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Post by nddave on Aug 26, 2015 18:53:05 GMT
Hi everybody,
So I'm finally to my last project for a time, my Windlass European Sword. One main reason why I re-wrapped this one in a accident that happened to it a month after I got it. The wrap on the opposite side of seem tore. I'd simply chock it up to not so great and too thin of leather as it pretty much snagged on something (cant remember) and it was enough to cause a small tear just below the guard. So after some confidence from my previous two projects I decided to finally re-wrap this one.
First I cut the old leather off. Again like with the Roven the seam stitch was well done and laced tight. A couple snips later and the leather was off. Oddly unlike the Roven the European didn't have any adhesive underneath the leather, seems this grip was done dry. What I saw next was a little disappointing, The cord used underneath the leather was some paper twine (like the stuff you'd use on a package) and sadly for customization sake was super glued to the wood. Sad to see such a shortcut was used on an overall great sword but I guess budgets are made this way. It doesn't really take away any functionality as before the re-wrap it was sturdy and comfortable (for a spiral wrap anyway). I'm sure other Windlass Europeans have the same twine under their leather.
So I peeled off what would go and sanded the rest off. Underneath was another well carved and solid hardwood handle. Again I'm not a wood expert but this is a harder darker wood than the Roven's, maybe walnut? Anyway I began like my other two projects by drawing out where I wanted to place the risers and decided to go with a standard three riser setup. I used the remaining cord from the Roven to do the risers on this one. I kept it in a Ziploc bag to keep it tacky, It really benefits the placement for them to be this way as I can stick them to the handle and get a feel for where I want them before I trace them and finally glue them on with super glue. Next I drew out the seam line and placed the end of the leather on the one side of the line and stuck it to it with G02 glue. I tend to do this by hand and massage the leather around the risers and ends. You want to be careful to keep your edge even as any slight shift could mess with your wrap as you wrap it around the handle. Also leave a good 1 1/2- 2 inches of leather on the pommel and guard sides of the leather piece. too little leather and you risk having spaces on the handle ends. Too much and the extra leather will get in the way of you getting the leather to bond and cord wrap during quarters. After about five minutes or so of massaging the glue is tacky enough to hold the leather in place and after another ten minutes or so, should be ready to start bonding the rest of the wrap to the handle.
Next I glue down the rest of the leather. As you can see I had the sword in a vice to hold it in place as I wrapped. A definite must for anyone wrapping handle with a sword on it. You definitely want the freedom of the sword in place as well as the blade and or weight of the sword out of your hands. the At this point from the pic above I released the sword and flipped it to it's other side to start gluing. I Gently fold back the unglued leather after the edge and apply a few beads of glue onto the handle and spread them out. You can use the tip of the glue bottle but on wider areas I like to use a foam brush. It may seem odd to use one since it absorbs the glue but after you get a decent amount of glue on the brush it rubberizes and is a great applicator that gives a very even spread. I do wraps by the quarter so it's a little time consuming but overall very hard to mess up. After I finish my first application (covering the face of the handle underneath the edge) I wrap the leather tight over the glue and fold the remaining leather so it bunches up on the other side so its out of the way of the bonded leather part. I don't wrap it over because it tends to bunch up and doesn't allow you to get good definition around the risers. Then I glue the opposite side of the edge, only doing that area so again I have more control over how the leather is setting and bonding as well as riser definition. Then I glue the opposite face but leave about a 1/4 of an inch from the edge where the ends will butt up. You can technically glue it all the way up to the other end but if you want the invisible seam look you should do it this way, unless you have sushi chef accuracy with a razor knife and can evenly cut it without shredding the leather or cutting too much.
After every quarter gluing I wrap a cord around the leather to hold it while it sets. I use a thin Nylon cord ( Its actually a reel of mason twine #18 I picked up at Homedepot cheap, Its great and the reel makes it easy to dispense and wrap back up for later) to wrap around the leather. After the handle is wrapped and bonded I start to work on the seam. Seams suck as anyone who's done this before knows but going at it slow and being attentive to the proper steps makes all the difference, still sucks though, lol. Anyway I start by wrapping the remaining leather over the edge tight so I can see it through the leather. I then take my fingernail and press into the leather to get a groove of where the leather should butt up. I then take a ballpoint pen and draw a straight line just above my fingernail mark. You should only have about two inches or so of leather remaining of your wrap. Too much and you'll need to cut it down as you only want enough to grip and pull. Too little and well your going to have a tough time pulling and cutting the edge so it will properly butt up, Unless you got those sushi chef skill mentioned above. The ugly seem on my Hanwei Mercenary re-wrap is testimony to the fact I don't, lol. So stretch out the leather and gently cut down your pen mark on the outside of the line. Then apply glue to the remaining wood, with a little over the first edge too so that its wet and will bond easier to the opposite edge your applying now. Then like with the first edge massage the glue and leather evenly and butt it up to the first edge. after about five minutes or so it should be tacky enough to start wrapping the cord around. Make sure to have the cord wrap over in the direction the seem is butting up so the tight cord doesn't bunch it up or make it separate from the first edge.
