard sword of Jon Snow from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Now, for various reasons, every single recreation of this design have left me rather dissatisfied; but the thing they all have in common is the pommel: it's always facing, to me, the wrong direction. It either faces the flat of the blade (such as the Valyrian Steel and HBO versions) or faces the opposite direction as the sword's point (such as on the infinitely more functional and beautiful versions by Brendon Olszowy and Rick Barrett). I've always pictured it facing the same direction as one of the sword's edges, which is what you see on just about every sword with an animal shaped pommel throughout history. However, I've never attempted Longclaw before now because animal headed pommels are always very detailed and the complexity has always been rather daunting; after having done one, it's still daunting, just in a different way. It took about 9 hours over the course of 3 days just to do the pommel because it was just so monotonous placing all those shapes. Now, all that said, I'm very pleased with how this came out and I think I managed to really capture the sword as described by GRRM:

"The pommel was a hunk of pale stone weighted with lead to balance the long blade. It had been carved into the likeness of a snarling wolf's head, with chips of garnet set into the eyes. The grip was virgin leather, soft and black, as yet unstained by sweat or blood. The blade itself was a good half foot longer than those Jon was used to, tapered to thrust as well as slash, with three fullers deeply incised in the metal."

Triple fullers, to me, screams Type XXa, which is rather serendipitous thanks to having chosen its parent type, Type XX, for Ice. It's also rather fortuitous, as GRRM drew heavy inspiration for the series from the War of the Roses, taking place between 1455 and 1487, while the XXa saw primary use from 1350 to 1450; I know Valyrian steel swords are typically ancient and the Mormonts had apparently owned it for 500 years before Jeor Mormon gave it to Jon, but since fantasy stories typically have some form of medieval stasis, it could still work. In another stroke of fortune, the description mentions the blade being a half foot longer than what Jon is used to; the XXa is recorded as getting up to 34" in length, while the Type XVIII, which was still in general use almost a quarter century after the end of the War of the Roses, could be as short as 27". The grip on my version of Longclaw is something of a happy medium between the official versions and the fan recreations; the former typically tend to be slightly longer one-handed grips, while the latter typically tend to be full hand-and-a-half grips, neither of which, I think, really lend themselves to "bastard sword". The implication of a bastard sword is that it is equally capable in one hand or two, while a hand-and-a-half sword can be used in one hand, but typically shines in two, so the longer grips just don't work for me.

The guard is a fantasy design, taken from my La Imperator design, itself simplified from a design by Jeffrey Robinson, as an upswept design just feels right on Longclaw, which is apparently something absolutely everyone can agree on, as every single version of the sword I've seen has some form of upswept guard (well, the Valyrian Steel version is mostly straight, but it has upturned finials, so it kinda counts). The scabbard's suspension system, in a cream colored leather to match the pommel, was inspired by the chivalry belt by Christian Fletcher. I'd initially planned something more close-fitting like on my semi-recent Sword of Valen, but I decided I wanted something different and the chivalry belt looked like it would hold the sword pretty close while keeping the scabbard out of the way. Lastly, I borrowed the chape from my old Royal design, partially because it amused me to use something from a design called "royal" when you take in the fan rumors that Jon is really the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen into consideration.



Overall Length: 39"
Blade Length: 27"
Blade Width: 1 3/8" @ base; 13/16" @ profile taper (1" from tip)
Tsuka Length: 11"
Tsuba Diameter: 3"
Kashira Dimensions: 1 3/8"L x 1 3/8"W

Lastly, but hopefully not least, my 300th design for this thread and something very different to my normal fare. I've long considered doing a katana, but I just don't really care for Japanese swords, so I never really did much more than that. Additionally, I've always thought that if I ever did do a katana, it would be either of a kissaki-moroha-zukuri or a kanmuri-otoshi-zukuri profile, as those are the two blade profiles I actually like on a katana. Well, since I wanted to do something special for this design, I decided to go ahead and do a katana, particularly as this will likely be the only time I'll ever do one; they're just too much of a hassle. With that in mind, I spent some time finding all the elements that would go into the sword, since I wanted it to contain those elements I like in a katana. As such, the blade is of a kissaki-moroha-zukuri profile, the koshirae are Handachi style (based on an antique set from the Edo period), and the tsuba is based on a combination of the Hanwei Paper Crane katana (the black iron/gold combo) and on Nanashi's katana from Sword of the Stranger (the cutouts), one of my favorite anime movies and a most excellent film in general.

