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Main => The Armoury => The Workshop => Topic started by: Sir James A on 2012-06-03, 01:50:42

Title: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir James A on 2012-06-03, 01:50:42
A quick tutorial on wire wrapping a handle - usually would be a sword handle, but this applies to maces, war hammers, etc.

Start by disassembling the sword, if possible:

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/th_2012-06-01160501.jpg) (http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/2012-06-01160501.jpg)
* A threaded allan key pommel isn't as historical as a peened pommel, but it makes this part easy and is more maintenance-friendly

On my sword, I removed the leather grip, and wire wrapped over the wood core. I painted it black so small spots I screw up won't be as obvious:

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/th_2012-06-01160506.jpg) (http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/2012-06-01160506.jpg)

I placed a few inches of the wire inside the hollow part of the handle, and pushed it back onto the tang:

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/th_2012-06-01160543.jpg) (http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/2012-06-01160543.jpg)

Wrap it around over and over. I've found the easiest way for me to do this is to rotate the sword itself, and to apply constant downward pressure facing away from my body. I can watch the sword to try to keep the wrapping tight, but it's a bit of a strain on my hands. Some wrapping done:

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/th_2012-06-01182716.jpg) (http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/2012-06-01182716.jpg)

And finally, the finished handle:

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/th_2012-06-02125043.jpg) (http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t8/jba3/medieval/wire-wrap-handle/2012-06-02125043.jpg)

This is, and I kid you not, a *very* slow process. This handle, a CAS/Hanwei Longsword, took me a solid 3 hours to do. And I made quite a few mistakes. The wire is *very* picky about being perfectly straight. Looking back at it, I should have used some pliers to straighten out the tiny little "kinks" in the wire; it would bend slight at spots when coming off the spool, and it affects the final appearance.

On the bright side, it's both cheap and easy to do. Total cost was $5 + tax, with some wire left over. I used simple black-coated brass wire from JoAnn Fabrics (or any other girly-stuff store). It was a 30 yard roll, and a bit of another. I used 26 gauge, and I didn't do the "twisted wire" style, just a straight wire wrap. And no more torn leather! Let's see how this holds up to gauntlets....
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Rodney on 2012-06-04, 13:05:03
Nicely done!  I’m going to guess that you’ll eventually see a very attractive, almost antique-like, wear pattern as the black coating wears off the brass wire at the contact points with your gloves.  8)

Quote from: James Anderson III
This is, and I kid you not, a *very* slow process. This handle, a CAS/Hanwei Longsword, took me a solid 3 hours to do. And I made quite a few mistakes. The wire is *very* picky about being perfectly straight.

I helped a buddy do this once.  You’re not kidding.  Even with two people, one slowly turning the sword and one keeping tension / guiding the wire, this process takes a long time. The results are worth it though; my buddy’s hilt still looks great after 10 years!
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Brian on 2012-06-04, 13:25:28
Well done Sir James! Another method for securing the beginning of the wire wrap on swords with peened pommels is drilling a small hole into the wood core approximately ¼” below the winding starting point and secure the wire with a dab of glue.  ;)
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Edward on 2012-06-04, 15:02:32

Another way to pin the end of the wire is with an actual pin:

(http://ed.toton.org/photos/2012/scabbard_poleaxe/b3024.jpg) (http://ed.toton.org/photos/2012/scabbard_poleaxe/b3024b.jpg)
(clicky)
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Patrick on 2012-06-04, 17:21:51
Well done!  Should be worth all the effort in the long run.
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir James A on 2012-06-04, 18:45:18
The results are worth it though; my buddy’s hilt still looks great after 10 years!

Excellent, exactly what I hoped to hear.

Well done Sir James! Another method for securing the beginning of the wire wrap on swords with peened pommels is drilling a small hole into the wood core approximately ¼” below the winding starting point and secure the wire with a dab of glue.  ;)

I'll keep that in mind, I'll be trying this on a modified Kingdom of Heaven sword in the near future too. :)


Another way to pin the end of the wire is with an actual pin:

(http://ed.toton.org/photos/2012/scabbard_poleaxe/b3024.jpg) (http://ed.toton.org/photos/2012/scabbard_poleaxe/b3024b.jpg)
(clicky)

The wire wrap on your scabbard is one of the things that sold me on giving it a try. Somehow I blanked out the pins in memory. It just looks so awesome.
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir William on 2012-06-04, 21:10:39
Looks fantastic, Sir!  I was looking at acquiring some fine silver wire but missed the last day of the auction...relatively cheap too.  Nice look, there.
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: J.G.Elmslie on 2012-06-22, 00:13:13
Spotted this, and well, felt it might be of interest to people for me to contribute.
So, just registered, and here goes.

