I really like
@vanishlily
's art, so when I had a sword and a buckler done but not yet shipped out, I commissioned a photoshoot. Obviously after asking Lily for their approval for such blatant plagiarism.
I made a blinged-up Kriegsmesser during regular work hours and our photographer asked if he could do a shoot with it with his own model and his own ideas (it was already with him for my own photoshoot ideas). I think the photos turned out pretty good so I got them all.
A closeup of the decor on the scabbard I did for
@vanishlily
's ballock longsword, before the varnish was applied. It looks better with the varnish on, but I suck at taking photos of shiny leather, so...
I kinda forgot that there were more pics from the sword&buckler shoot. Also it's a bit of a struggle to keep the tactical censorship along with sensible-ish poses using physical objects that have a fixed size.
Since the katanaKatzbalgerKriegsmesser already mixes cultures a bit, I decided to organize a photoshoot with Tuyet Chizu, putting some nice handmade Trossfrau garb on her.
These will go up to the free section. Unfortunately I couldn't be present personally during the shoot, so some things got a bit misunderstood. Like the belt position of the Katzbalger, the role of the foregrip, stances. Still, some pics turned out okay or even great.
The main body of the scabbard is done, onto the metal fittings. It's always a challenge to make nice scabbards for blunts as the thick point and edges makes it impossible for the inner space to be anything but rectangular.
I just realized I didn't post this one here even though I finished it months ago. Large Bauernwehr in the style of Sumersperger, if he worked just a decade or two longer. Scabbard decor is also closely based on his work.
Well it took a longish moment for the studio photos to reach me, but here they are. KatanaKatzbalgerKriegsmesser in all its slightly insane glory. There'll be a couple more pics in the comments.
An old friend who is also one of my oldest returning customers asked if I could make him a blunt Ruger with a slightly longer blade and a custom Nagel and a cross - so not a Rugger anymore but a Messer. With mahogany grip panels. It turned out pretty neat I think.
I wanted a photoshoot based on Cranach's Justitia, and since the lowermost necklace looked simple, I decided to make it. I'm not a jeweler so I didn't realize in time that it's actually not as simple as it seems. In hindsight it's obvious that those can't be flat rings.
The first one to go out has a rougher surface as per customer request. I applied some cold bluing and rubbed it back a bit to further emphasize the toolmarks everywhere. It of course still needs a wrap for the grip and peening.
Preparations and gear check for the next shoot. I made a pair of turnshoes for her, but the ground is cold at the location so she'll only wear those for as long as necessary.
I'm going through the ~400 raw images from the photo workshop I lent a couple of weapons for. A few dozen more similar low-res previews are already on my Patreon as BTS content.
Now for something very different from my usual work, a migration-era sword with the blade based on the 4th century grave found in Újhartyán. It's 965mm long overall with a 825mm long blade. While it weighs only 850 grams, the wooden hilt keeps the PoB far out on the blade.
I have some stuff in stock and I'm never posting about them because my brain believes that it's enough to show them once they are done and everyone will automatically know that they are available... That's stupid, so I'll be posting about them a bit more in the next few days.
I made this cca a year ago, Messer based on the Karlsruhe Passion. It has a hollow pommel and some simple inlaid filework on the tang. The former is based on necessity (it would've been useless with a solid pommel), the latter is based on an original from Zakovsky's thesis.
I also made a scabbard and bypieces for the Karlsruhe Messer. The low-relief large-form floral decor was an interesting challenge, but it's a pretty much defining characteristic of the paintings. The tentacled chape was also fun.
You know what, there's a lot of my older work I never posted here, so have a blinged-up loose interpretation of a Beham woodcut with a lot of filework, a frame tang (fake full-tang like on karabelas) and Gabon ebony grip panels.
Done with the second pair of prototype blades for my interpretation of the l'Olonnais dussack. I don't think I'll ever make thick-edged blunts of these, and these thin blunts are cool but unsafe, so it'll be likely a sharp-only model. Those are the yelmaned ones here.
@CenturiiC
One of these days I'll bite the bullet and get back into armouring for a short time only to be able to organize a gyaruknecht photoshoot, if you don't mind.
Final pics of the Schlachtschwert for now. The leather took all the oil it could - not as dark as I hoped, but hide glue saturates leather during gluing, limiting its absorption capacity.
Scabbard time. The Bagpiper's customer wanted the smaller knife and the awl accessible without drawing the main piece, so the subsheath cluster is a bit lower than usual and offset towards the edge.
So, stuff in stock. I have 6 all-steel daggers with the scabbard fittings emulating Landsknecht fashion. The hollow hilt is based on an original in a private collection, while the blade and scabbard are my own design based on a variety of sources. 550 EUR+shipping/set.
Still waiting for some tools and supplies to arrive finally, so whenever there was some idle time while making the pieces for which I had stuff, I worked on some sharp Ruggers. This felt like very slow progress, but it did pay out in the end. These are available from stock.
Since I posted my mixed culture piece, I think I can signal boost Björn Gísli Gylfason's amazing work as well. It's a WakiSeax. And unlike my work, it's actually available, so hit him up on FB.
The leather wrap and rivets are done. I'm still working on the scabbard. I went with oxblood because I'm a bit bored of tacticool black or plain brown for grip wraps.
Progress on the next ballock longsword. These almost sai-like "crosses" are not super common in the sources, but they are far from unprecedented either.
Roughed out some Katzbalger blades. This is as far as my grinders can take it, so next up it's time for a lot of filing on heat-treated steel. Luckily Valtitan files are great for that.
Some people think these are "demiscabbbards". I haven't found anything to support this idea yet, so I'm sticking to my interpretation of a foregrip. Adding some protection before it would be the next logical step, and hey, that's what happens in a few years after these appear.
Leather wraps are on, now I'll wait until the hide glue sets completely, then it'll get a few coats of oil to make it authentically boring-brown, keeping in line with the source image.
@vanishlily
In 15-16th century Holy Roman Empire, it's super common on every kind of scabbard. Like, the "Munich" has a scabbard with a subsheath for a knife and an awl. The Eindhoven Katzbalger has a knife, a fork and a firearm maintenance kit surviving in situ.
This set is now complete for my part. The buyer will make the grip panels himself, as the piece of lignum vitae he has for it can't be shipped outside the US. He also wants to decorate the leather, so it's not sealed after dyeing. I look forward to seeing it at the end.
Hollow pommels are present both in Europe and Asia, so for the pommel of the katanaKatzbalgerKriegsmesser I tried coming up with something a 16th century cutler could've done after a passing glance at a katana.
(WIP)
@vanishlily
Also it was a fucking struggle but I stopped myself from posting some actual hardcore 16th century porn here to put your nsfw work into proper context.
There was some FB silliness going on a few days ago, with the idiotic claim that if you can touch a blade without bleeding, it's not sharp enough. Watch this with sound.
A variety of very different blades in progress. Base thicknesses range between 5mm and 10mm, and there are several different tips from unreinforced through passively reinforced to a single actively reinforced one.
I spent a couple of hours tuning up the fullers with files on the piece on the right. The difference is not super obvious from a distance, but from a low angle it's quite glaring.
Walnut has an extreme amount of variation in grain and colour, the latter can drastically change in either direction after oiling,which can be rather frustrating. On the other hand, it makes ending up with such a lovely piece feel amazing.
@Wass_Nonnam
One of these days I'll find the time to write a bit about fuckhuge daggers, because they are definitely a thing in art. Here, have an insane rondel with a two-hand grip from 1490.