Bat'leth carrier, sling , sheath

[H trowselddiM naV]

Does anyone have any clue as to what a Bat'leth carrier would look like?
I own the coolest (30 autographs!) Bat'leth in the world, but can not come up with a practical/realistic carrier, sheath, sling.
I have read countless stories with the line 'he pulled his bat'leth from it's (sheath, carrier, sling)'. I can not find one image, picture or drawing of a practical, usable carrier.
Can anyone help with some concrete suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
H' trowselddim Nav

[Klythe]

    Such an awkward weapon with it's  shape and back cuts does present a number of problems for storage.  The only canon I can think of are hooks or protrusions for hanging one on a wall.  This lack of portability may be the reason why it's a sword of Honor rather than a sword of daily use. 

    One of the reasons I, myself usually only roleplay my characters using them when they are near a place that stores batletlhs and it is immediately into battle for them, such as a boarding action, an arranged duel or in a ceremonial room, or perhaps if they are a member of an Honor Guard where they are expected to keep their blades displayed at the ready for endless hours at a time.  I tend to favour meqletlhs and Daqtaghs for missions where there will be the expectation of more walking around than fighting.

    Given it's shape I think we can pretty well rule out any sort of scabbard or sheath that would be anything less than a full sized case. 

    In fact, the Batletlh is too long to suspend from the belt.  What I would suggest is more of a hanger or clip to hold it against the back or a large leather or hide pouch for it again against the back.  A sling system would work fine, just attach a strap or a length of cord around one end of the Batletlh, loop it around the front and attach it to the other end. 

    I don't own a Batletlh myself so you probably know a lot more about this than I do... But if I had a cool one with 30 signatures on it, I wouldn't want a sheath even if one were practical as it would have the potential to smudge and wipe away the autographs.  Evne with a sling the blade will still be rubbing against your back and there will be exposed metal that could accidentally cause injury to someone you did not intend to maim.  Since sharp steel blades are prohibited at all the conventions I would go to and in general most public places would perfer you don't carry around a stabbity weapon either, especially one as large as a Batletlh, you really should think carefully about any situation you would think you might want to carry it on your body.  especially for a beautiful display piece like that, I would think you would be taking excellent care with.

[KAllen]

Primos hunting has a "bow sling" that allows you to carry a bow (compound) to and from the stand over the shoulder rather than by its strings by hand.   It hook, or covers, the cams on the end of the bow(where the strings move through).  If you search that, you might find an indea of how to adapt that for a bat'letH. 

As for mine...thats why my bat'letH is made of 1/4" plywood...its lightweight. Paint it metallic silver and it looks real on camera.  The Melota makes their show ones out of aircraft alum....once again light.

[Klythe]

     The ever-cunning Kehlan has located a canon picture of batleth slings which she has posted in a thread in General Discussions.

   
Click here if image does not load.


    There are a lot of straps there, that at first glace may be taken for something they are not.   Looking directly at the batlelth grips you can see the sling is just a simple leather strap with a small loop on either end to hold the batletlh handle.  It looks like the looks are closed with large snaps.   In both cases these leave the metal blades protruding far enough from the body, that they would be unsuited for live metal blades in busy areas.  But now you have one picture of batletlh slings usable in controlled spaces.

-  Edit -  Adding link because image is not loading reliably.   - Klythe

[Kehlan]

If the link doesnt work, go direct to trekcore.com and look for Enterprise, screen caps, season two episode 6, its an episode called Marauders.

Its a pretty good site and theyve got high quality caps from EVERY episode of every incarnation of Trek, including the movies... worth a look, I've got loads of Klingon pics from there.