The plain straight wire method depicted in this is a fairly simple technique, and in silver, particularly suited to viking era hilts,  but as James Anderson's mentioned, its picky about straightness, and fiddly to get right.  For later medieval, however, an alternative is counter-spiralling wire, as used by Albion and the likes on their high-end hilts.
Quite a lot of people try it, not many get it right. so I thought I'd show people how:

(Since I dont have any swordhilts that need it done to them to hand right now, I'm afraid its that good old substitute, a hammer handle.)

So, what you need, tools-wise, is:
1 pair of wire cutters, 1 Hammer, 1 Drill hand drill, or one with a reverse. 1mm drill bit. Vise, or similar clamp for holding wire. Ball of string.
And a long corridor, hallway, back garden, or similar location you can stretch the wire out for several metres. 

Eye protection. bits of wire will whip around; trust me on this. Oh yes. Or "Arr, aye", as I say nowadays. 

Materials-wise: Wire. your choice.   
Pins: broad-headed, to pin down the wire. very small clout nails work, upholstery pins work very well. Or you can make non-ferrous broad-headed pins from bronze/brass stock soldered on to panel pin nails, without drawing the steel's temper if you're careful and stark raving mad.

Generally, I'd reccommend that you wrap the hilt in leather first, in the usual wet-forming technique with risers which I expect most people will know well enough. it gives a little bit of "give" which the wire can bite into .   


So, you've got your materials: handle/hilt, pins, and wire. I'll personally reccommend "the scientific wire company" as they do reels of iron, bronze, silver, or if you're  a sick deviated prevert, anodised aluminium. a 50gramme reel is easily enough for one hilt unless its a two-handed monster, I should add.

Stick 'em all together, you get something like this:

(http://elmslie.co.uk/projects/Spiral-step1.jpg)

your first step is to use the ball of string. stick it onto your hilt where you want the wire wrap to start, and wrap it around, all the way to where you want to end. mark it, and unwrap from the hilt. That'll give you a good estimate of the length of wire you're going to need to do your wrap. Saves you screaming when you realise you're 6 inches short...

So. what you want to do for spiralling wire is take that measurement on the string, and half it, and add about two metres extra, so you've got a bit of extra. Now, what you want is to cut a wire that lenght, and loop it in half, and clamp it into the vise, and feed it out down the hallway or whatever nice open space you've got to hand.
 
sort of like this:

(http://elmslie.co.uk/projects/Spiral-step2.jpg)

now, you want to stick the other end of the wire into the drill. A nice little effort-saving tip here: clamp the ends in the vise, and have a continuous loop of wire. instead of trying to attach the wire into the drill chuck, get a ? shaped hook, and clamp that in the chuck, and hook the wire over it. far, far easier to keep the wire in place and under a little tension.

with it all hooked up, start to turn the drill slowly, and the wire will start to spiral:

(http://elmslie.co.uk/projects/Spiral-step3.jpg)

keep on going till you have a nice, tight spiral.

now, repeat the process all over, with a second length of wire. Only this time, reverse the drill, so the spiral is turning the other way.

when you've done that, you should have two lovely, straight spiralling wires, like this:

(http://elmslie.co.uk/projects/Spiral-step4.jpg)


Now, you've got your hilt, and you've got your wires. 
Use the 1mm drill bit to drill pilot holes around the point where you want the wire to start. main reason for this is that its very easy to split the wood close to the edge with a nail, and this minimises it, and also guides the pin down straight.  I'd normally do 8 nails around the entire hilt, but for this, I'm being lazy and just one.
slip the wires underneath the pin when its just above the surface, then give it a good tap to bite the wires into the surface, and pin them in place.

(http://elmslie.co.uk/projects/Spiral-step5.jpg)

Repeat all the way around the hilt, with at least half a dozen pins. so the wire is securely fixed in place.

Then feed the two spirals of wire around the hilt, and wrap it all the way up as far as you want it to be done. I'd reccommend wearing gloves, and feeding the wire over your thumb... the gloves will mean you dont saw a hole through your thumb after 2 inches of hilt.

when you reach the end of your hilt, I'd reccommend developing mutant powers, and with your second pair of hands, drill a second set of pilot holes for pins.  If you have more brain cells than I do, you might even figure out where you want your wrap to go to, before you start with the wire. it would be the sensible course of action, certainly.