After about a half hour you should be able to un-wrap it and see your final seam. If something looks off definitely go back and fix it now before the glue gets harder as you can slightly play with the edges still at this point. Use your fingernail or another small non sharp edge tool to butt the seam or if you have excess leather, work your fingernail to cram it into the crease between the edges. If its too much to crease take your scissors and snip trim it to fit then cram or butt it up. If you cut too much, unless its f.u.b.a.r'd ( at that point just peel it off and start again with new leather) you can fit some bits and snips of excess leather between the edges and into the crease and glue the leather edges over it ( If your worried it'll be too ugly go look at my Hero's Warsword re-wrap thread and check out the seam pic of it. I placed three snippets in that seam). Not as pretty as a correct seam but its almost invisible and more importantly comfortable, you cant feel its there. After that's done do a final wrap over and let it sit for another hour or two. When the times up you should have a nicely formed new leather grip.
Hopefully this little tutorial helps out and again let me know what you all think and thanks for reading!
Final pic of all three together, fun few days of customizing!
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Post by Bryan Heff on Aug 26, 2015 19:04:50 GMT
Nice work!
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Post by nddave on Aug 26, 2015 19:17:26 GMT
Thanks!
Sadly I'm out of swords to customize... I mean I have my two cord wrapped swords the Effigy and Homildon Hill but I kinda like them the way they are. Never know though, I could change my mind anytime.
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Post by Croccifixio on Aug 27, 2015 3:02:17 GMT
Thanks for this! Will be trying it out soon enough
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Post by nddave on Aug 27, 2015 6:57:54 GMT
Oh yes - you DID do a wonderful job :). And the best thing is - you told everyone EXACTLY how you did it :). Where the Hell is the Karma button? I want it back. YOU deserve some serious Karma :). You taught people... the greatest thing that any poster can do. Thanks, glad you took something from it and I'm happy to share, just like Brennan was when he posted his tutorial on SMG. Too bad it's not there any more. I feel that it's something everyone in the hobby should know and with practice and guidance be able to do. There's definitely a larger sense of ownership and pride when you take something that's yours and make it better and or unique. Pretty sure likes replaced Karmas. Again if I can help people further their enjoyment of the hobby and their own swords, I'm happy to do so.
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Post by nddave on Aug 27, 2015 7:05:59 GMT
Thanks for this! Will be trying it out soon enough Thank you for reading. Be sure to post your work when you do and feel free to ask anytime if you need any help through the process. Just remember patience and care go a long way when doing this. Take it easy and be sure to enjoy yourself when you do it. Put on some good music and make sure you have the time and avoidance of distractions to work. If something isn't right, don't stress or get upset and just start over. All in all have fun doing it, practice makes perfect.
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Post by nddave on Sept 13, 2015 15:48:30 GMT
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Post by Huer-Ta on Sept 15, 2015 12:40:34 GMT
I really like your second go at the wrap, the risers came out a lot more defined. Do you ever use a cord wrap underneath your leather? It adds a lot more strength to your core and is an extra measure of security against grip failure. If you use the right cord it adds minimal thickness to your grip. Your final product really looks great though and that seam looks perfect!
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Post by nddave on Sept 15, 2015 14:40:58 GMT
I really like your second go at the wrap, the risers came out a lot more defined. Do you ever use a cord wrap underneath your leather? It adds a lot more strength to your core and is an extra measure of security against grip failure. If you use the right cord it adds minimal thickness to your grip. Your final product really looks great though and that seam looks perfect! Thanks, I think they did because I used smaller cord this time around, actually the first wrap's cord is the same cord I used on the Roven and Homildon which came off the Roven's spiraled factory wrap. Guess it just was too wide for the shorter European single hand grip? I used a couple snips of the round left overs from the Effigy's factory wrap to do the new one. Its about the same diameter as the stuff I used on my H/T bastard many years ago when I re-wrapped it. I flattened it down some using the flat of a pair of needlenose pliers which made it a little more square which is what I prefer over completely round regarding risers. I'm very happy with the results and its a way more comfortable grip now. Regarding pre-cord, never really put much thought into it as I kind of prefer the smooth feel of the leather to wood over the more ridged cord feel. Technically my Hero's Warsword wrap (was bumped down to second page if you want to check it out.) has pre-cord because I just wrapped over the factory hemp that it came with. Same with my H/T which had pre-cord underneath the factory wrap, kept it on but ended up using a thicker piece of leather on it so the cord didn't show through much. It's something I may try if I get any new swords that need customizing or if I ever re-wrap these guys.
