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Another guard style that’s especially popular with students is the faceted guard. This design is easy to lay out using a small straightedge or a 6″ ruler.
Once the front-view design is drawn, the student clamps the guard in a vise and makes one or more relief cuts. Then they begin removing the excess wood with a gouge or chisel, followed by some rasp and file work.
After that, we clamp the sword securely on the bench and add facets to the face of the guard to make it more dynamic. Using the same tools, students sculpt a polygonal guard that ends up looking quite impressive.
After finishing the guard, we glue on the ball pommel—if we’ve chosen an external pommel design. With that in place, the last steps are to wrap the handle with rope or a leather cord and apply a finish to the sword.
Next time, I’ll walk through those final finishing steps.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
