3rd Age Dunedain Arming/Wilderness Carry Sword
Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2016 7:00 pm
I have been eagerly awaiting making this post. In fact, I have been looking forward to typing this for darned near six years now. *does quick math, gives up, does quicker forum search* In fact, the blade came into my possession on November 26th. You know…2010. Many of you have heard the history of this little guy too many times, so for the older members, I’ll keep this Cliff’s-Notes-worthy. It began life as a Hanwei-Tinker Bastard blade, which is available as a standalone or with hilt parts. It was a type XVIIIa; a bit slender as compared to most true longswords, with a fuller just past 1/3 the total blade length.
It sat idle in my hands for several years. I messed with forging a guard for it myself, and then ditched that for lack of time (and, frankly, skill) along with the distraction of my first move to Indiana in 2011. I still had plans to keep it as a longsword all the way up until 2013, when inspiration struck. I shipped it off to Odigan, and he took a solid chunk off the tip and re-ground it. He made it pretty clear that whatever production shop Hanwei was cranking these out through was doing a fairly substandard job of finish grinding, so he had some kinks to work out in regards to distal taper and the fuller.
While he had it in his possession, he read my mind and messaged me: “Do you want any runes or anything on it?†I’d been planning to do that myself, but still wasn’t sure how I was going to approach that step, so I threw caution to the wind and said “Sure!â€
Among the better decisions I’ve ever made, to say the least.
Shortly after getting the blade back, I commissioned my massive Saxe-on-crack from Odigan, and bought a lovely block of Wenge to serve as the grip material for both pieces. As most of you have seen, he knocked that project out of the park, and I’ve carried it happily for some time.
Still had this blade lying around, though, and it waited for a few more years before I knew what it was I was going to do to finish it.
I went through half a dozen drawings, several of which I carried in my pocket and mulled over for some time before tossing them in the garbage. At the end of the day, what I wanted was something that felt like Middle-Earth, wasn’t straight up WETA, but could also feel historical. Not because I necessarily would want it for a historical event [my Bristol would fit there better] but because my intent for my impression of Middle Earth Dunedain culture is one of history/age; not the flamboyant fantasy pieces seen elsewhere. That’s a tall order. Normally, I’m pretty good with design, but this one just fought me tooth and nail. I kept falling back to other’s designs for furniture, and just tried to mix and match parts. Nothing ever felt right.
The thing about designing a sword, from the ground up, is that most of us (nearly all of us, really) are NOT sword designers by trade or experience. There is SO much that goes into designing a sword that will affect how it performs when all is said and done, and I was SURE that I would get a critical part of it wrong. Still, it needed to be mine, so I decided to use an existing, established, performing sword as a guideline for furniture proportions: the Albion Prince.
I used the basic geometry of the hilt section of the prince for proportions; not as much for design inspiration, persay, but for dimensions and cohesion. I printed the prince’s hilt on a sheet of paper, flipped it over, and began to draw, using the hilt as a guide for handle length, guard width, pommel diameter, etc. The trick is, because my blade is narrower at the base, the parts would be proportionally smaller upon completion, and would (in theory) complement this smaller blade with presumably appropriate weights and dimensions. I mixed in some WETA flair, some historical precedent, and some plain old function, and arrived at this drawing, which I finally sent with the blade and a deposit to Ernie of Yeshua’s Sword, in September of 2015.
Thus began 14 months of agonizing, unconstitutional cruelty…watching blade after finished blade be posted on Ernie’s facebook feed as they were sent to their new owners; thinking any day that mine would pop up. One project in particular that showed up only recently, I’ve decided is mostly to blame for the delay of my own. The description mentioned that the project underwent “Over 100 design changes during the process…†Good grief, that’ll hold things up.
Still, finally, in June of this year, I received my first progress photos, and I realized a glaring mistake I had made. In trying to tailor it to myself, I had sent some preferred grip length measurements, and hadn’t thought to attempt to coincide them with the proportions of the Prince reference drawing. The grip was clearly too long. Being used to the extra space afforded by the Bristol’s grip design, I nearly overlooked that extra grip length on a smaller blade like this could remove significant authority from the blade weight, and destroy its chances of being a decent cutter. Thankfully, it was in early stages of work, and a relatively easy fix. I’m proud to say I’m only responsible for one big design change during the process. *Whew*
It was two more months before I heard back from him again. The fabrication of the pieces was all complete, and it was time to move on to detailing and buffing, etc. The handle length looked right now, and it was all finally coming together. At this point, I was checking my email inbox religiously looking for those pesky updates. Still, two more months (of course!) passed before I received my latest correspondence, at which point I nearly fell out of my chair. Detailing was finished, pending peening it all together, and he “Hope(d) to have this project completed in the next week or two.†A proposed deadline! Fancy that! My wife’s eyerolls intensified shortly after this revelation, as some requested wool swatches, an order of linen, and two deer hides from Udwin all started rolling in during the same week. It was Christmas in Arnor, for sure…Christmas in October.
