MDRF, 2012

[Sir James A]

Months away at this point, but here's a new thread for this year.

[Sir Edward]

Excellent.

2012 dates:

August: 25, 26
September: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29 & 30
October: 6, 7, 13, 14, 20 & 21

[Sir William]

Looking forward to it; too bad about the empty scabbards though. 

[Sir Edward]

Looking forward to it; too bad about the empty scabbards though. 

You'll just have to make a "Maryland special". It's a shame to hack up and glue together a sword+scabbard, even if it's just a $20 SLO

[Sir William]

I know, I know...and I have a sword and scabbard for it...its just that I'm loathe to do it, as you said.  Plus, where can I go to get them to cut up my sword?  I like what you guys did, kept a small bit of length at the top to give it the weight to hang properly...but what'd you do with the rest of the blade?  Cut into chunks and inserted into the scabbard with epoxy/glue?  I recall Sir Brian mentioning powdered lead?

[Sir Brian]

No I used lead strips like the kind used for making stained glass lambs. Sir Edward used approximately 10" or so of the tip on his. A basic 5 minute epoxy works for securing the hilt to the scabbard. 

[Sir Edward]

I left about 6" of blade on the hilt to epoxy into the scabbard. The remainder of the blade, I cut in half and threw one of the pieces down inside the scabbard. It's still a little light as a result. Looking back on it, I think it would have been better to use the entire blade in there, but with some epoxy on it too, so the weight would be right. With a cut in the blade, if it did somehow come out, at least I could show it to still be a neutralized sword, even if the rest of the blade is still technically inside the scabbard.

Cutting mine was easy, but it was a crap blade that I sincerely doubt had been hardened. Even if it had been, I think I could still cut it the way I did. I used one of those heavy-duty "cut off discs" on the dremel.

[Sir William]

Ah...power tools.  Heh.  Time to make a request of my lovely Lady!

[Sir Brian]

Well a hacksaw works almost as well...just slower! Think of it as *snit* practice! 

[Sir James A]

Ah...power tools.  Heh.  Time to make a request of my lovely Lady!

An angle grinder should make short work of it, too. When it comes time to make my MD special, I'll give it a go and report back.

[Sir William]

Ok...I'm guessing the cutting up the blade part is so it isn't a sword anymore...otherwise I'd just drill holes with the sword in the scabbard and either bolt or rivet it into place after epoxying the whole assembly.  Now that I think of it, the blade is so thick, I may want to be rid of some of it to lighten the overall load.

[Sir Edward]

Bolting through the sword and scabbard is an idea we talked about over here as well. That's what my brother-in-law plans to do.

[Sir James A]

Bolting through the sword and scabbard is an idea we talked about over here as well. That's what my brother-in-law plans to do.

Or possibly riveting it, which could serve as some minor decoration and wouldn't look out of period.

[Sir Edward]

True, but he wanted the bolt to be removable so he could unsheath it when not at faire.

[Sir William]

Why would he want to do that?  Its more or less damaged goods right?  Or does his sword already have cut-outs?