The tsuka has a very slight curve, but is otherwise straight, lacking the more exaggerated curves found on some tsuka; despite the rather disparaging nickname of "axe-handle" given to many lower-mid end katana tsuka on account of its straight profile, I actually rather like the way it fills the hand (it's not that dissimilar to a bokuto, after all). The menuki are in the, apparently, more traditional palm side placement as opposed to the fingertip side placement you typically see on just about every modern production katana, because, as with everything else on this sword, that's what I prefer. It drives me nuts trying to swing a katana with the menuki under my fingertips. The blade is based on one originally forged by Gassan Sadakatsu in the Showa period (July 1941) emulating the famous Kogarasumaru, which is rather amusing to find out, as when I set out to design this sword, I named it Yatagarasu; Yatagarasu is a three-legged raven from Japanese mythology who appears as a guide before Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. As a result, Yatagarasu is typically viewed as a messenger or guide.

To further this theme, I chose a set of mitsudomoe menuki, which has a variety of meanings. The tomoe is also the shape of the magatama, from which many of the deities in Japanese mythology were born from when Amaterasu, the sun goddess, bit pieces from magatama and blew them into the wind. The Yasakani no Magatama is also one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan and used when enthroning an Emperor (much like the Crown Jewels in England). The mitsudomoe, in particular, was originally the symbol of the Shinto war god Hachiman, subsequently being adopted by the samurai; it was also on the flag of the Ryukyu Kingdom (present day Okinawa). The mitsudomoe also forms a variation of the triskelion, an ancient symbol that often consists of three legs, which goes back to the three-legged crow that is Yatagarasu.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

i love your designs, hope they get made into real blades one day, especially the purple one lol

I've got a fairly interesting update for y'all today, spurred on, in part, by my redesign of the Ordon Sword the other day, though the last design of this update is one I've been wanting to do for ages and just now worked up the courage to attempt it; it came out surprisingly well.



Overall Length: 21 3/4"
Blade Length: 17"
Blade Width: 1 1/4" @ base; 1 3/4" @ profile taper (4 1/4" from tip); 3/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3"
Guard Width: 3 3/8"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 1/8"L x 1 3/4"W

So, for the longest time, I've had an image of a latex sword created by a guy on DA by the name of DanoGambler; it was his interpretation of the Kokiri Sword from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I've always really liked how he translated the tiny sprite blade into such a finely detailed sword. I'd intended to use it as inspiration for a simple shortsword one day, but I kinda forgot all about it. Well, until the other day, anyway. After doing my Ordon Sword redesign, I remembered it and decided to try my hand at redesigning the Kokiri Sword my way and this is what I came up with.

For the blade, I based it off a recreation of a Greek xiphos, specifically a piece by Manning Imperial, as it demonstrated that blade profile that gets wider near the tip without quite being that classic leaf shape we tend to associate with Greek swords; it just felt right and it kept the general lines of the sword the same as the sprite. The grip with that distinctive palm swell was inspired by the grip on the same xiphos the blade came from, primarily as a straight taper grip as is more typical looked horrible. The guard and pommel are a Petersen Type AE and were drawn from the Albion Knud, which had just the right guard shape, as my previous AE guards didn't have quite so dramatic a curve. The browned steel and the orange-ish grip, as well as the grip's four risers, take their cues from DanoGambler's recreation, as I really like the way the color combo looked. Plus, it's been a very long time since I've done browned furniture and this gave me the perfect excuse.

The scabbard gave me a fair bit of trouble, since the only shots of it anywhere on the net are just the tips peeking out over Young Link's shoulder or beside his hip in artwork. Luckily, once I actually managed to find said images, things went a little quicker; I adapted the mouth of the scabbard to fit the AE guard (whereas the game sword has a flat guard), but otherwise kept it as close to the scabbard seen in the artwork as possible, while also getting rid of the needless studs along the locket. On the whole, I'm quite pleased with how this blade came out.



