10th Century sword

[Jeff Pringle]

The unfinished sword in this thread -
http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=33550

Is now finished!

[Alan L]

Hah! It IS the Pringelrii!

And now I also see the reasoning behind the historic fit and finish thread...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, AWESOME! For some reason I can't get the "not worthy" smilie to come up, my computer seems to have blocked javascript today so I'm limited to what's on the screen.

In-freakin'-credible. I yield to your superior skill and determination!

[J.Arthur Loose]

Hey... where'd the Pringelrii inscription go?

Lovely fittings.

[Don Halter]

Fantastic! How about a closeup of the pommel?

[Jeff Pringle]

Hey... where'd the Pringelrii inscription go?

I rusted and polished the blade a couple times, trying to give it an authentic 'been around the Mediterranean a couple times' feel, and the blade inlay has become somewhat elusive for photography - still obvious in the hand, though. Looks like a watermark, or hamon.

[GHEzell]

Beautiful work, wish I could hold it. The inlay work on the fittings really sets it off.

[J.Arthur Loose]

Jeff- is the pommel solid silver? Damascened iron? I've been wanting to learn mechanical damascening in order to do niello on pommels...

[Jeff Pringle]

It's all wrought iron, inlaid with silver only on the top and bottom faces of the guards, then the mix of silver & copper in right and left twists intermixed with plain wire on the sides. One channel cut for every wire, not the koftgari 'crosshatched ground' method. I took each piece up to ~600 degrees several times during the process, so it'll definitely take niello, it melts way lower than that, right?

[J.Arthur Loose]

Niello generally has a melting point from 800 - 1000 F. It really prefers to fuse to silver and gold; hence most niello that you see on arms and armor is either inlaid or damascened with the noble metals...

[Jeff Pringle]

The low end is probably fine, I'd be concerned about getting the oxide coating too thick on the steel/iron ground on the high end.
I guess some test pieces are in order

[RHGraham]

Beautifull work Jeff...

[Jeff Pringle]

Thanks, Randal - I learned a lot, it was a fun blade to do.
almost done with the scabbard, now - woad-dyed calfskin:



Still got a lot of work to do on the chape, though.