• Questa guida e' stata trovata e diffusa in Italia da Renato 'Pip' Seghieri
  • Reproduced by Kind Permission Of Mike Horrill Aldebaran

    • Sword Making Guide.

    Making the Hand Grip.

    The final stage before latexing the finished sword is to build up the hand grip. There is no hard and fast rule about how thick a hand grip should be as it depends on the size of your hand and personal preference. I personally think a lot of professional weapon makers make their hand grips too thin which results in them twisting in your hand as you try to use them.

    There are two approaches to making the grip. The first is to simply wrap foam around the handle and glue it in place until you achieve the desired thickness this will probably require two layers of foam). This is very simple and produces a reasonable grip but it can be a little soft and squidgy particularly if you are making a fairly thick grip.

    The second method produces a slightly firmer grip. Take the former and wind it in a thick plastic rope as tightly as possible (washing line is good for this). Use double sided sticky tape on the former to make sure the cord won't slip. If you have weighted the former the cord can be used to build the rest of the hand grip up to the same thickness as the part of the former with the metal tubing on.

    Now wrap the cord in a layer of foam as above to build the grip up to the desired thickness. This method produces a very nice grip which is firm enough to allow good control of the weapon but has just enough give in it to make it nice and comfortable to hold.

    Finally wrap the grip in a layer of gaffer tape. This helps to prevent the foam from breaking up after prolonged use which can result in the grip going squidgy. The sword should now look like the one below and is ready for latexing (Fig. 25).

    One other method of making a grip which I do not recommend involves taking a length of plastic tubing. Two holes are drilled in either end of this and it is slid over the former and screwed into position before the pommel is made. This method is quick (which is why some people use it) but it produces a narrow, hard grip which is uncomfortable to hold and the fact that it is screwed onto the former introduces a weak point in the weapon just in front of your hand where stresses are at a maximum and a sword is most likely to snap anyway.

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