EthrielTD
New Member
The point of the particular exercise is to construct a scabbard for a "Daywalker"sword to avoid paying the completely extortionate prices in the shops or in my case not being able to buy the scabbard by itself in the UK at all.
Bearing in mind that the idea is to keep the price as low as possible all the stuff here is CHEAP!
(You could if you wanted always go for the more expensive alternatives, ie. using real leather and more expensive wood, etc.)
The idea was to build a scabbard for as little as possible to hold the "Daywalker" sword, so with a little looking around I managed to locate an old piece of wooden moulding lying around the house, although if you’re buying the wood it is to be about 1/8" to 1/4" wider & deeper than the swords blade and about 2" longer when divided in half than the sword blade.
Having divided the wooden moulding into 2 pieces then you should carefully mark around the sword blade on BOTH pieces of wood. Then by whatever means you find easiest (i used a chisel) you should clean out about half the width of the blade from each wooden piece, so as to construct a hollow in which the blade will sit.
With this hollow constructed it is best to line it with something, bearing in mind we are using this for a stainless steel sword and it is designed to be cosmetic rather than "authentic" i used strips of the PVC that I was later to use to cover the scabbard. I glued this into the hollow using epoxy adhesive and allow it to dry, after some thought it occurred to me that if I gently warmed each piece of wood over the gas flame when the glue was dry this would "seal" the PVC edges where cut. A side effect of this was that the PVC then shrank slightly and when it cooled the lining was bonded EVEN tighter to the inside of the scabbard
Then with the sword still in the scabbard it was again bound with the strips of PVC and allowed to dry. The sword can be removed after about half the drying time. After the full drying time the scabbard can be unbound and checked for adhesion, etc. The edges and any holes (mine had one or two from its previous use as a curtain rail holder) can be filled and filler applied to all joins. The scabbard was then bound again filler was then allowed to dry.
***UNFORTUNATELY ALL PICS AFTER THIS SECTION WERE LOST IN THE GREAT HDD CRASH OF 2008***
So okies, right now we come to the wrapping part.....now you could do the whole sewing of "snakes" etc but being as this will end up mounted on the back anyway were only gonna see one side so we can have a seam up the back.
So if you are buying the wrapping material as a single piece then you can forget the joining sections bit.
I had to join three sections of wrapping as i did not have a sufficient length of PVC to run the entire length of the scabbard, this was due to the source of the PVC being a old pair of "leather look" children’s trousers....purchased for the material as a source of PVC was not readily available.
Right taking a piece of the wrapping cut to length we cover half of the section of the scabbard in glue (I used "no more nails" though) when it’s spread out evenly wrap the covering around and press into place, at this point it should resemble a "flag" after being left to set the remaining section can be glued down. When this has been done the scabbard is gently warmed over a "LOW" gas flame as before to harden the wrapping and tighten it round the wooden core.
After this any "cosmetic" alterations can be made, such as covering the "seam" with a strip of PVC and the covering of the join marks where the scabbard length PVC sections joined, this was done by using strips of the PVC wrapped around and joined at the rear.
Wire was used to wrap around the scabbard on top of the detailing to give a look of the "original" and twisted together at the rear, when it was tight enough it was hammered down to give a smoother appearance, a tab was added to the top to give a more throat like look to the entry end and a hanging strap secured behind this both screwed and glued to the scabbard mouth.
As a final measure a leather "buffer" was added to the throat end of the scabbard to prevent damage to the hilt of the sword and hold it tightly in place.
***As promised, the finished article, although no harness yet!***
***Oh, and the little "sun" type hangy thing is my own added bit, I have them on all my swords as a personal touch***
Bearing in mind that the idea is to keep the price as low as possible all the stuff here is CHEAP!
(You could if you wanted always go for the more expensive alternatives, ie. using real leather and more expensive wood, etc.)
The idea was to build a scabbard for as little as possible to hold the "Daywalker" sword, so with a little looking around I managed to locate an old piece of wooden moulding lying around the house, although if you’re buying the wood it is to be about 1/8" to 1/4" wider & deeper than the swords blade and about 2" longer when divided in half than the sword blade.
Having divided the wooden moulding into 2 pieces then you should carefully mark around the sword blade on BOTH pieces of wood. Then by whatever means you find easiest (i used a chisel) you should clean out about half the width of the blade from each wooden piece, so as to construct a hollow in which the blade will sit.
With this hollow constructed it is best to line it with something, bearing in mind we are using this for a stainless steel sword and it is designed to be cosmetic rather than "authentic" i used strips of the PVC that I was later to use to cover the scabbard. I glued this into the hollow using epoxy adhesive and allow it to dry, after some thought it occurred to me that if I gently warmed each piece of wood over the gas flame when the glue was dry this would "seal" the PVC edges where cut. A side effect of this was that the PVC then shrank slightly and when it cooled the lining was bonded EVEN tighter to the inside of the scabbard
Then with the sword still in the scabbard it was again bound with the strips of PVC and allowed to dry. The sword can be removed after about half the drying time. After the full drying time the scabbard can be unbound and checked for adhesion, etc. The edges and any holes (mine had one or two from its previous use as a curtain rail holder) can be filled and filler applied to all joins. The scabbard was then bound again filler was then allowed to dry.
***UNFORTUNATELY ALL PICS AFTER THIS SECTION WERE LOST IN THE GREAT HDD CRASH OF 2008***
So okies, right now we come to the wrapping part.....now you could do the whole sewing of "snakes" etc but being as this will end up mounted on the back anyway were only gonna see one side so we can have a seam up the back.
So if you are buying the wrapping material as a single piece then you can forget the joining sections bit.
I had to join three sections of wrapping as i did not have a sufficient length of PVC to run the entire length of the scabbard, this was due to the source of the PVC being a old pair of "leather look" children’s trousers....purchased for the material as a source of PVC was not readily available.
Right taking a piece of the wrapping cut to length we cover half of the section of the scabbard in glue (I used "no more nails" though) when it’s spread out evenly wrap the covering around and press into place, at this point it should resemble a "flag" after being left to set the remaining section can be glued down. When this has been done the scabbard is gently warmed over a "LOW" gas flame as before to harden the wrapping and tighten it round the wooden core.
After this any "cosmetic" alterations can be made, such as covering the "seam" with a strip of PVC and the covering of the join marks where the scabbard length PVC sections joined, this was done by using strips of the PVC wrapped around and joined at the rear.
Wire was used to wrap around the scabbard on top of the detailing to give a look of the "original" and twisted together at the rear, when it was tight enough it was hammered down to give a smoother appearance, a tab was added to the top to give a more throat like look to the entry end and a hanging strap secured behind this both screwed and glued to the scabbard mouth.
As a final measure a leather "buffer" was added to the throat end of the scabbard to prevent damage to the hilt of the sword and hold it tightly in place.
***As promised, the finished article, although no harness yet!***
***Oh, and the little "sun" type hangy thing is my own added bit, I have them on all my swords as a personal touch***
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