Stitching a Leather Grip on a Medieval Mace

Disregard what Captain Contrary has to say. I’m quite certain my three readers are interested in my metal and leather fetish fixation. Today, my readers become viewers for first time. Kick back with a cold drink on this hot day and watch the second leather grip get stitched onto the mace handle by yours truly.

Stitching Video

This grip is quite different than the first one. The top and bottom edges were folded over to provide a ridge. Nothing fancy, fold over a 1/4 inch or so, apply glue, clamp, and wait for it to dry. I also added horizontal “tooling”. Tooling is a stretch considering it was done with a straight edge and the flat bit of a 90 degree screw driver. The leather is dyed with a dark brown but not treated for resilience. I want wear to quickly show through giving an artificially aged look.

Now that both maces are adorned with leather, I must allow them to venture into the world. Perhaps if I quit experimenting, I can finish my documentation on the howto document explaining all the key steps in building a medieval mace.

Stitching Leather on a Hilt

A few weeks back, I wrapped up my build series on how to construct a medieval mace. The two maces I completed have been staring at me from the garage bench. I was happy with the results but the finish was anti-climatic. Something was still missing; flawed beyond my imperfect results.

It finally struck me — wooden hilts are dull and likely undesirable in battle. Would I take a mace into battle with a smooth wooden handle knowing my hands would be soon sweaty? No. What if I lost my grip, would I choose to lose the weapon or have it dangling from my wrist? I chose the latter.

How hard could leather wrapping a hilt be? It appears pretty straight forward. Chunk of leather, wrap around, stitch it together. Most modern hilts wrap a strapping material around them. Leather strap tightly twisted about the hilt would work nicely but I wanted a solid chunk of leather. Something to grab with a man paw before avenging the invasion of my space by the watermelon army.

One of the first and most informative posts about stitching leather on a hilt came from Net Swords. Dated a decade ago, the forum posts provide a good amount of detail without any illustrations. From there, I searched around for stitching instructions.

Jim from Mainline Leather has a YouTube Video demonstrating stitching that is clear and concise. His channel also covered the proper technique for preparing thread on the needle. I have yet to master either. Sadly, it appears the company has disappeared or at least the Internet presence has been replaced with a domain holding spot. Too bad, I would have ordered supplies from them if the company were still around.

After settling on 5-6 ounce leather for the wrap and doing some preliminary stitching, I set to work. Slacker that I am, I took no photos of the process. I suspect I’ll be repeating it and attempting to improve upon it. I followed the NetSword instructions and also Jim’s. The results are mixed.

Leather Hilt Stitching

The leather was cut to specifications and touched with a bit of stain. The quality of leather I had was marginal so I hit it with deep brown dye to fill in the defects and then covered it with a mahogany stain for the remainder. The effect is interesting. I also went for a “two-handed” length of leather. I misjudged the length of sinew I’d need by a third.

Leather Stitching on the Hilt

I did not anticipate the ridge development. I should have from my early experiments. In the end, it was needed to get the leather tight to the haft. As you can see, I burnished the elements in between where I ran out of sinew. If I had used a single pass of stitching, I would be happier. Novice mistake, I’m sure.

Handling wise, the ridge is not as annoying as I believed it would be. Gripped with the ridge in the palm of your hand, the mace is less likely to rotate. Is that is good or bad? I do not know. I do know that I do not know squat about leather work and stitching.

Full Mace Stiching

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. They really need a wrist strap.

Medieval Mace Build VI – Final Assembly

As with all projects, eventually you reach a conclusion. Two of my three heads are completed. The one remaining is the six-flanged I originally planned to build. It will get completed but not for this build series.

Attaching the heads to the hafts was both simpler and more complicated than I expected. For the original bond, the hafts were dampened and covered with Gorilla Glue. As a glue, its amazing stuff. Gorilla glue was chosen for its expansive nature considering my heads had a slightly larger internal diameter than the 1″ dowel hafts.

Build Tip: Gorilla Glue is extremely good but is also tricky to use. Over application is a common problem. One I encountered with the 4-Headed Mace. If you use it, make sure you are around and can clean up excess. Removing it once hardened is very difficult.

