Hi its Tod of Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and today we're going to talk
about sword scabbards and how you wear them so I've got the fabulous Hob here
who's going to be modeling our swords I'm going to go through the different
types or not all of them but main principle types and just show you how
they're put on how they're worn and why they're like that. So I'm talking about
these swords scabbards in no particular date order but we're starting here with
a Bruegel Messer so Bruegel was an artist from the early to mid 16th
century it did fantastic portraits and pictures of people real people depicted
in real life and it sort of very thuggy type guys tended to wear short messers
like this so hope could you put that on now you see them both worn as a baldric
like this and also belted, I'll show you a belted version in a moment, now this is
obviously very free to move that can be a bit of an issue. It's a personal choice
thing so some people would always put a belt over the top of that and if it's
belted over the top of the Baldrick strap you're carrying the weight on your
shoulder but basically it's not free to dangle about next one up is a another
Bruegel inspired messer. The sort of guys who are wearing them are
very rough and ready suits Hobb perfectly. This one has been set up
differently so it's got a belt that just loops around the scabbard going through
a slit front and back this has the advantage or the disadvantage depending
on personal choice that it is much more secure along the leg now it doesn't
swing about so much as going over the shoulder but again you're now carrying
all the weight on your hips it's personal preference. Next up is a messer
so a German big knife it's really a short sword this one has been put on to
a split belt here so it'll hang at a slight angle now again if you belt this
tight it's really quite secure on to the hips there and it doesn't really swing
about too much so it's it's an effective scabbard type similar kind of setup was
seen in the 14th century for single-handed swords riding swords
here we've got a late 13th an early 14th century integrated sword scabbard so the
belt is actually woven into the scabbard and this one is with a buckle again
because it's got the split belt it hangs at an angle it naturally does that and
you you pull it relatively tight but it sits down a little bit like the sort of
the gunslinger look that the belt can swing down a little bit from higher on
the right hip to lower on the left that keeps it fairly secure and again it will
wobble a bit but it's actually relatively secure thank you up here
we've got a 12th and 13th century style scabbard again it's integrated slightly
different style but you've got a split belt which is then woven into the actual
scabbard covering and that's what secures it in place this one has no
buckle it's an earlier version and the system is tied so we'll show you how to
do the knot so we're threading the two parts of the tail the top one through
the top slot the bottom tail through the bottom slot that's then pulled tight the
top tail is formed into a loop and the bottom one threads around it passes
through itself and is just pulled tight and then just pull the main parts of the
belt left and right and it pulls the whole thing tight and it's really very
secure so you can jump up and down and that there's no problem with it even
though it looks like quite quite a flimsy fixing here we have a 15th
century sword scabbard which is lashed it's tied the belting is tied to the
scabbard itself which actually makes it quite adjustable so it is useful as well
as being a relatively cheaper way than using fittings now this is a three point
suspension which is very handy on longer swords basically it has a fitting which
is towards the small at the back either over it or just over your left buttock
but what it means is that the straps that are on the top of the scabbard hang
down here and then the front one comes across and it pins the whole thing down
to your side so it makes it really secur it stops it flapping around I'm
not sure I'd want to go running in it particularly but when you're walking as
you saw earlier it stops the sword swinging all over the place here we have
a late 15th century long sword you may have seen a video or two I've done on it
before this one has got a belt and a suspension system which is separate so
if you pop that on now that's very useful because it means you can still
wear your flashy nice expensive showy belt basically and take your sword off
and that still tells everybody that you're the kind of dude who carries a
sword so it's that sort of unspoken thing that's quite useful so this has
just hooked on at the back I'm doing it fries but hob can do it himself easy
enough so hob just puts the main belt on just as you would any other belt so it's
tightened up he pops the pin through and that leaves a long tail that tail here
goes through the last remaining buckle on the underneath of the scabbard the
pin goes in place and then the tail that's left over is just turn over and
tucked through in that very medieval way you see you can walk with it and it
doesn't sway around very much
last up I'm going to show you a rapier scabbard so again this system has a
separate belt again it's handy if you own a rapier you've got money you want
people to know that even if you're not wearing the sword itself so I'll just
clip this on because hubs not really used to it but we've got a carrier at
the back that goes on and then, turnaround Hobb, and then we have another
point just here so that instead of having a strap that goes over the back
over your ass we've now got one that comes over the
front again it's a very secure system if you just turn to show the hanger this
here is very plain it's quite a military-type item this one if you got
the money this is just perfect for embroidery, jewels, gems, carving, showing
your money showing your bling. Well I hope that showed you a little bit more
about different sword scabbards it's quite a long time period from about
really about 1150 through to about 1600 but what I've shown you here today
covers most of the principle ways that scabbards were worn what I'd also like
to say is thank you very much Kentwell Hall for letting us use a fantastic
location so thank you
you