Making a falchion using broom bristles

Following up on my post from yesterday, I am now using the broom bristles not to repair a weapon, but rather to make a completely new one.

There were several comments, here and in social media, about using the bristles to repair swords as well as spears.

Right now, I am in the process of building a retinue for The Barons' War using plastic figures from Fireforge. I like the figures quite a bit, but I noticed one omission. Falchions are very useful weapons to have in your baronial retinue, but the Fireforge models do not come with them.

A falchion is a single-edged sword, rather than the typical double-edged sword more commonly found on medieval models. In The Barons' War rules, the falchion has a special ability whereby defending units in lighter armor have a penalty to their defense due to the slashing nature of the attack.

I did a little quick internet research, and discovered that Durham Cathedral has a surviving falchion in its collection.

The Conyers Falchion

Looking at the shape of the blade I felt that I could replicate it, or at least get close, using the broom bristles.

Step 1: Flatten a portion of a synthetic broom bristle with the flat pliers.

Sword arm, and flattened bristle.

Step 2: Carefully cut the sword blade off of the arm, leaving the hilt, and drill a hole into the hand for the new blade.

Hole drilled for new blade.

Making sure the hole was centered is crucial.

Step 3: Trim the falchion blade to shape and clip it, leaving a small stub of round bristle to fit into the hole.

Arm and blade ready to be attached.

Step 4: Glue the blade into the hole. Once this was done I took the flat pliers and flattened the bristle all the way down to the hilt.

Falchion blade inserted into hole in sword arm.

Step 5: Assemble the rest of the figure as normal. That's it, that is all there is to it.

The proud owner of a new falchion.

The new blade is clearly distinct from the regular sword.

That should enable you to clearly identify the troops armed with falchions from those armed with normal swords. Now, all that I have to do is repeat the process seven or more times to equip the entire unit.

'Til next time!