Originally I intended to use a steel wedge for additional holding power for the 4-flanged mace. However, that was not possible with the cucumber head given the head was capped. In the end, I decided to add metal reinforcement in the form of a rivet. Prior to gluing the heads on the hafts, I drilled a 1/8″ through hole in both heads using a drill press. You could use a hand held drill but for a true hole, a drill press is much easier.

Next, I bought a 1/8″ brass rod. Brass rod is available in a variety of sizes at most major home improvement and craft stores. Originally I considered copper but the metal is too soft in this application. Purchasing brass rivets may have been a good choice so only one end would require peening. Here’s an image of of the cucumber head with the brass pin before I trimmed it down to about a 1/4″ on both sides.

Cucumber Rivetting

Rivet setting appears simple. All that is required is to gradually expand the metal shaft into a domed head. In practice, the process is not quite as easy. As aids, I used a 1/4″ drill bit to dimple a hole in steel stock as a rivet set. I also had a rivet set tool on hand from prior leather working. Brass seems pretty tough at first but patience is key.

Using the rivet set, I got both sides of the rivet started. I then set the tool aside and switched between the peen and flat heads of a ball peen hammer to finish. The geometry of the heads made the process difficult because the rivet also slid to the far side if I didn’t hold it square against the metal stock. The process would have been far easier if I owned an anvil.

Rivets have a number of applications both modern and historical. Steven over at Forth Armory has a good tutorial on peening rivets. If you are interested in the technique, I suggest his article as a starting place and some practice.

After the rods were peened, maces were complete. I did a bit of touch up on the finish for the hafts and heads. Neither are pretty. Both have flaws. Considering I’ve never undertaken a build of this nature, I’m happy with the results. I would not want to be on the receiving end of either of them.

Maces Finished #1

Maces Finished #2

Maces Finished #4

The build project has been educational, enjoyable, challenging and rewarding. Not having undertaken a metal fabrication project prior to this one, I had a great time, learned I know next to nothing about metal and had a great time doing it. I’m not finished building maces. I have a lot more territory to explore and refine. Yet the initial project is complete and so is the build blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along.

The future of the current maces are not in question. Both will get used. One may take a walkabout.

Cuir Bouilli

Cuir-bouilli (From the Oxford English Dictionary, 2d Ed.) [F., lit.”boiled leather.”]

Leather boiled or soaked in hot water, and, when soft, moulded or pressed into any required form; on becoming dry and hard it retains the form given to it, and offers considerable resistance to cuts, blows, etc.

I originally stumbled across hardened leather while searching for an inexpensive way to construct leather armor. Like many, I had no idea leather could be hardened. Members of the Society for Creative Anachronism were the most commonly cited resources. The bulk of the SCA’s posters were using hardened leather to build lamellar armor. Lamellar is constructed from individual lames and stitched together without the need of a backing material.

The use of hardened leather for armour construction is highly debated. Hardened leather was common in a number of objects including English bottles, blackjacks, and bombards. Additionally, it was often seen in Italian artifacts including caskets, scroll cases, powder flasks and parade shields. Rex Lingwood covers the historical aspects in greater detail.

General Process and Materials

My research on cuir bouilli resulted in two different techniques for the hardening process — hot water and melted wax. The hot water method appears to be commonly considered more historically accurate than using wax. Both methods are cited as working well. Wax hardening has been mentioned as being softer in hot, sunny conditions.

Both methods require the use of vegetable tanned leather. Avoid other tanning methods. Generally, vegetable tanned leather is sold for tooling leather. Local distributors can be still be located in most cities but leatherwork is rapidly becoming a lost art.

How To

Personally, I have only hardened leather using the wax immersion process. No matter the method you select, I recommend you read David Friedman’s articles. His original article The Perfect Armor for wax hardening and follow up article The Perfect Armor Improved: Water Hardened Leather are extremely informative and covered in The Miscellany in PDF form.

I’m not currently undertaking any leather working projects so I’ll point you toward resources. Lamellar armor is pretty easy to fabricate and assemble.

