"The Fabulous Machine"

The Fabulous Machine is a tribute to the creativity and skill of Joel Mason, Director of Jacob's Armoury. He is renowned for the swords and fencing weapons he's made over the years. Sadly, his long battle with Parkinson's Disease no longer allows him to make complete weapons but you can find a lot of his work at http://www.jacobsarmoury.com . Since making custom grips for Classical Fencing weapons is one of my hobbies, I was particularly inspired by Joel's "Fantastic Machine," a device he built to wind multiple wires and cords on sword grips. You can see the original machine at http://www.jacobsarmoury.com/the-fantastic-machine.html . I have a particular love of gears, metal and machines so my "Fabulous Machine" has a bit of steam punk thrown in.
I'm very thrilled to contribute in small part to Joel's wish that the procedures and techniques he's developed not be lost. I don't think I'll ever achieve the beauty and mastery of wire winding that Joel has but hope that others will also take an interest in his work and carry on with his art. My dream would be to visit his home in Scotland and learn more while time allows but I don't know if that will be possible. Maybe there is someone out there that can.

A better view of the gear and pawl system that locks the wheel in place so adjustments can be made to the wraps.  The three brass pieces near the bottom of the side plate are actually heavy brass pipe, drilled and threaded to accept brass bolts from the underside.  This anchoring system provides additional strength against the pull of the tensioning system for the wrapping cords.

The first test of the complete system with the machine anchored to a portable work bench.  Note the addition of a center mounting bolt.  This allows solid mounting and the ability to angle the machine as the wraps are applied and assists in tight place placement of the wraps next to each other.

The test wrap was done with four wrapping cords.  At the beginning of the wrap, each cord is anchored radially into notches in the wood and glued into place.  As the grip is turned, each cord is picked up and included until all four cords are being wrapped at one time.  The use of a larger diameter cord allows for a more secure grip by the hand.

The line tensioning system of pulleys and weights.  The overhead pulleys can handle five lines or more if similar cords are grouped.  The two pulleys behind the main pulley block allow lines to passed to the back to prevent the weights from interfering with each other.  The weight cartridges can be opened to change the internal lead weights for optimum tension on the lines.

A detailed view of the main pulley block.  Open eyelets were used in the ceiling to allow easy removal when not in use.

The completed grip mounted on a Classical Fencing foil.  The stainless steel pommel is my own but the Fleur de Lis guard is from the collection of Benjamin Bowles at Benjamin Arms.  Although many of his surplus parts are no longer shown in his new catalog, I understand he still has a number of desirable weapon parts in stock.