Custom Nobleman Sword, 14thC

Nobleman Sword - custom design, 14th century, inspired by original examples and historical sources. 
Dark brown grip color, brass pommel.

Sword

This particular sword was designed based on an existing example in the Musee de l'Armee in Paris. The spherical, faceted pommel is unique and we only know of two such examples in museums and a few in iconography. However, the sword from Paris is shorter, probably the blade of the original sword was shortened at some point, perhaps as a result of the tip breaking and repairs.
This custom design has a Latin inscription hand-engraved on the blade: VLTIMA RATIO REGVM.
This sword is not light, but thanks to the excellent balance and stiffness of the blade it is very handy and manoeuvrable. Additionally, the massive pommel is a powerful blunt weapon in close combat.

Scabbard / belt / fittings
From the very beginning, both the design of this sword and the scabbard, together with all the fittings and decorations, were very interesting, historical and quite carefully planned and thought out. The motifs on the scabbard and belt were to refer directly to the lilies and this motif was to be the common denominator. For this reason, I designed a scabbard chape, which was masterfully made by Piotr Pastusiak, in the traditional repousse technique. In accordance with the customer's request, the scabbard decorations were inspired by one of my earlier projects (based on patterns from 14th century knife scabbards), in which I was asked to weave specific figures from the bestary of miniatures in medieval manuscripts. The challenge was both the size of these miniatures and their translation into another artistic technique (the smallest field is only slightly larger than my thumb). Leather is a difficult material, requiring a lot of skill, especially in such cases. In addition, the proportions and form of the figures had to be changed, incorporating them into vertical, oval fields. Using traditional methods, I pressed the lines directly onto the ready, sewn scabbard, freehand.

Many people like spectacular, colorful, flashy motifs, but less appreciate such details that are more subtle but require real artistic skill. That is why I also wanted to show a few stages of the process of making these decorations on the scabbard, because I think they are worth noticing.

Measurements:
total length 955mm
bladse length 805mm
blade width 58mm
blade thickness (base) 5,5mm
grip 96mm
crossguard 160mm
pommel 50x40mm
balance 105mm
weight 1410g