Further Reading

1. Carlson, Marc. “Cuir Builli/Hardened Leather FAQ.”
   June 9th, 2004. May 30th, 2010.
2. Wikipedia. “Boiled Leather.”
   August 17th, 2009. May 30th, 2010.
3. Friedman, David. “Historcial (sic) Hardened Leather (‘cuir bouilli’) Technique
   September 29th, 2003. May 30th, 2010.
4. Lingwood, Rex. “Cuir Bouilli: Background Information” May 30th, 2010.
5. Turner, Jean. “Cuir Bouilli Technique – A Historical Method of Hardening Leather”
   2009. May 30th, 2010.
6. SCHOLA Forum. “Leather Vambraces”
   June 23rd, 2009. May 30th, 2010.
7. Coleman, Robert L, Jr. “Construction and Use of Lamellar Armour in the Current Middle Ages.”
   May 30th, 2010. May 30th, 2010.
8. Friedman, David and Cook, Elizabeth. “The Perfect Armor”
   May 30th, 2010.
9. Friedman, David and Cook, Elizabeth. “The Perfect Armor Improved: Water Hardened Leather”
   May 30th, 2010.
10. Torvaldr Leatherworks. “Lamellar”
    December 26th, 2008. May 30th, 2010.

Mace Build Part V: Flange Attachment & Finishing

Fabricating a mace has been a challenge. Significantly more than I originally expected. Being faced with a challenge is good — it throws you out of your comfort zone. One can either rise to the occasion or admit failure and walk away. I’ve done a bit of both in this project.

Last time, I left off with flange fabrication. My experience with the six-flange construction hit a wall during fab and I knew it was going to get significantly more difficult. I am not skilled or very experienced with a MIG Welder. The project is designed to expose my weaknesses and force me to extend my skills.

Welding flanges did both. I have no images to upload. Documenting something you are fighting against doesn’t work out well. I struggled to determine how to clamp my flanges against the haft. The first one was simple but as I added flanges, it became increasingly difficult. Wisely enough, I had prepared “Plan B”, a simpler four flanged mace for practice. Honestly, I just didn’t like the flanges I’d prepared for the six-flanged mace so decided to keep it simple.

Plan B quickly went from the back of the pack to the forefront. Before I notched a single weld on the six-flanged mace, I chose to mock up the 4-flanged simpler version. Ninety degree angles around a circumference are easier to visualize, measure, and weld. I now understand why the original maces were crafted on a flat plate and then wrapped around the haft. The flat plate construction technique appears more difficult but after my effort, it may be the wisest choice. A blacksmith 500 years ago would probably call me an idiot and he’d be right.

My MIG welding skills leave a lot to be desired. A modern welder would call me an idiot and he’d be right as well. I’m okay with that. It is a challenge and failing is okay.

Four Flange, Welds

Welding takes patience and understanding of how the metal is flowing. I used to find myself completely blind behind a welding helmet but gradually, I’m learning to watch the flow and spatially recognize where I am in the process. My welds on the four flanged mace are not pretty. Often they are lopsided toward one side or the other. Then there are the beautiful sections where I get it.

Four Flange, Welds, Take 2

If I can discover how to discern between the ugly, the pretty and the utter failure, I’ll become a much better welder. Knowing I can not achieve perfection let me be happy with my progress. The welds would not hold up to scrutiny for even a high school instructor but they’ll hold the flanges on. Success. With little over a half day of effort, this project has begun to finally take form.

With the head of the mace taking form, the only element missing is the wooden shaft. The other day I purchased a hardwood dowel. One inch schedule pipe is not as optimal as I expected. The interior diameter is over an inch — slightly. If I attempt to mount it directly, the mace head will fly off like a critical failure on a d20. No worries — a simple wedge will serve and every hardware store around me sells them for axe handles. Or I can try another metal working technique.

Here is the haft on the finishing table. Its longer than I expect for the final piece but I can always cut it down to size.

Mace Hafts

Since I’m working with raw steel, the head is going to rust. More quickly than I care to see. My meager attempts at fabrication are not worth plating so I chose the modern solution — spray paint. Here are a couple of photos of the head cleanup and subsequent painting.

Four Flange Cleanup

Four Flange Painting

Mace Build Part IV: Flanges

After preparing the center shaft of the mace, the next step was to cut and prepare flanges. The task of cutting flanges appeared to be straight forward. Both the horizontal band saw and the abrasive cut-off saw can be adjusted to miter or cut angles. For the English flanged mace, the flange angle was 45° at the top of the mace, followed by a flat tab, and finally angle back down to the shaft at 25°.