Overall Length: 66"
Blade Length: 24"
Blade Width: 2 1/2" @ base; 2 1/8" before swell; 8" @ points; 5 7/8" @ 1" from tip
Haft Length: 37"
Guard Width: 6"
Buttcap Dimensions: 4"L x 1 5/8"W

Here's something I did mainly out of curiosity, though it turned out quite well in the end. Among the myriad number of often strange African swords, there's the rather distinctive Konda (or Mongo) sword, which is easily identified by its rounded point that gives way to two hook like points with sharpened edges all 'round. It also often has a surprisingly complex geometry, featuring fullers, mid-ribs (I've seen ones with three parallel ribs), and hexagonal or even octagonal cross-sections. Thanks to its unusual shape and simple complexity, it's been a favorite of mine for awhile when it comes to African weaponry; amusingly, this style of sword also serves (perhaps unintentionally) as the basis for the sword of Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda franchise. I don't know what prompted it, but fairly recently, I got to wondering what it would look like as a sword-staff.

I think the answer is "pretty good". I really couldn't tell you where the particular blade I based this off came from, as I've had the image so long I no longer remember much about its origins, but the guard was somewhat inspired, funnily enough, off the same xiphos I used for much of the Kokiri sword; the buttcap, on the other hand, was inspired by Michaelcthulhu's work (he's the guy on Youtube who makes humongous weaponry), mainly for a pseudo-fantasy feel. All in all, this is the kind of weapon I imagine would be absolutely vicious against unarmored opponents, while the hooked points would provide interesting options in combat. I call this the Konda Swordstaff as a nod to its heritage.



Overall Length: 75"
Head Length: 12"
Head Width: 1 3/8" @ base; 4 3/8" @ points; 3/8" @ 1" from tip
Haft Length: 60"
Buttcap Dimensions: 3"L x 2 1/2"W

This is the design I've wanted to do for ages, but never really had the courage, because it is actually quite complex; however, now that I've done it, I'm quite satisfied with the end product. This was, funnily enough, inspired by an anime video game weapon. That is, it's a video game weapon from an anime, so I don't think you could possibly have a starting point with less realism (generally speaking). The anime in question is Log Horizon, a series where tens of thousands of Elder Tale players suddenly find themselves trapped in the game; unlike similar series in the "other world" genre, there's no threat of perma-death, no bad guy cackling in their fortress, etc., but that itself creates a much closer tension, as you now have to fight in your own body and dying is scary, even if you know you'll come back to life. Plus, it costs the equivalent of pocket change to live day-to-day, so everyone quickly becomes quite listless, with some resorting to player killing just to liven things up. Really, it emphasizes the exact reason I quit playing MMOs years ago: the lack of goal makes everything get boring quite fast.

Anyway. One of the characters is a bard named Isuzu and her initial weapon is an odd spear/mace hybrid; as she's a primary character in the secondary cast, she gets a decent amount of screen time and so does her weapon. Thanks to this, its unusual nature stuck with me ever since the first time I watched the anime a couple years ago and I've long wondered just how practical such a weapon might be in real life. Well, I finally decided to take a crack at designing a somewhat more realistic version, for a loose definition of "realistic"; perhaps "consistent" would be more applicable in this instance as, with the nature of animation, its size and proportions tend to fluctuate depending on the shot.

I started off with the Windlass German Mace to serve as the base for the flanges, especially after I saw how damaging a weapon it can be against plate armor in Kult of Athena's recent weapons test video series, where they test various weapons against different thicknesses of helmets and armor. I then added a point to it, though it actually took me quite some time to figure out how to blend the tip with the flanges of the mace; speaking of, I simplified the flanges near the base of the head, as the original had a number of smaller points that were purely decorative. I initially tried to replicate them, as well, with two for each flange, each with about four different sections that needed doing, I eventually decided against it for sanity's sake. The rest of the weapon, be it the collar below the head, the endcap/pommel, the spiral section at the base, the collar above it, and even the color of the shaft were all inspired by the Lutel Mace 17009; this is the same mace that lent its head to my Reaper scythe design some years back. All told, I am very pleased with the finished product. I dithered over a name for a bit, but in the end, I decided to name it Knightsbane, because I feel that's exactly what a weapon like this could be.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

So, I didn't actually expect to have another update this soon, but the muses apparently had other ideas, as I finally figured out ways to do a few swords I've been itching to do for ages, alongside one that I never thought I'd actually be doing.



