Experiments in the Dueling Sword.. or Arya's 'Needle'

[ScottRoush]

I've been captivated by the idea of dueling with the sword for as long as I can remember and I love the light, fast swords that embody the practice.. especially the ones being made from the 16th to 17th Century. I've also wanted to make a sword based on Arya's sword 'Needle' from the Game of Thrones ever since I read the books. I've dabbled in complex hilts before but haven't quite gotten what I wanted. One handicap is my terrible 110v buzzbox welder. But I've recently come up with an idea that will allow to start making these things using a combination of brazing and forgewelding. The idea is to forge each individual component, hot fit to the tang, and then stack, tack weld, and then forge weld. And then use brazing for tiny contact points. So this sword is an experiment and I'm not hoping to nail any sort of historical piece.. just make a beautiful, fast sword with an elegant hilt. I'm basically combining the short, thin small-sword blade with a hilt inspired by German bastard swords.

The blade is forged from high density 1095 laminate. I really like the subtle look of that when deeply etched.. a material I used in my last Migration ring-sword. Right now the unground, un-heat treated blade is 29" long and 3/4" wide at the ricasso.

The battery has died on my other camera so I don't have all the process pictures.. but here are a few. I will update later.

I'm trying to get this sword at least mostly complete for my main show-piece at the upcoming Art in the Park show in Duluth.. a juried art show.

Hot fitting the quillons from an old shipwreck spike...

 

[Tripletap1]

I like where you are going with that, I have been looking for a Rapier with a simpler guard, I really do not care so much for the extra fancy 3 ringed stuff.

 

[tedinatl]

Subscribed! Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

 

[Mecha]

Fantastic! Stupendous! I also love European rapiers and smallswords, so this is some exciting work.

 

[S.Alexander]

Subscribed so I can follow along. Looks great so far.

 

[Travis Fry]

I was disappointed when I saw the title, because I have been wanting to do the same thing. And then I saw where you're headed with it, and am no longer disappointed because 1) yours will be awesome, and 2) ours will not resemble each other much at all. Can't wait to see what this looks like.

 

[Salem Straub]

Cool! I'll be watching.

 

[ScottRoush]

I was disappointed when I saw the title, because I have been wanting to do the same thing. And then I saw where you're headed with it, and am no longer disappointed because 1) yours will be awesome, and 2) ours will not resemble each other much at all. Can't wait to see what this looks like.

Travis.. great. Can't wait to see what you come up. Can I ask what angle you are taking?


Thanks folks. I was just out getting brazing stuff to start learning. Pictures later.

 

[Kohai999]

Hi Scott,

Look at Court/Small swords.....the guard is not quite as complex as a rapier and is very effective. I have one from Kevin Cashen.....you can do a search and find it, Coop photographed it.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

 

[ScottRoush]

Hi Scott,

Look at Court/Small swords.....the guard is not quite as complex as a rapier and is very effective. I have one from Kevin Cashen.....you can do a search and find it, Coop photographed it.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

Yep.. I like small swords.. but not 'court swords'. Those are too fancy for my taste. Knowing some of Kevin's style.. I'm assuming that yours is more of a typical small sword (it mostly comes down to the extent of the bling and the bling goes beyond extravagance in court swords). This blade will be more like that of a small sword due to it's dimensions and geometry.. but with more of a 'side-sword' type hilt. I prefer the side-sword hilt which some call 'spada de lato' and also the German bastard sword style. Like you said.. not as complex as rapier... at least the swept hilt type (I have a cup hilt in progress as well).

I think of something like this when thinking 'court sword':

edit: Was Kevin's sword Best of Show in Napa? If so.. that is probably my favorite small sword I've ever seen.

 

[gregorio]

I think this is going to turn out great! I'm subscribed

 

[Kohai999]

edit: Was Kevin's sword Best of Show in Napa? If so.. that is probably my favorite small sword I've ever seen.

Yes, that is the one I own, Scott....and the favorite modern representation that I have seen.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

 

[ScottRoush]

Well that is a beautiful acquisition Steven.

So I've somehow lost the assembly photos of this hilt... but here is a similar rapier hilt that shows the basic idea.. forging each component, hot punching a slot for the tang, tack welding the pieces together, and then placing in the forge for forge welding.

Hot fitting the tang in the slot...

More later today..

 

[BladeScout]

Interesting.

I miss fencing.....

 

[ScottRoush]

Interesting.

