I thought the rabble might appreciate something like this. I like giving homage to various parts of my heritage. Obviously I have the Scottish part covered, so this one is the first piece made specifically for the other parts of my history, which is heavily Welsh (more specifically, Welsh folks living in and about Scotland). The sword is 38.5" long overall, and weighs ~2.5lbs.


Here's the handle section. My coat of arms is inlaid in the pommel there (silver coin), and I opted for the wire wrapped handle for durability. I'm glad I did, because the wire itself has a delicate and elegant look to it. I'm MUCH happier about it than I originally thought I'd be.



And the blade. While I'm not particularly religious myself, many of my ancestors were, and given the heavy religious influence over many periods of history, I thought it appropriate to have the blade etched with a biblical quote. I also thought, what better verse than Revelation 6:8, for an instrument designed to chop people's heads off? Here it is, in Welsh.




The scabbard is wood wrapped in calf skin, with silver fittings.



I'm slowly building a display case for the whole ensemble. It's going to be laid on a decorative shield which I'm also building, and decorating. The finished product will be a full display case with a glass door, royal blue velvet backing, and a light or two. Here's the shield so far. I'm going to forge some steel trim across the top and the bottom to give it that more "authentic" look.




And here's a very rough draft of my coat of arms, which I'll paint on the shield. Some of the gold colors will actually be gold leaf in the finished version.



What does everyone think?