Medieval sword belts were often made with many buckles so that they could strap down onto different sword sheaths and be re-used (if you had to make everything from scratch, you’d make sure it could be re-used, too!). In the Society for Creative Anachronism, which does medieval recreation, many rapier fighters use this type of sword belt.
Our rapiers are usually used without sheaths, though, as the large rubber safety tips on the ends of our blades make it difficult to make sheaths for them. This causes problems when “sheathing” the rapiers into the sword belt: not only is it very annoying to thread the blade through each buckle, but then the swords sit loosely and rock uncomfortably as we walk. With my friend Lucien, I have designed a simple solution to these problems: a sword belt spreader.
The tube of stiff leather I designed spans the width of the buckles, which grip on to the spreader just as they would have gripped a medieval sword sheath. Lucien has been using this for several months now. He loves it. He reports that it keeps the sword from rocking, makes it easy to draw and sheath his sword, and works wonderfully!
I started with a simple piece of thick veg-tanned leather. I cut this into the correct size to make a tube that had a wide enough inner diameter to fit the rubber sword safety tip, and a thin enough outer diameter to fit inside the guard of Lucien’s favorite sword.
Several specialty curved needles were used to make the stitches in this tight tube. The tube was also dyed medium brown on the outside to go with the sword sheath.
Looks and works great!
~Birke die Jägerin
Order of the Cavendish Knot
Dragon Army Pentamere XO
Leatherworker