Once I got that UPS notification, though...this has been the longest week of my life. "Expected arrival Friday." GAH!
At this point, though, I don’t expect I shall want for anything during the actual Christmas season. This fall has, quite obviously, been far too good to me…but some good things simply must, finally, arrive.
Exhibit A:
Stats forthcoming. Be patient. I'm playing.
It sat idle in my hands for several years. I messed with forging a guard for it myself, and then ditched that for lack of time (and, frankly, skill) along with the distraction of my first move to Indiana in 2011. I still had plans to keep it as a longsword all the way up until 2013, when inspiration struck. I shipped it off to Odigan, and he took a solid chunk off the tip and re-ground it. He made it pretty clear that whatever production shop Hanwei was cranking these out through was doing a fairly substandard job of finish grinding, so he had some kinks to work out in regards to distal taper and the fuller.
While he had it in his possession, he read my mind and messaged me: “Do you want any runes or anything on it?†I’d been planning to do that myself, but still wasn’t sure how I was going to approach that step, so I threw caution to the wind and said “Sure!â€
Among the better decisions I’ve ever made, to say the least.
Shortly after getting the blade back, I commissioned my massive Saxe-on-crack from Odigan, and bought a lovely block of Wenge to serve as the grip material for both pieces. As most of you have seen, he knocked that project out of the park, and I’ve carried it happily for some time.
Still had this blade lying around, though, and it waited for a few more years before I knew what it was I was going to do to finish it.
I went through half a dozen drawings, several of which I carried in my pocket and mulled over for some time before tossing them in the garbage. At the end of the day, what I wanted was something that felt like Middle-Earth, wasn’t straight up WETA, but could also feel historical. Not because I necessarily would want it for a historical event [my Bristol would fit there better] but because my intent for my impression of Middle Earth Dunedain culture is one of history/age; not the flamboyant fantasy pieces seen elsewhere. That’s a tall order. Normally, I’m pretty good with design, but this one just fought me tooth and nail. I kept falling back to other’s designs for furniture, and just tried to mix and match parts. Nothing ever felt right.
The thing about designing a sword, from the ground up, is that most of us (nearly all of us, really) are NOT sword designers by trade or experience. There is SO much that goes into designing a sword that will affect how it performs when all is said and done, and I was SURE that I would get a critical part of it wrong. Still, it needed to be mine, so I decided to use an existing, established, performing sword as a guideline for furniture proportions: the Albion Prince.
I used the basic geometry of the hilt section of the prince for proportions; not as much for design inspiration, persay, but for dimensions and cohesion. I printed the prince’s hilt on a sheet of paper, flipped it over, and began to draw, using the hilt as a guide for handle length, guard width, pommel diameter, etc. The trick is, because my blade is narrower at the base, the parts would be proportionally smaller upon completion, and would (in theory) complement this smaller blade with presumably appropriate weights and dimensions. I mixed in some WETA flair, some historical precedent, and some plain old function, and arrived at this drawing, which I finally sent with the blade and a deposit to Ernie of Yeshua’s Sword, in September of 2015.
Thus began 14 months of agonizing, unconstitutional cruelty…watching blade after finished blade be posted on Ernie’s facebook feed as they were sent to their new owners; thinking any day that mine would pop up. One project in particular that showed up only recently, I’ve decided is mostly to blame for the delay of my own. The description mentioned that the project underwent “Over 100 design changes during the process…†Good grief, that’ll hold things up.
Still, finally, in June of this year, I received my first progress photos, and I realized a glaring mistake I had made. In trying to tailor it to myself, I had sent some preferred grip length measurements, and hadn’t thought to attempt to coincide them with the proportions of the Prince reference drawing. The grip was clearly too long. Being used to the extra space afforded by the Bristol’s grip design, I nearly overlooked that extra grip length on a smaller blade like this could remove significant authority from the blade weight, and destroy its chances of being a decent cutter. Thankfully, it was in early stages of work, and a relatively easy fix. I’m proud to say I’m only responsible for one big design change during the process. *Whew*
It was two more months before I heard back from him again. The fabrication of the pieces was all complete, and it was time to move on to detailing and buffing, etc. The handle length looked right now, and it was all finally coming together. At this point, I was checking my email inbox religiously looking for those pesky updates. Still, two more months (of course!) passed before I received my latest correspondence, at which point I nearly fell out of my chair. Detailing was finished, pending peening it all together, and he “Hope(d) to have this project completed in the next week or two.†A proposed deadline! Fancy that! My wife’s eyerolls intensified shortly after this revelation, as some requested wool swatches, an order of linen, and two deer hides from Udwin all started rolling in during the same week. It was Christmas in Arnor, for sure…Christmas in October.
Once I got that UPS notification, though...this has been the longest week of my life. "Expected arrival Friday." GAH!
At this point, though, I don’t expect I shall want for anything during the actual Christmas season. This fall has, quite obviously, been far too good to me…but some good things simply must, finally, arrive.
Exhibit A:
Stats forthcoming. Be patient. I'm playing.
