Belt Advice on Construction

[Crispvs]

Excellent - that bone looks perfect!

You may need to boil it before you do any shaping. If the bone has a greasy, possibly soapy feel to the touch and has a yellowish look, it will need to be boiled for a couple of hours to remove fat and oil from the bone. It is useful to cut off the nocks before boiling as this both reduces the overall amount of bone to be cleaned and also opens the ends to allow marrow, fat and oil to be expelled more easily. You will need to keep it topped up with water to stop the bone from being burnt and cracking. You will also need to change the water two or probably three times as well, as fat in the water will otherwise start to be absorbed back into the bone.

Once the bone has been boiled long enough to leach most of the fat out of it, you should leave it in a warm place (but not too close to any direct heat, which may cause it to crack) to dry out for a few days before doing any further work to shape it into a grip.

Be aware that the process of boiling up bones is a smelly one and female members of your household will almost certainly find the smell very off-putting.

If, of course, your bone is dry to the touch and is fairly white throughout, it probably will not need boiling as this will clearly have been done already.

I would cut the nock off about an inch past (ie towards the middle of the bone) the hole closest to it. By that point the bone will be thick enough to be useful. I would then cut the other nock (the one with the 'knuckles') off about five inches from this first cut.
The grips from Vindonissa vary in length between three inches and slightly over three and a half inches. This may seem small but this length actually makes for quite a secure grip as it means that the hand presses on the pommel and guard as well. As bones vary in their thickness, cutting a five inch length will mean that you can shorten it to three and a half inches by taking away the thinnest bone no matter which end it happens to be on.

Having cut your bone to the final length, you then need to bring it to a more or less square section. This may involve a good deal of filing and some judicious and careful sawing may also be necessary. Make sure you retain a good thickness of bone all round as you will need to carve down into it later. The originals are normally about an inch wide at their widest points so try not to let your bone get narrower than this.
Once the bone has been squared, chamfer off the edges and then bring it gradually to an octagonal section. Each of the eight sides will ideally be equal in width, although many of the originals are far from equal and precise in this respect.

Having achieved a satisfactory section along the length of the bone you then need to start making the four depression which run around the grip and provide the actual 'grip'. Divide the length of the bone into four equal sections. You may find it useful to mark these onto the bone as a guide. Use pencil to do this as using biro or a marker pen would allow ink to penetrate into the bone (bone being porous) and stain it permanently.
Use a half round file to make shallow depressions a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch deep on each side. Make sure these depressions are wide enough to meet edge to edge down the grip so that three reasonably sharp ridges are created down the length of the grip. These should be more or less at the points you earlier marked with your pencil. Do this for each side and make sure you work carefully in order to maintain eight distinct sides so that you are left with three horizontal ridges and eight vertical 'ridges'. You may find you prefer to do each full side in turn, or you may alternatively find you prefer to do the full circuit before then moving onto the next circuit. It is up to you.

You may find that you need to widen the internal space somewhat to accommodate the tang of your sword, as the space inside the metatarsal (and in most other bones for that matter) narrows towards the midpoint of the bone. As the metatarsal is so narrow at its midpoint, the internal space can be too narrow to admit the tang, hence the possible need to widen it with narrow files to ensure a snug but sufficient fit.
You may also find it useful to gently hammer small wedges into the top of the inside of the grip once it has been placed onto the tang to stop it from moving once it is in position. I used wooden wedges in mine as I judged that metal wedges could have had a gradual abrasive effect on the bone, leading to an increasingly loose fit. I decided against a soft wood like pine though which would crush as it was hammered in, and made my wedges from oak instead.

I hope this helps.

Crispvs