The client of this scabbard asked for his personal arms to be displayed, which consisted of two linden trees, and the rest of the decorations have the heart shaped linden leaves displayed. I also did a new leather grip wrap with a matching motif. I even made the scabbard core out of basswood, which is part of the linden tree family.
An interesting feature of this setup is the double belt. This was inspired by a famous wooden statue of St Florian made by Michael Pacher around 1470-80 as part of a parish altarpiece. The beautiful statue has many incredible details, but one subtle one is that the scabbard has an upper belt for the waist and a lower belt wrapped around the thigh. The client asked me to do this, and it functions beautifully. Having now tried it, I’m surprised that it wasn’t more common historically!
The sword is a VB Arming Sword made for HEMA fencing. The scabbard was made to accommodate the wide rolled safety point.
Historical Handcrafts 