Making an SCA List-legal Sword

On Thursday and Friday I built a sword for use at Saturday's "Marketplace at Birka". You can find pictures of this type of sword in action posted by Ursus at SmugMug. These swords are made of rattan, which shapes well with woodworking tools.

I've participated in medieval-style martial arts for 15 years, and by necessity I've been making these swords for just as long. There are some basic standards defined by the Society for Creative Anachronism in the Weapon's Standards section of the Marshall's Handbook. Here's how I build one of these swords:

I like to keep my swords consistent in length, so I generally mark the new length of rattan directly from the old sword blank. This is easier and faster than measuring.

Using my miter box, I cut the new rattan to length.

If this length includes the original cut from the rattan harvest, I cut that end square too.

SCA standards require the sword to be at least 1.25" in diameter. I shave my swords to that width and use a set of outside calipers to gauge that, so the first step is to set the calipers at 1.25" using a reliable rule.

I then test the length of rattan to get an idea of how much I will be removing from the sides and to make sure that none of the length is less than 1.25" in diameter.

Rattan, like trees, tends not to grow perfectly straight. I sight down the length to see how it bends. I want to find the position in which most of the stave is in the same plane. In this case I chose the position on the right: there is a slight jog part of the way down the stave, but that will be corrected in shaving by removing more on one side of the jog and not shaving the other side. In the left example, you can see that the stave bends off to the right. I put this bend on the front edge of the sword to make the tip really bite when it hits and gets a little extra extension if my opponent blocks.

I mark the correct orientation so I don't have to keep checking. The top of the triangle points to the tip, and the marked edge is the back of the blade.

Then I shave down the sides taking light cuts. Pulling shavings is fun, and easily overdone. Here I'm shaving the jog section a little deeper than the rest to correct the problem observed in the previous step.

You can't see the triangle in this picture, but it is facing the bench. The side marked with the triangle does NOT get shaved; it is the back of the blade and I want to shave the sides to weight the sword more like a real one. Remembering that the triangle does not sit on the top when in the vise is hard for me: It's almost automatic to place the rattan in the vise with the triangle facing upward. Shaving the back side before realizing the error, while not catastrophic, does work against the balance we tried to achieve when determining orientation. On a piece like I'm working here, the mistake would result in the sword bending sharply to the right; a sword with that characteristic will tend to twist in use as the mass tries to torque into line with the striking force.

I usually check the width after shaving the first side, hoping that I have not already reached 1.25". If I have, I'm done, but ideally I want to remove the same amount of material from each side. In the picture above, I've shaved both sides and am checking again. The intent is to have the calipers just barely slip past on the full length.

Next I mark the handle, again using the previous sword for direct measurements.

My basket hilt has a roughly round band of metal at the top and bottom with a tang at each end for strapping it to the sword, and I want to make the handle section barely slide into this. I reset the calipers to roughly match the inner diameter of the round bands.

Then I shave the top and bottom of the handle section to allow the calipers to slide past at any angle. Above I'm testing whether I got it right.

Once I have the right measures at top and bottom, I shave the section in between. I always work on the back side of the sword because I want to leave the skin on the front surface of the handle: the skin is tougher than the interior and I want to preserve some of that strength in the handle, which is one place where swords tend to break.

I test to make sure the handle fits into the hilt. I want it tight enough to require a hammer, but not too tight. This one turned out like I wanted. It pushed on this far by hand, and I'll strike the tang to drive it into final position.

I also like to weight the sword slightly toward the front of the blade. Here I've marked out the section I'll remove from the back of the handle.

I use a back saw to cut an inflection point. I tend to cut this a little humped on the bottom of the kerf (not flat as I would in cutting a shoulder) because this section will be rounded, not flat in profile. I do this by cutting most of the way down and then angling the saw to cut to the lines at an angle.

Here's the kerf.

I chop to the kerf with a chisel from the back.

I remove the rest of the waste using a draw knife from the front.

Hands aren't actually round, and handles feel better if they are elliptical in profile. Here I've marked waste areas directly onto the section I've just shaped.

I now remove rattan from the sides. Again, I use the draw knife from from the front and the chisel from the back.

I re-mark the triangle so I remember where the back of the blade is, and make final shaping with a chisel and sandpaper.

Once the hilt is on, almost all of the woodworking is done. I need to tape the sword to prevent splintering when it is in use.

OPTIONAL: I put a length of nylon webbing on my swords. This adds weight to the front and back of the sword and helps prevent severing of the fibers when the sword strikes metal.

OPTIONAL: I use strapping tape to hold the webbing in place. I've seen some people do this without the webbing, but I don't think the tape alone provides enough protection to make it worth the effort.

Duct tape is then applied to the sword. I apply four strips: one on the front, one on the back, and one on each side (in that order). At the tip, each strip of tape runs up and over the tip. Finally I wrap a section of duct tape once around the tip to hold all of the sections in place.

Electrical tape in a contrasting color is run up the front, over the tip, and down the back to mark the striking surfaces of the sword.

Many people use hose clamps or muffler clamps to hold on their handles, but I've had terrible luck with these clamps falling off under impact. Instead, I use strapping tape to hold the hilt firmly onto the sword. This lasts better than the clamps, and can be repaired without tools as long as I have strapping tape with me.

To making the tape last better I twist it. The overlapping fibers prevents a layer from tearing through all at once. To make this twist I turn the tape counter-clockwise, which puts the sticky side face outward. After twisting a section about a foot long, I wrap the twist on and finish it it with a final section of unwound tape.

I do the same for the bottom of the handle.

To complete the project, I put my maker's mark on the butt of the blade. This is struck with a hallmark and then filled in with pen.

I also give each sword a name and put it on the sides of the sword in runes. This one is called Toad Sticker. The "permanent" marker doesn't stick well to duct tape, and tends to wear off when anything scrapes against it. To prevent this I also put a length of clear packing tape over the runes: the tape prevents the runes from scraping off. The sword is done.