Initially both angles appeared well within the range of the tools. However, due to the mitering adjustment mechanism and the necessary clamping to hold the material solid — 25 degrees really needed to be 65&deg. Some metal cut-off saws allow you to miter +/- 45° but the one I have does not. Given the limit, the cutting options for half of the flange were reduced. Precision cuts were out.

For the shallow angle, the cut had to be made either using a hand-held tool using a cut-off wheel or using a plasma cutter. I know my limits with cut-off tools. Even using a dremel to accurately cut soft, small materials usually leads to scarred, mangled cuts. So the plasma cutter was in and the cut-off wheel was out. Who wouldn’t choose super heated ionized gas over tossing a few measly sparks?

I understand most individuals do not have access to a plasma cutter. If you do, make certain you are trained on its use and utilize all necessary safety equipment. Anything capable of slicing through metal like butter will not pause when it hits flesh. If you are in doubt, get a knowledgeable individual to assist or use a different tool.

In skilled hands, a plasma cutter can produce surprisingly accurate, defect free cuts. In my hands, the cuts are not precise, straight, or anything close to approaching defect free. My experience is limited to rough cuts and I don’t regularly use the tool. In hindsight, I should have made a jig and used a stand-off roller guide. Maybe next time.

Flanges, Rough Cut

Obviously, rough is the right word for the cuts. To minimize the number of cuts made and maximize my use of material, each cut was used to produce two flanges. This was accomplished by first cutting the 45° angle on the band saw, followed by the 25° cut with the plasma cutter and finally making the second 45° cut on the band saw once again.

In short order, six flanges were mocked up but needed to be cleaned up. In addition to being slightly off on the overall angle, the cuts had rotational errors. Basically, I didn’t hold a perfect 90° perpendicular angle as I made the cuts so the flanges had a face angle that varied across each of the three cuts. Pretty is not one of my primary motivators in this projects but the resulting flanges were far below my initial expectations.

I wanted more uniform flanges and absolutely wanted to get rid of the jagged aftermath of the plasma cuts. For the cleanup, a 4 1/2 inch hand held grinder was used. Aligning the stock bottom and the front 45° surfaces, I mounted three flanges at a time in a vise and gradually reduced the rough cuts. To avoid over grinding, I continually mixed up the 6 flanges into different lots of 3 and gradually ground them even and flat. Time consuming but well worth the extra effort.

Flanges, Ground

I expected to hit several hiccups in this project. I did not expect the flanges to be one of them. My appreciation for skilled metal workers continues to grow. Metal fabricators produce amazing results. The amount of technical knowledge and skill they uses without thought is truly astonishing. Metal work is an art form. I cannot fathom attempting even this simple fabrication without modern tools. Imagine how difficult the process would have been in the medieval ages in terms of time, labor and frustration. I no longer question the apprenticeships in the craft.

Plan B

Somewhere amid the grinding on the tapered flanges, I took a break and realized I had extra flange and shaft material. The frustration with the tapered flanges was acute. Looking at the already 45°’d end of the flange bar, I decided to cut a simpler flange producible by the band saw. I quickly chose to just make the flanges 45 degrees on each side with a 1/2 inch flat tab center.

For the Plan B flanges, the fabrication was trivial. The flanges required only minimal cleanup on the bench grinder and produced nice looking 2.25 inch flanges. For the second head, I chose to only use 4 flanges rather than six. Ninety degree angles are easier to align and clamp.

The shaft leftovers were a bit sparse. After removing the threaded ends and cutting the original shaft, slightly over 3 inches remained. For a test head, it was sufficient so I returned to the lathe to clean up the surface as I’d done previously. On a whim, I decided to add a detail on Plan B — just a couple of slight grooves on the haft end of the head. Alas, the one and only cutter bit for the lathe appears to have expired. Perhaps I’ll order in another bit or two for future efforts.

Weighing In

After running out of fabrication energy, I was online and talking with my buddy nails. He’s far more artistic than I am and has undertaken metal projects in the past. As we were discussing the project and the progress, he asked a pertinent question:

nails says, “How heavy is this thing going to be? metal can sneak up on you “

Excellent question. I figured I was light on even the 6 flanged projected compared to the original and knew the four flanged “Plan B” we was going to be significantly less. Busting out the postal scale, I weighed both prototypes in component form.

