Evening All!

 

I'm looking for information about how those fancy, swept hilts were made for rapiers.  I'm a member of my local SCA group, and while I heartily enjoy fencing, I don't appreciate the cost of ordering parts for my sword online.  Even a simple crossguard is close to thirty bucks, and I want to keep as much money as possible.  Looking at the modern, arc-welded "replicas" makes me wonder how the originals were produced.

 

Just to be clear, I have neither intent nor desire to make the blade, only the hilt.

 

 

Do you also practice full contact with rattan swords?
Anyways, if you can post a pic of what you need I may can help you, i have been made full contact steel practice swords for awhile... But mainly for XV century...

Full contact =  Kendo

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=Wk7Pgx7UPiO0OM&tbnid=H9B_tItgwSkrLM:&ved=0CAgQjRwwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.preferredarms.com%2Fweapons%2Frapiers.php&ei=cPyIUdquJI3LqQH564B4&psig=AFQjCNH1-dHdCg2R-GeznXaq9qfYwEeXBg&ust=1368018416640385

 

Look for the bottom photo.  I'm after something like that.

 

As for the SCA, I only fight on the rapier field.  I respect the heavy fighters, but having a real steel blade in my hands makes all the difference.

Any of those pieces in the link are made with common metal working skills. drawing,tapering. dishing, scrolling, welding etc.

My approach to any thing new to me is to define one part of the whole and develop the skills needed. Meaning when you can draw a long gracefull taper then move to the next step. If you have trouble with any part, lthen stay at that part until it is easy as starting your truck. This is a long ad boring process, one way to avoid this drudgery is to make items that include these steps that you can complete and move on. Example would be making knife blades until they are really nice,,,then  move on to simple guards..Concentrate on fit and finish on every part you make. Any flaws on a knife blade are magnified on a sord. If any part of yoiu pice is to be welded than everly day yoiu forge ,,,forge weld something. work to perfection. And as you do these steps it is a big help to me to keep some examples of early work and compare next day or next month to make sure I am improving.

At the end of a day in shop a  piece may look pretty good. A week later it may not appear as nice.

Full contact = Kendo

I am sorry Larry but kendo is not the only martial arts with sword with full combat fighting. SCA fighters use (or used, I don't know if they do it still) to fight full contact with full armor and rattan reproduction of XIV-XV century EUROPEAN weapons. It is showed on the book I bought when I started to make armors for my association: tecniques of medieval armors reproduction, by Brian R. Price who is also a member of SCA. When I was in Italy, i performed lots of full contact fightings with XV century STEEL Italian and German swords daggers and pikes, aways and only in full armor. As soon as I can find the links I can show you the videos.

Anyways, Unfotunately I never had the chance to make a rapier even if i always wanted to, making this kind of hilts without the help of an electric welder it would be very challenging (for me) and fascinating. Can I ask you to post pics WIP if you ever decide to start one?
Thanks

Francesco

If I make my own hilt, I will most likely "cheat" and use electric welding.  I've got pretty much the entire summer to come up with a design that I like, so time really isn't an issue.  I'll also need to work on my forge welding if I decide to go traditional; I'm poor/decent at best when it comes to fire welding.