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Post by Huer-Ta on Sept 15, 2015 18:48:45 GMT
I really like your second go at the wrap, the risers came out a lot more defined. Do you ever use a cord wrap underneath your leather? It adds a lot more strength to your core and is an extra measure of security against grip failure. If you use the right cord it adds minimal thickness to your grip. Your final product really looks great though and that seam looks perfect! Thanks, I think they did because I used smaller cord this time around, actually the first wrap's cord is the same cord I used on the Roven and Homildon which came off the Roven's spiraled factory wrap. Guess it just was too wide for the shorter European single hand grip? I used a couple snips of the round left overs from the Effigy's factory wrap to do the new one. Its about the same diameter as the stuff I used on my H/T bastard many years ago when I re-wrapped it. I flattened it down some using the flat of a pair of needlenose pliers which made it a little more square which is what I prefer over completely round regarding risers. I'm very happy with the results and its a way more comfortable grip now. Regarding pre-cord, never really put much thought into it as I kind of prefer the smooth feel of the leather to wood over the more ridged cord feel. Technically my Hero's Warsword wrap (was bumped down to second page if you want to check it out.) has pre-cord because I just wrapped over the factory hemp that it came with. Same with my H/T which had pre-cord underneath the factory wrap, kept it on but ended up using a thicker piece of leather on it so the cord didn't show through much. It's something I may try if I get any new swords that need customizing or if I ever re-wrap these guys. Yeah, some types of cord can bunch up and feel little "bumpy" under the leather. Personally, I've found that tends to happen with the more fibrous cords. I like using waxed cotton cord because it is very fine and really doesn't affect the feel or look of the grip.
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Post by nddave on Sept 15, 2015 20:37:52 GMT
Thanks, I think they did because I used smaller cord this time around, actually the first wrap's cord is the same cord I used on the Roven and Homildon which came off the Roven's spiraled factory wrap. Guess it just was too wide for the shorter European single hand grip? I used a couple snips of the round left overs from the Effigy's factory wrap to do the new one. Its about the same diameter as the stuff I used on my H/T bastard many years ago when I re-wrapped it. I flattened it down some using the flat of a pair of needlenose pliers which made it a little more square which is what I prefer over completely round regarding risers. I'm very happy with the results and its a way more comfortable grip now. Regarding pre-cord, never really put much thought into it as I kind of prefer the smooth feel of the leather to wood over the more ridged cord feel. Technically my Hero's Warsword wrap (was bumped down to second page if you want to check it out.) has pre-cord because I just wrapped over the factory hemp that it came with. Same with my H/T which had pre-cord underneath the factory wrap, kept it on but ended up using a thicker piece of leather on it so the cord didn't show through much. It's something I may try if I get any new swords that need customizing or if I ever re-wrap these guys. Yeah, some types of cord can bunch up and feel little "bumpy" under the leather. Personally, I've found that tends to happen with the more fibrous cords. I like using waxed cotton cord because it is very fine and really doesn't affect the feel or look of the grip. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll try some of it pending my next project. Speaking of projects, when you wrap scabbards do you cord wrap the core before leather or do you leave it bare wood? I'm actually in the progress of making a new scabbard for my H/T Bastard and was wondering if there is any benefit to that. Probably could've pre-corded my demi-scabbard for a more rounded grip.
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Post by Huer-Ta on Sept 16, 2015 4:52:46 GMT
Dean nailed it with his fancy science talk ;)As far as scabbards, I don't cord wrap under the leather as there is no real impact on the scabbard (unless you fall on it of course). The grips are cord wrapped as mentioned above because we translate force through the grip when we swing/cut with our swords. Now, another option is a glue soaked linen wrap over your wood core like chenessfan has done. He can tell you specifics on making one of those better than I could, but the end result is a VERY thin yest VERY STRONG scabbard once all is said and done.
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Aikidoka
Member
Monstrous monk in training...
Posts: 1,451
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Post by Aikidoka on Dec 1, 2015 20:55:41 GMT
Nicely done! Is that epoxy that I see on the ends of the wood core where it meets the guard and pommel? Is the wood core epoxied to the tang?
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Post by nddave on Dec 1, 2015 22:50:47 GMT
Nicely done! Is that epoxy that I see on the ends of the wood core where it meets the guard and pommel? Is the wood core epoxied to the tang? Not a 100% sure. The glue you see is from the original leather. The leather was tucked underneath the pommel and guard. If you look at the pic closet you can see the edges of the black leather that I wasn't able to remove. It could be epoxied and I believe another member said their European was when they broke it down. Voltan said his Homildon Hill had Epoxy underneath the wood so I wouldn't be surprised if other Windlass swords do too.
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