I hadn't planned on making a relz thread for this, begin minor as it is, but then I figured what the heck.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37502
== Description ==
Allows any Blade or Blunt weapon to be sheathed on either the back or the hip, simply by pressing 'H' to toggle orientation.
Weapons with changed orientation are saved and retain changes.
This should work with mod added weapons as well as vanilla, and with total conversions, such as Nehrim.
== Installation ==
Extract the archive to Oblivions data directory.
== Known Issues ==
First person animations remain unchanged, regardless of sheathing orientation.
Weapon orientation changes are only done in game mode, thus:
The character display in menus may require close/open to reflect actual weapon orientation.
For the first game load of a session, there may be a short delay before the mod kicks in.
== Compatibility ==
This is will probably be incompatible with anything that changes the player skeleton.
Player animation replacers will not function while any weapon which has been re-oriented is equipped.
== How's it work? ==
An additional 3rd person skeleton has been added with the back and sideweapon bones swapped.
A set of animations for this skeleton are included which also have back and sideweapon references swapped.
Of these animations, onehand equip and unequip animations have been renamed to twohand, and vice-versa.
When the player equips a re-oriented weapon, the player skeleton is reassigned to this new skeleton.
When the player unequips a re-oriented weapon, the player skeleton is reverted back to default.
(With a hex editor and sufficient motivation, one could create a compatible set of alternate animations for use with any animation replacer.)
The new skeleton and animations can be overridden by placing replacements in "data\characters\_katana\"