Overall Length: 32"
Blade Length: 27"
Blade Width: 1 3/8" @ base; 7/8" @ profile taper (2 7/16" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/2"
Guard Width: 5 1/4"
Pommel Dimensions: N/A

Here's a sword I never thought I'd do: the Sword of Altair from the Assassin's Creed franchise. Alongside the Hidden Blade, the Sword of Altair is probably the most iconic weapon in the entire franchise and, surprisingly for a video game sword, it's pretty well designed, so as long as it were forged properly (i.e., not stupidly thick), it would be a pretty decent weapon, hence why I never thought of redesigning it. After all, don't fix it if it ain't broke, right? Even leaving that aside, I haven't really paid much attention to the franchise since the fiasco with Unity, so I'm not sure I can consider myself a fan any longer, which is another reason I didn't think I'd be doing this sword. That said, I came across an antique Persian sword in the revival style utilizing a possibly Spanish blade awhile back, not long after I decided to check out the live-action Assassin's Creed film with Michael Fassbender (decent movie, though Abstergo suddenly became blithering idiots for it), in fact, so the franchise was on the brain and it started burning a hole in my mind to redesign Altair's sword with that blade as a base.

I think the result turned out quite well, to be honest, despite the massive amount of trouble the hilt gave me. I originally started out intending to make Altair's sword a bit more ornate, but the more that design fought me, the more I realized the one complaint I've always had in the back of my mind about Altair's sword: a distinct lack of Middle Eastern flavor. If you look at full renders of the sword, it has a very European feel about the hilt, with the leather wrapped grip, vaguely wing shaped crosspiece, and a hooked pommel reminiscent of a messer's. If I knew nothing of the franchise, I'd probably peg it as Germanic in origin. So I did a 180 on my design plan and set out to rectify this. To that end, I looked at dozens upon dozens of shamshir hilts for inspiration and ended up merging elements from several antique examples into the one above; I added a section to the grip of brown leather, which is quite uncharacteristic of Middle Eastern swords of just about any period, but I felt it was necessary to break up the plain iron of the grip and I couldn't imagine an Assassin having a sword rich with koftgari like a number of the more well preserved shamshirs. It was also a stylistic choice to keep the overall aesthetic of the original design. The eagle effigy at the butt of the grip was also an affectation to maintain the theme of the Assassins, who are very often named for birds of prey; indeed, Altair is named for the star in the constellation Aquilla (Eagle), which originally comes from the phrase "al-nasr al-tair", roughly meaning "the flying eagle". And I will say this for that pommel: it was a right pain in my ass. Shamshir that are decorated with animal heads are decorated with a wide variety, from lions, tigers, yes, even bears (oh, my!), but also rams, elephants, pheasants, peacocks, hell, even a hippopotamus on at least one occasion that I came across. However, the most common animal were horses... But not a single eagle that I could find, so I had to start from a peacock pommel and work at it until it vaguely resembled something more eagle-like. After all that, though, I think I succeeded in giving the sword a far more distinctly Middle Eastern feel while retaining the overall lines of the original design, so I'm happy with it. Amusingly, however, it is also my least decorated and least headache-inducing design of this batch.



Overall Length: 45"
Blade Length: 39"
Blade Width: 1 3/8" @ base; 7/8" @ profile taper (5 5/8" from tip); 1/4" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3"
Guard Width: 5 3/8"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 1/2"L x 1 3/8"W

As my more regular readers will know, I've long been trying to design a decent dish-hilt rapier, only to fail pretty much every time. The closest I've come is my Casual Rapier design from last April, but that didn't quite have the right feel to it. With that said, I think I finally managed to get as close as I'm going to for the foreseeable future and I'm quite pleased with the results. Aside from the troubled history this design is coming from, I had a lot of trouble with the hilt; the blade, based on an Italian piece from, I think, the 17th century (I can't remember exactly), was actually quite easy to do, but blades usually are. The hilt is actually an English style, but the original featured a forward upswept quillon mirroring the rear one. That would have messed with the look I was going for, so I removed it, and then the main headache was getting all the various different parts of the guard to mesh into the whole, which was very fiddly work, especially the parts nearest the grip. But once everything started flowing together, giving it a basic grip and scabbard wouldn't have looked right, so I decided to get a little ostentatious with it, resulting in the above.