Six Flange Raw on Scale

The six flanges and metal shaft topped the scale at just over 1.5 pounds — 0.3 pounds heavier than the original influence. Heavier than I suspected. Credit to nails for identifying the sneaky power of metal. So what about Plan B?

Plan B on Scale

Plan B tipped the scale at 3/4’s of a pound with two less flanges and half the shaft length. Looking closely you can also see the aborted decorative grooves at the base of the shaft. I like them but need better tools and some guidance on lathing properly.

Considering everything I’ve encountered in the project. I’m pleased with the progress. Many more challenges are sure to arise before it is complete.

Fun Fact: My mace was Made In China. While polishing up the shaft for Plan B, I discovered the pipe was clearly stamped Made In China. I could have ground it out with significant effort. Instead, I’ll just leave it there. Thanks China! May my Chinese pipe fabricator enjoy his role playing. Thanks bud!

Next Up: Affixing Flanges

Building a Mace: Part III — Fab Begins

Today, I resumed working on my recreation of an English Flanged Mace. Previously, I analyzed the required materials for the build. Earlier in the week, I stopped into my local big box store and bought a foot of 1 inch Schedule 40 black steel pipe and a 3 foot length of 1″ x 0.25″ flat steel bar. Total cost $11. With some scrounging or a visit to a local metal supplier, similar items can be obtained for less cost.

After determining the materials, I realized I had not looked at the flanges in sufficient detail. I copied a couple of of the original photographs and started re-measuring for the final dimensions of my flanges. At the top of the mace, the flange is close to 45 degrees followed by a short head and a shallower, 25 degree, angle extending down toward the haft. I was surprised to see they were nice round numbers. I expected odd angles not precision. Both angles appeared easily within the range of the tools I had available.

Fabrication always has hiccups. I had just as many documenting the process. Digital camera – check. Batteries in the camera? Dead. Video camera check. Tripod? Uh, I should have thought of that earlier. Batteries are easier to get sorted than a tripod so at least I have a few photos.

Raw materials

Step 1: Core Reduction

Easing into the fabrication, I decided to cut the steel riser pipe down to size. As you saw, it was threaded on both ends. The first cut was to remove one threaded end. For the job, I used a horizontal band saw. An abrasive cut-off saw would work nearly as well but the band saw cuts cleaner and requires less grinding after the cut. Many suppliers will also cut pipe to size.

Pipe Resizing

The image shows the unused length of pipe being cut off by the bandsaw. The mace’s core is the portion clamped in the saw. Is there a technical term for the center, hollow core of a mace? If so let me know.

After cutting the pipe down to 6.5 inches, I touched up minor rough edges with a bench grinder and was left with a sticky problem. To affix the bar code, the fine folks over at the huge box store fond of orange paint, used 3 inch tape. Removing the tape was not a problem but the adhesive remained. I physically scraped the adhesive free as much as possible and then used brake cleaner as a solvent to remove the remainder. Make sure you cool the metal completely before using a solvent if you have just cut it!

Step 2: Pipe Cleaning

Black steel pipe is steel that has been oxidized (or otherwise coated) and often oiled to provide a minimal amount of corrosion resistance. For good adhesion, it is often necessary to clean the metal. MIG welding is hot enough the step is likely not necessary but if you are brazing, the metal needs to be quite clean. No matter the future step, I like clean metal.

To clean black pipe, degreasing is the first step. A simple solvent like brake cleaner is common and easy. Spray the pipe and wipe with a clean rag. Doing so twice is sufficient. Heavy duty kitchen cleaners and hot water can also be used.

Removing the black oxide is optional. I decided to remove it. Black oxide is a light surface level oxidation — a black rust. It can be removed chemically with acids or mechanically. Either method works well. I mounted my pipe in a metal lathe and used strips of emery cloth to sand it down.

Shaft Cleanup

The difference between the raw material and the cleaned product are obvious. If you are aiming for a very polished final product, continue to clean, polish and refine the pipe until it meets your standards. I have no intention to produce something pretty. I just want a rough approximation that is sturdy.

Hint: If you are like me an can only fabricate a few elements at a time, use a light dusting of WD-40 to keep the cleaned metal from rusting. Its easy to clean off.

Next Up: Flange Construction