Gas was at 2.519 this morning.
Matt and I got the windows pretty well winterized, better than ever before I think. Spent most of Saturday on that, taking advantage of the nice, sunny, 60 degree day to get some outside work done.
Sunday was colder (40's) and windy, with drizzle and rain off and on. I spent most of Sunday in the shop on a woodworking project I've been wanting to tackle.
I have a small collection of swords, mostly made by Windlass Steelcrafts and purchased from Atlanta Cutlery or Museum Replicas (same Co. for my purposes). Nothing fancy or exotic, nothing antique and just one really special sword. I've been displaying the swords on my gun rack that I made 1-1/2 years ago, but a gun rack is not a sword rack. I bought a small sword rack somewhere (don't recall) but it wasn't more than a scaled down gun rack, and besides, I have more than 3 blades. Also, most of the swords have scabbards, a couple of which are worth looking at, and it's not a good idea to store the blade in the scabbard. And, even if I don't have them now, I hope to aquire more blades that have etchings or other patterns on them, and you can't see them when they are scabbarded.
So, I wanted to build a sword display rack. I also wanted to be able to display the scabbard along with the sword.
Here is what I came up with:
Instead of making one big loop for a rifle, I made a loop big enough for a scabbard, then continued forward and down with a small squared notch for a blade. The squared notch keeps the blade vertical so that it doesn't fall over. You can best see it in the bottom, empty slots.
The rack is currently unfinished. It probably won't get finished until sometime next summer because it's getting too cold to stain and varnish it now. I made it out of some scrap 3/4" oak plywood that has been banging around the barn for a while and it's pretty rough.
I may very well end up building a newer one. The first thing I noticed is that the 3/4" inch plywood is too thick and takes attention from the swords. I first made a practice 3 sword table rack from 1/4" inch OSB, which was ugly, but I think that 1/4" ash or oak would look very nice, so I might try to get some later and try it.
My other problem with both the sword rack and the gun rack is that both are made from plywood. I knew when I made the gun rack from CD plywood that it wouldn't be pretty and that there would be voids, but when I made the sword rack from oak AB plywood I didn't expect to find as many or large voids like I found.
So, I think that on my list of 'things to do when I feel like woodworking' is a new sword and a new gun rack. The new sword rack made from 1/4" or 3/8" ash and the new gun rack made from 3/8" or 1/2" ash. And probably including some kind of storage compartment for polishing/dust cloths.
Oh, and if you're interested, from top to bottom in the sword rack we have the Windlass replica of a Confederate Cavalry Saber, the Windlass replica of Lt Patton's Cavalry Sword, the Windlass replica of an Enfield Bayonet, a Windlass Tai Chi sword, and last a replica of the Dragon Ball Z sword belonging to Evolena that came from Medieval Weapon Art, but they 'forgot' to send the matching scabbard and finally sent a generic one to her. I had problems with MWArt myself; I ordered the Patton Sword from them and after saying it was "in stock" when I ordered it they said that it was backordered. Took several weeks to receive it, and MWArt never replied to any of my emails. Now I see that MWArt has been renamed "Realm Collections"; I do NOT recommend them.
Here's a picture of the gun rack and the purchased sword rack:
The blade at the top is the Windlass "Modern" katana blade, I'm still thinking about what to use for a hilt and grip (I am starting with a Katana blade,but am not making a katana); next is a wooden prototype of a sword design that I'm working on that is loosely based on the blade shape of the Enfield bayonet; next is the Remington Model 4 .22 single shot, probably manufactured about 1920. I inherited it from Dad, it was a very accurate gun, but after the second 22LR shell blew in half I decided it was time to retire it and so it has been made inoperable. Next is a Moisin-Nagant M44 stamped 1946 that has been made inoperable. Bottom on the gun rack is an inoperable 12 gauge double-barreled damascus wound black-powder shotgun dated 1893 manufactured by E. Daoust & Co. that I believe belonged to my grandfather.
Below the gun rack is the store-bought sword rack. Currently, it's sole occupant is "Sting" from "Lord of the Rings" and its scabbard. Sting is my special sword, a gift from Betty. You can see that the rack is just a mini version of a gun rack.
One of the other things I need to change about the gun rack is the loop spacing. In this photo, the barrels on all three guns have been shimmed up so they are sitting level. Part of the problem is that the M44 has 1/4" of shims, the shotgun has 1/2" of shims, and the 22 has 1-1/2" of shims. The only way to get them all to sit level is to shim them or build a custom rack with the spacing built in. When I built this one I built in (as I recall) 3/4" difference between the two sides of the rack, but it wasn't enough for these guns.
And, note how my prototype sword is resting. The hilt end should probably be 1/2" higher than the tip end. I should probably factor that into my next sword rack.
Just had a wild idea after re-reading this. I should make both racks of 1/4" Plexiglas! On second thought, maybe not. 1/4" x 24" x 96" Plexiglas (enough to make 2 of each) is well over $100. I'll have to think about it some more.
Matt and I also worked some more on the living room window, we got it rocked on three sides and Matt has taped and mudded it. I'm hoping I can figure out what to do with the right side of the window so Matt can get it mudded. If we get that done and if we get time, we might be able to paint it next weekend and then I will still need to figure out the trim around the window. Don't have any idea what I can do with the outside; I can't find a source for the asphalt siding that is on the house (and falling off). Easiest thing I can think of is to reside that side of the house, but I don't really want to do that. Probably end up putting some CDX plywood around the window and painting it some color that almost matches the siding.
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