Need some crafting tips.

[Ribbish]

Hi there, I'm going to be working at a Ren Faire next weekend, and I'd like to use my own sword. In order to use it I must cover the blade, since it's going to be peacebonded and we don't want any children running into it (Kid-kabob is out). Unfortunately it didn't come with any form of a sheath, so I wanted to make one.

Since I'm on a budget, I decided on the idea of cutting some cardboard to length and shape, wrapping it in a light cloth, and adding a bit more decorative cardboard at the top, and some reinforcing at the tip so it doesn't poke through. Do you fine folks have any tips? Any material substitutions? This is my first time actually making anything but toast, so I'm a little lost. Any help is appreciated.

[Amyj]

A while ago I came across this page: http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Weapons/ScabbardStepBy.htm I haven't tried the tips there yet, but it sounds fairly simple...
There is also this tutorial that looks pretty good: http://www.mron.org/The_making_of_a_14th_century_scabbard.pdf

Good luck...I'm going to try my hand at making a scabbard myself one of these days....

[Lady Mac]

Ribbish,

My nephew is a sword and dagger fanatic, he's only 12. He made a scabbard for one of his broad swords with
cardboard, electrical tape and a dark blue ribbon, winding the tape at a 45 degree angle on the scabbard,
overlapping the ribbon by about a 1/4 inch. He finished it with a few strips of scottish plaid hanging from
the hilt, Braveheart style. It actually looks very nice for a 12 yo's work. So what are you out, free cardboard,
a roll of tape and ribbon, and you get to tear up one of grandmas' house robes. Just an idea, good luck.

[groomporter]

I've made a couple decent simple leather scabbards with minimal leather working experience. I used a multi-hole leather punch ( http://tinyurl.com/2bhz4v5 ) to punch holes in the leather for stitching it together. I cut a rectangular piece of leather, just a little longer than the blade and wide enough to wrap around the blade and leave room for sewing it together. Then I took about an inch-wide strip of leather and sewed it to what would become the top of the scabbard and would eventually create a "collar" around the opening. The collar not only reinforces the opening but also creates a "stop" to prevent it from siding out of the frog or baldrick you end up hanging it from.

I then soaked the leather in water and wrapped it around the blade and punched holes through both edges of the leather at the same time while it was wrapped around the blade so I could make sure it was a tight fit. I only went part of the way and I then used "artificial sinew" to stitch it together part of the way to hold it together and then punched more holes down the length and stitched and punched. Once it was stitched together I removed it from the blade, turned the scabbard 90 degrees and reinserted the blade so that the stitches ran down the side of the blade instead of down the edge*. You may have to wet the leather again to get it to stretch a bit and form around the blade in the other direction. I then trimmed off any extra leather along the stitches and let it dry around the blade forming a custom-shaped scabbard. While it's new it may be a tight enough fit to prevent it from being casually drawn even when not peace tied.

If the blade is not plated the damp leather may leave a little rust on the blade, but as long as you remove it once the leather is dry it shouldn't be anything you can't rub off easily with a little oil and -maybe- a kitchen scrubby pad.

*This technique also assumes that the blade is not sharp enough to cut the leather as you reform the shape of the scabbard. I can post some pics of the finished scabbards if people would like.

[Ribbish]

Thanks for the tips folks! I decided on the wrapped electrical tape style and it worked for the first two days, but broke on the third, luckily the sword vendor supplied me with a replacement!