Then, use a second set of pins, to hold the wire wrap end down. if you've got it right, it'll be nice and secure. if you got it wrong, expect wire to sproing out from under your pins, and unwrap into something like a bomb in a spring factory.

But if it works, you end up with something like this:

(http://elmslie.co.uk/projects/Spiral-step6.jpg)


and if that's done on a proper hilt, that should end up looking something like these two:

(http://www.elmslie.co.uk/projects/h07_03_11_12_19_49.jpg)

(http://www.elmslie.co.uk/projects/h28_03_11_19_54_34_763.jpg)

Erm. Yep. something like that.

Hope its of interest to people.
And, since this is a first post, er... Hello.



Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Brian on 2012-06-22, 01:22:19
Wow! Excellent first post! Oh and welcome to the forum! :)
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Ian on 2012-06-22, 01:43:28
Excellent tutorial!  Very easy to follow, and very well done.  Thank you for that!
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Wolf on 2012-06-22, 02:04:59
Wow that was great. Thank you for sharing that
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir James A on 2012-06-22, 04:15:23
Great write up, thank you! Welcome to the forums!
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Lord Dane on 2012-06-22, 13:03:01
Very pretty. Not exactly...stitch one, pearl two huh??  Wire-wrapping your sword grips is definitely time-foresaking but if done properly, the end result speaks for itself.  Looks great!!  I'll stick with the very fine wire that I'm used to working with.  Just did the grips on two wooden wasters of mine.  Not ready to armor my custom-swords yet.  Like them with the leather-cross bindings.  I'll put up some pics of my armory up for commentaries.
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Edward on 2012-06-22, 14:25:02

Great tutorial! Thank you very much for that.
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir William on 2012-06-22, 14:37:13
A fine first post, JG...welcome to the forums!
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Brian on 2012-06-22, 15:03:54
(http://elmslie.co.uk/projects/Spiral-step6.jpg)

Seeing your hammer handle example inspires me to consider doing a partial wire wrap on the new haft of my A&A Hungarian axe. I have to wonder if adding a wire wrap for several inches below the axe head would unduly imbalance the axe which would not be desired for the sake of esthetics, but it does beg the question if adding a wire wrap would offer a bit more durability against edged weapons?  :-\
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir William on 2012-06-22, 15:05:17
As opposed to a leather wrapped area for gripping, Sir Brian?  Or to preserve the haft?  Might help combat a cut or slash, if one were to hit right in that spot.
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Brian on 2012-06-22, 15:12:01
For haft preservation Sir William, much like langets.  ;)
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: J.G.Elmslie on 2012-06-22, 15:43:31
I have to wonder if adding a wire wrap for several inches below the axe head would unduly imbalance the axe which would not be desired for the sake of esthetics, but it does beg the question if adding a wire wrap would offer a bit more durability against edged weapons?  :-\

its not exceptionally durable, given something like that is only 0.5 or 0.7mm thick annealed steel wire. but it'd certainly offer some protection to sliding cuts, if not percussion impacts.

As for the handling question, there's a simple way to find out. Ductape a few pennies side by side, along each side of the haft, from head to wherever you'd like the wrap to end. flick it around a bit, see how it feels. if it feels ok, the steel wire will be pretty close to the same weight and distribution...
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Brian on 2012-06-22, 15:48:10
As for the handling question, there's a simple way to find out. Ductape a few pennies side by side, along each side of the haft, from head to wherever you'd like the wrap to end. flick it around a bit, see how it feels. if it feels ok, the steel wire will be pretty close to the same weight and distribution...

Brilliant! That should suffice for a handling test!  :)
Title: Re: Wire wrapped handle
Post by: Sir Brian on 2012-06-26, 13:11:58
...your first step is to use the ball of string. stick it onto your hilt where you want the wire wrap to start, and wrap it around, all the way to where you want to end. mark it, and unwrap from the hilt. That'll give you a good estimate of the length of wire you're going to need to do your wrap. Saves you screaming when you realise you're 6 inches short...

Having done this step then measured the string; a decent guideline would be for every 4" of handle to be wrapped correlates to 12 yards of wire which should have sufficient length remaining if you go past that a little.  ;)