Stirling Bridge Longsword

Reproduced by Paul McDonald

"This is the first hand-crafted reproduction of the original Stirling Bridge longsword, which first came to my attention in 2020.

The original sword was found in 1878 in the banks of the River Forth by the foundations of the original bridge where the battle was fought in 1297, the Scottish forces being commanded by William Wallace. Having secured permissions from the owner to closely study and fully reproduce this piece, I set about taking all accurate dimensions of blade, guard and pommel. These were fully reproduced entirely by hand and eye by hand-grinding and sanding the carbon steel blade and mild-steel guard and pommel to the same specifications, accurate to the same 1/10th of a millimetre in all dimensions.

The only missing piece from the original sword was the organic materials of the grip, so this had to be sympathetically brought back to life in period style. Medieval swords of this period typically had a wooden core wrapped in twine and leather. The wood for the grip was secured as heritage wood, from an Alder tree which had grown on the battlefield a short distance from the location of the original bridge. A visit to J. Hewit & Sons allowed me to choose from a variety of twine thicknesses and select an ideal leather hide for this purpose.

The leather had to be ideal for wet-forming and thin enough to mould around the twine which ultimately provides better grip in the hands. A fine hide for the job was selected and the final stages of forming the grip scales, twine and leather-binding was undertaken to complete this reproduction."

Paul at Macdonald Armouries undertakes select bespoke custom work as well as restoration and refurbishment of original arms. He can be found at www.macdonaldarms.com/armoury and on facebook here.