Sword of Baelor Targaryen (Sword customisation WIP thread)

This is a project that I have been preparing in a corner of my mind for several months. I hope you will find it fun and that other beginners like me will find it useful. 

This is a sword customisation project, meaning that I bought a finished products and am applying a few modifications to the sword in order adapt it to my vision. 

I bought the Kingston Arms Crecy War Sword back in June (you can find my review here link). I wasn’t very happy with the sword, but it was fine since I had acquired it for this project specifically. 

Now to explain what I am trying to do: I am a huge fan of GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (which has inspired the Game of Thrones Series and more recently House of the Dragon). Ever since reading the books as a teenager, I have wanted to own a sword from this universe. I looked to buy the official replicas produced by Valyrian Steel/Jalic Blades, but unfortunately found them to be very lacking in terms of quality and finish (especially when you look at the original props). I suspect this is due to the manufacturers having limited time with the props (as opposed to the LotR UC replicas that as a close to the props as it gets). When House of the Dragon came out, I was amazed by the two Targaryen swords, Blackfyre and Dark Sister, which were designed and forged by the great Peter Johnsson. This made me want to have my own Targaryen sword even more. I could not dare to replicate Peter’s incredible work so I looked to make a sword for another great Targaryen character from the books. It was not easy to find one, because most noteworthy Targaryen wielded one of the above mentioned swords. I also wanted there to be enough story to work with for this project to be driven by GRR Martin’s story, rather than pure fan fiction. And I think I found the perfect guy: Prince Baelor Targaryen, also known as Breakspear. So let me start with a bit of history and why this is the perfect pick for this sword in my opinion. 

WARNING: The following section goes into a bit of lore from the books, so if you are not interested, just skip ahead to the research section!

Prince Baelor Targaryen was the eldest son of King Daeron II and was named Prince of Dragonstone as he was meant to succeed his father as king. In order to groom him for power, he was named Hand of the King at the age of 26 and served for 13 years. He is described as a great knight and earned the nickname of Breakspear when he defeated Sir Daemon Blackfyre, one of the greatest knights in the land, at the age of 17 in the final tilt of a tourney. Prince Baelor was widely considered to be an example of chivalry and wise beyond his years. He tragically died in a trial by combat, having joined to defend a low born hedge knight named Duncan (who would later be know as Ser Duncan the Tall) against his own nephew Aerion Targaryen. During the battle, which pitted 7 against 7, he was accidentally struck to the head by his own brother Maekar’s mace and he died shortly after removing his helmet once the battle was won. Duncan later thought: “The world made no sense when a great prince died so a hedge knight might live”. 

Prince Baelor is expected to appear in the HBO miniseries “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”, which is currently in early development and will cover the events of the Tales of Dunk and Egg books by GRR Martin. 

Now why do I think Baelor is the perfect subject for this project? Firstly, his sword is never described or portrayed. He definitely did not wield the Targaryen Valyrian steel sword, as at the time Daemon Blackfyre had Blackfyre and Brynden Rivers had Dark Sister. So, one could assume that he’d wield a normal steel sword. 

Secondly, my choice also has to do with Baelor's character. Among the fans, he is often compared to 14th century’s Edward of Woodstock, known as the Black Prince and who was the heir of King Edward III of England. Like Baelor, he died before his father and was considered to be one of the greatest knights of his time and one of the great military commanders of the Hundred years’ war. One of the many battles he participated in was the Battle of Crecy (1346), the very battle the Crecy War Sword was inspired by. So the choice was pretty obvious. 

Plans and research 

The base sword is pretty simple but has many aspects that can be modified: The guard, the handle, the pommel and the scabbard. I will not touch the blade, because I don’t know how to and in my view it is perfect. Let’s look at the elements one by one:

 Guard: 

I am to make this a Targaryen sword, so the guard should include the symbols of the House of the Dragon, while still being practical. So the end of each quillon will be filed in the shape of a dragon’s head, while the centre of the guard will show the wings. The idea is to have one dragon per quillon and them to meet in the middle. 

I intend for the heads to be simple, almost modern, with an emphasis on clean lines. This will be done with metal files (for the big stuff) and diamond files for the details and finish. The simple design is mainly driven by the fact that I never did anything like this and don’t want to overcomplicate it. 

 Handle:

The base model’s guard and handle are a bit misaligned so I will remove the handle, make a new one out of poplar, wrap it in thread and leather. I am still unsure how to do the leather wrap, whether by skiving it and glueing it (often seen in tutorials), or by glueing and sewing on the side (which is know Damian Sulowski is doing). 

Once the leather is added, I will add embossing on the leather, with two dragon tails going up around the handle. They would start one on each side of the grip, representing the tails of the two dragons. I also intent to use a small cross-shaped stamp I recently bought, which I hope will give a nice texture to the leather between the tails. The leather will be dyed black, with the tails being dark red (the colours of house Targaryen). 

 Pommel:

This is where I am most unsure. I initially wanted to carve the centre of the pommel to have the Targaryen sigil. But carving stainless steel is not easy, so I might do something simpler. The pommel will ideally include the 7 pointed star, which is a major religious symbol in this world, but I was thinking of having it head down. It is just an aesthetic choice, because I want to add a “fake peen block”, but could be interpreted as either Targaryens throwing a bit of shade at the faith or it being the right way up only when the sword is drawn. 

Additionally, I will be looking to add Valyrian glyphs on the pommel which mean Fire and Blood, the words of house Targaryen. 

Finally, as I wrote above, I am thinking of adding a fake peen block, probably out of brass. This would be fixed onto the existing peen with epoxy and faith. The reason behind it is that the existing peen is very rough. Also I like the aesthetic look of a peen block and finally, it would add the weight of the material I removed in the guard. To be determined when I get there. 

 Scabbard: 

This is probably the area I am most confident in, having previously made three scabbards for my other swords. The base scabbard was extremely loose and not really fit for a prince of the realm. So it will be completely redone. 

I will use the veneer method explained here (link) by Peter Johnsson (he explains it way better than me). The scabbard will be dyed black with some red elements (again the colours of house Targaryen). For the design, I use several embossing tools, including a swivel knife, a seeder background stamp and a beveller stamp. Here are the different design elements: 

1- The Targaryen sigil near the throat of the scabbard (red design on black background. 

2- On larger dragon on the bottom half of the scabbard (black dragon on black background). This design is taken from the House of the Dragon series and can be seen on Daemon Targaryen’s breastplate. It is a bit of a flashy design, a would draw attention away from the rest of the sword if coloured, so it will remain black on black to be discreet enough. 

3- Again the Fire and Blood glyphs will be hidden near the belt fitting. 

4- There will be quite a bit of background stamping with the seeder to give it a very textured scaly look (like a reptile’s skin?). 

5- The belts might have thin red lines on each side, by carving grooves into the sides. Will decide later. 

So here it is, the project is launched! May the Seven and the Old Gods be with me on this adventure. I’m aiming to finish by Christmas if my job allows it! I will look to update this thread regularly.