109. Day, June 26, 2020



















Cheers

110. Day, June, 29, 2020


My friend Heinz got in touch, who modeled the horse and part of the figure.

My homemade saber has unfortunately found no mercy before his eyes!

It does not look sharp and it is too dirty. And Heinz is right ** sigh **

So I decided to do it a third time - and if necessary, a fourth time!

I want to work more slowly, in smaller steps and more carefully.

First of all I removed the modeling clay again down to the bare plastic ...:





Then I slowly and carefully redesigned the back of the blade ...:





Tomorrow it continues!
Cheers

Better not!

Would look like this...:

11. Day, June 30, 2020


Front side...:






Cheers

Ööööhhhhrrrhmmmm...

Practice makes perfect. Or, three times is a charm. Either way, great looking sabre.

112. Day, July 1, 2020


The other side...:





I think now I have it!


Cheers

113. Day, July 2, 2020


After priming the blade again, I started painting the back today.

I make the little ferrule with this ...:



I painted the blade itself with silver ink, the shades with "Paynes gray" ...



... because the dark purple basic tone, which is contained in this color, appeals to me well.

This is how it looks now ...:




Since this side of the saber blade will only be visible later if you lie on your stomach in front of the figure (the flat side points directly down!), It is well suited for experimentation.

So I'm going to use these colors ...



... tomorrow try to "damask" the steel a little ...


Let's see how it goes ...


Cheers

114. Day, July 3, 2020


Today I want to damascene my saber blade.

But first a little theory:

"Damascus" is a special type of blade forging that was supposedly invented in Damascus - but in any case by Ottoman blacksmiths.

Damascus steel came to Europe via the crusades.

To make such a special steel, the blacksmith takes different types of iron ...



And forges them into a block of different layers ...:



Then the block is notched, folded over and forged again into a block. Result: The various layers of iron have not only become thinner, but have also doubled.

The arbitrator does this again and again until his block consists of many very thin layers ...:



From this he forges a saber or knife blade. These blades are flexible (so they don't break) and at the same time extremely hard.

With a sine blade made of Damascus steel, you could easily cut the sword of a European crusader in battle!

In addition to this quality advantage of a Danaszener blade, there are beautiful patterns in steel under the hands of a skilled blacksmith when making the blade!

Here some examples:










The blade of our Cossack should look something like this!

But: How to paint something ...?

I did it like this:

I mixed black, steel (metal paint) and silver with a number of very thin shades and used it to paint my saber blade.



Not a single straight brush stroke can be found on the whole blade - rather, I quickly painted "wet on wet" many individual dots, curls and streaks and gradually worked out the blade shape, light and shadow as well as a "Damascus pattern" ... :









I'm pretty happy with the result!

Next week it will be the front of the saber - but first I need your opinion:

There is an inscription on the front of the blade - and such inscriptions were "steel in steel" ...



... or gold-plated ...:



Which comes better ...?


Cheers

Hi Nap!

Gold would be possible!

You are right that precious sabers at the Caucasus were often heirlooms, but this one not!
This is an award from the Tsar for bravery (St. Anna saber), made individually for the owner.


Cheers

115. Day, July 6, 2020 (the day on which Werder Bremen manages to win the relegation and to stay in the 1st Bundesliga! )


The second side of the blade - tomorrow comes the handle, the ferrule and the inscription ...








Cheers