The King Lionheart costume of our extraordinary regular customer is getting more and more magnificent: Now we were allowed to give him the robe patches and an coat clasp also an elaborate belt buckle with the seal King Lionhearts and a matching one chape as an ornament for the tip of the leather scabbard - both made of fire-gilded silver - for his princely sword belt.
This was preceded by extensive research into which ornaments were used as a frame for the seal King Richards I and for the chape. Our suggestions were supplemented by a buckle made to match the existing leather belt and then discussed in detail with the customer. He really thought of every detail: Even the length of the sword, which was specially 3D printed for him, was shortened to make it "suitable for the event".
The true-to-original tendril ornaments were scaled to fit and glued onto previously rolled sheets of 925 silver. This meant that all the elements of the ornaments could be precisely transferred onto the silver sheets and sawn out before the glued-on ornament templates were "burned off" the silver fittings using fire and thus removed.
Burning off the ornament template using the example of the chape for the sword belt
Now followed what was by far the most complex part of the work: all the ornaments had to be worked out with the help of precision files and micro grinders before the silver fittings could be passed on to our fire gilder.
Since a belt buckle is subject to increased stress when putting on and taking off the sword belt, we recommended our customer to opt for fire gilding instead of galvanic gilding. Our customer was able to understand our arguments and then agreed. As expected, our specialist company for fire gilding did an excellent job again. The elaborate belt buckle and the chape are really very nice:
Finished belt buckle and chape for the "princely" sword belt
In the end, all decorative parts of the sword belt were mounted on the specially made leather belt. Now our passionate King Lionheart customer was able to add another highlight to his extremely elaborate costume. This truly eye-catching doublet, tassel coat, crown and sword belt ensemble is sure to not fail to make an appropriate impact in the Rhenish Carnival sessions.
In any case, our customer was satisfied with our work:
“…The belt buckle and the chape are of course true filigree masterpieces… Both are of extraordinary beauty…”