How I made a Sword Scabbard

I have a beautiful sword that was made for me by my friends at Oak and Acorn Ancient Metalcrafts. One day I decided it was finally time to make a scabbard fitting of this magnificent blade. Following is the story of how I made it.

Construction

It all started with a piece of poplar and a pencil. I laid the sword on it and scribed around to get and idea of how big a blank I'd need.

After marking things out, I started by chiseling out the rectangular portion, since the top of the blade has a rectangular cross-section.

I continued by chiseling down the sides and center and prying up long slivers.

Here's what it looks like all cut out. I refined the shape with a curved scraper until the blade fit well with some room to spare all around.

I then repeated the process for the second half of the scabbard. Here's what the two halves look like from the end.

Clamping things together for a test fit. This is the first time I could actually draw the sword, and it was very exciting.

Now came time to glue in the felt. I'm using plain brown felt here. I glued it on with some high-strength spray adhesive. It prevents the sword from rattling around and falling out of the scabbard. It also holds oil against the blade to prevent it from rusting.

Here I'm using a compass to scribe a constant distance from the blade to establish the outer contour of the scabbard. I cut to this line before joining the two halves.

The halves are finally glued together! Hooray!

Now for final shaping of the scabbard. Most of the work was done with my trusty $5 garage sale hand plane. Hand plane work is very relaxing. That whoosh of the iron cutting through the wood, the smooth repetitive motion.

This is the tricky part, where you want to thin the walls of the scabbard to make it slim and light, but must be careful not to plane through the wood. Especially if you're not covering it in leather.

Here I am testing the fit. Tight enough that the sword won't fall out on its own, loose enough to easily sheathe and draw.

Another shot of the shaping and test fitting process. Note the stop clamped to my workbench so I can plane the scabbard without having to clamp it down. I think those are called "battens".

Just look at all those nice fluffy shavings! Can you smell the wood in the shop? And look...no sanding dust anywhere.

Finishing

I went for a nice, simple finish. A coat of "Red Oak" wood stain followed by a generous douse in boiled linseed oil. Burnish in a little wax, and that's it.

If I make another I'll try my hand at covering it in leather.

Locket

Having never worked with copper before, this was definitely interesting. I cut the shape out of thin sheet copper and refined it with files and sandpaper wrapped around dowels. I refined the fit around the scabbard with lots of careful bending and tapping.

Finally I silver-soldered the edges together. It was a force-fit onto the scabbard as I had hoped. I peened the top edges over to fair them into the shape of the scabbard. Finally I filed the seam flat and polished the whole thing.

Suspension

Now it was time to make a suspension so I could wear the sword at my side. I found a roll of imitation leather and followed some direcitons I found online (image to be linked soon). I really should have stitched it to finish instead of riveted, but I was pressed for time. I'm still quite pleased with how it came out.

Add a belt buckle that I forged from some 1/4" square steel, and we have a finished product.