To complement the gold hilt, I wrapped the grip in a spiral wrap of purple leather further complemented by the silver wire following the contours of the spiral wrap. This came out quite nicely, I think, so I continued on with the scabbard, which is a fairly basic thing of blue leather over wood with a (relatively) simple chape and locket, which is obviously offset by the red leather suspension system, itself an Italian style I found through Lutel. This was actually quite fun once I started putting colors to everything, because I normally don't go in for these colorful and decorated kinds of swords. One more headache was waiting, though, and that was what to name this piece? For my previous rapiers, I've gone for rater generic or descriptive names, but those wouldn't have fit such an extravagant sword. In the end, I found what I think is the perfect name for it thanks to a largely forgotten fencing master: Vincentio Saviolo, an English master of Italian heritage from the 16th century who published one of the first fencing manuals available in English. Considering my design was largely a mix of Italian and English styles, I think I chose correctly when I decided to call this sword the Saviolo.



Overall Length: 46"
Blade Length: 36"
Blade Width: 2 3/8" @ base; 3/4" @ profile taper (4 7/16" from tip); 1/4" from tip
Grip Length: 7 1/2"
Guard Width: 8"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 1/8"L x 2"W

Another design I've wanted to do for quite some time, but could never really decide how to approach, though unlike my dish-hilt rapier, I've never made it known that I wanted to do this; this being a flame-bladed longsword with a (relatively) simple cruciform hilt that's not quite a flamberge. I make that distinction, because if you look at historical flamberges, they tend to be zweihanders or complex hilted longswords, but regardless of hilt configuration, they all have very tight waves in the blade, making them look more akin to swords with rounded serrations than actually "flame bladed" with genuine undulations. That's what I wanted to make: a longsword with an undulating blade. And I think I finally succeeded. The blade I ended up using as a basis was, surprisingly, one I've had the reference photo of for nearly two years now and is one I owe to Michaelcthulhu on Youtube (he's the guy that makes humongous swords), as it was the blade he made for his Soul Reaver build several years back. Just getting all the curves to play nice while keeping the point more or less in line with the hilt took the better part of a day; compared to that, the original form of the hilt took all of an hour or so.

That said, the hilt took a good four hours or so to complete as I changed my mind on the guard. Originally, I was planning to use a Black Prince-style hilt, with a Style 8 guard and a Type I1 pommel, both of bronze. They came out quite nicely, but the guard just felt so insubstantial next to such a, well, behemoth blade, so I had to change it, which is actually where I had my first major break with regards to this sword. I rendered the guard I ended up using, oh... 3-4 years ago, I think, but never could find a use for it (partially just because I forgot about it). But I decided to give it a shot and just loved how it looked; it then made me rethink a bit of what I was going to do for the grip. I'd originally planned on a hexagonal upper with a wire-wrap lower, as I haven't actually done a half-wire grip in some time, but I decided to change that a bit when I came across a longsword grip with a half-wire wrap that alternated steel and copper. I just loved how distinctive it looked, so I attempted to replicate it. The copper came out a bit too reddish, I think, but I'm happy with it, though I probably wouldn't have been had I stuck with the original burgundy grip I'd planned on. I then ditched the hexagonal upper in favor of a pair of risers pinned by a bronze pin in the style of the Albion Munich, which I think works better. Beyond that, the less said about the scabbard, the better, because that was way more trouble than it should have been. Finally, rather than give it some boring name such as "Flametongue" or what-have-you, I decided on something a bit more evocative: Will-o'-Wisp, the spectral fire that can lure unwary travelers to their doom.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.