I miss fencing.....

That's about all I want to do right now. I've just started learning Destreza rapier.

So got some stuff done today. First I realized that I've been missing a key feature on the sword hilts that I'm using for inspiration. The ring at the blade doesn't usually go all the way around. It is outside of the blade. So I made that adjustment which helped with some other little bits that were frustrating me. I also decided to do a side ring. Many of these types of swords had them.. and then I saw the one in broneze done on Jake Powning's Civilian Longsword' and decided to chisel a chunk off my big block of my native glacial float copper and forge one out. This native copper takes a beautiful patina that is quite different than regular copper due to arsenic and silver alloys. I think it will make a nice splash of color.. and it will be matched in the pommel.

Here is the hilt after forge welding the components. Looks like good welds.

Here is the copper side-ring brazed on using bronze.

Here is a detail of the braze joint after cleaning up with a carbide rasp. I love these carbide rasps.. they last forever and are great for cleaning and shaping. And can also leave interesting texture. In this case I will clean up with a finer bit followed by sand paper.

Starting to come together. Lots of clean up and polishing. Might be time to actually grind the blade!

 

[Travis Fry]

Travis.. great. Can't wait to see what you come up. Can I ask what angle you are taking?QUOTE]

I'm not 100% sure yet, but I never envisioned any of the swords in the GOT world as particluarly dainty, especially one made in the North like Needle. As such, I'm thinking something simpler, like a scaled down version of a late medieval longsword, but maybe with a slightly more complex hilt that somewhat protects the fingers. Nothing so complex a a rapier though--that doesn't seem to fit. I don't really feel any need to be true to history when making a sword from a made up country.

In any case, this project is a long way from even beginning, but I have been kicking it around for a while.

 

[ScottRoush]

Travis.. great. Can't wait to see what you come up. Can I ask what angle you are taking?QUOTE]

I'm not 100% sure yet, but I never envisioned any of the swords in the GOT world as particluarly dainty, especially one made in the North like Needle. As such, I'm thinking something simpler, like a scaled down version of a late medieval longsword, but maybe with a slightly more complex hilt that somewhat protects the fingers. Nothing so complex a a rapier though--that doesn't seem to fit. I don't really feel any need to be true to history when making a sword from a made up country.

In any case, this project is a long way from even beginning, but I have been kicking it around for a while.

yeah I considered the idea that a Northern blade wouldn't be dainty.. but then I thought of how skinny and skrawny she was AND the fact that her fencing teacher was their world's version of an Italian fencing master. Not to mention what the word 'needle' invokes. So I thought I'd go not quite a small sword but a thinner longsword. It is a 29 inch blade. Just skinny.

Anyway.. this is what makes this sort of thing fun.. seeing how other people interpret these things. As to history.. yeah I'm obviously not 100 percent on this. But for me... fantasy is only enjoyable when it's rooted in reality somewhere. That is what was compelling about these books from the beginning... and the HBO series which has a nice feel to it in terms of weapons and clothing.

 

[ScottRoush]

A couple more for today.

Here is a test etch of the piled up 1095 during mid-grind. Should make for a nice subtle hada.

Here is the chunk of forged down glacial float copper that I used for the side-ring:

And here is the blade showing a wonderful piece of highly figured black oak.. diver-salvaged stuff from Lake Superior. Also pictured is a piled wrought iron core gladius that will be based on the Illerup Ådal find but will sport an inlayed pattern-welded serpent. Also.. check out how long that rapier blade is compared to Needle! Also is the cup hilt that I raised/dished for the rapier.

 

[Will York]

That's a very handsome package already. :thumbup: Looking forward to the final product.

Was Kevin's sword Best of Show in Napa? If so.. that is probably my favorite small sword I've ever seen.

This one? A beauty.

 

[ScottRoush]

Yes.. it's exquisite. It is the small sword that I WANTED to exist.

It's funny.. somebody brought something up on Facebook that reminded that I haven't even looked into the sword that was used by Arya in the HBO show. Well.. while looking into it I found this website.. something like the 'history behind the Game of Thrones':

http://history-behind-game-of-thrones.com/historical-periods/mikkens-mark

The interesting part is that they show a picture of the Passau running wolf.. a mark commonly seen on many late medieval to renaissance swords... on some kind of historical rapier! I was already going to do my own version for this sword.. to tie into the 'Dire wolf' theme. The idea was already conceived. But that won't stop me.