Furry scabbards historical?

[AwP]

I asked this over in the sheath making forum and was suggested to try asking here...

I'm sure most of you have seen fantasy movies with a barbarian who has a wooden scabbard covered with fur held on by leather wrappings. Is this a historical style based on some culture or is it purely a fantasy thing?

I was thinking about making one like that one day and if it's historical I'd make the blade to fit the culture, if it's fantasy then I can make whatever kind of blade for it.

[Roger Gregory]

Andrew

I can't be certain but my initial thought is "sorry but it's a fantasy movie thing".

We have pretty good evidence of the sheaths and scabbards used in most Western, especially Celtic, Saxon, Greek, Roman and Byzantine and Near and Middle Eastern societies going back to the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians. We have reasonable evidence for many of the armies of the Far East too. The exceptions are mostly the armies of the smelly horse barbarians of the steppes

Andrew, pick your historical people and I'll see what I can find out about their scabbards. I just can't promise fur and leather wrappings. Shame really because some of those movie props look really good!

Roger

[Chuck Burrows]

FYI - here's what I answered elsewhere
Andrew the answer is not a simple one per se - There are references to "furred" sheaths in the Viking sagas. Some have interpreted the writings as being fur covered sheaths and other, myself included, think they were more likely fur lined due to some of the comments. The fur in the case of the lining would most likely have been "unwashed" sheep's wool which retains it's lanolin making it not only virtually water proof, but the lanolin would have also kept the blade oiled.

On the other hand a wool covered sheath would have shed water so....

[AwP]

Well, if only fur lining is historical, and not fur on the outside that's fine. I'm not a specialist in period reproductions and I won't mind doing a fantasy piece. I just thought that if it was historical it'd be a shame to gloss that over with an inappropriate blade to go with it, so I just wanted to know either way. I might have to think of something better to call it then "fantasy" though because that has bad connotations of junky and gaudy production blades. Thanks for the info.

[Chuck Burrows]

Andrew you'll find that Art Blade/Knife/Sword is the commonly used term rather than fantasy at least for the marketing aspect.

[AwP]

That's a good idea, "art blade" sounds much better then "fantasy blade", thanks.

[Roger Gregory]

Originally Posted by AwP

That's a good idea, "art blade" sounds much better then "fantasy blade", thanks.

I agree with Chuck, "art knife" is a much better term. I think it's much more accurate too. Fantasy belongs to the mild steel things sold for $1.99

Roger

[hammerdownnow]

"Edged fetish" sounds wicked. I dont know if that is a copywritten name or denotes a particular style, but it sounds cool.
edged fetish (click4pic)

[DiamondG Knives]

Not sure where I read it, but I have seen several manusrcipt prints, and written discriptions on Samuri sword sheaths. Several were made to look like a tigers tail, others, loose fur which looked like angora.

God Bless
Mike

[hammerdownnow]

Why do you need one Andy? To match those fuzzy cowboy chaps Missy makes you wear on Saturday night?

Don't shoot, or i'll move.

[AwP]

LOL, no, I just leave my blade bare when we play that game .

[J.Arthur Loose]

Now that I think about it, I've seen a bunch of African swords with furry sheaths.

[Roger Gregory]

Do not, whatever you do, use "furry sheath" or "furry scabbard" as search terms on Google

Roger