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@macaron10 Looks like the basic topology flow should be workable. Running the support loops around the perimeter of the shapes will sharpen the outer profile but redirecting the loops across the flared cap will produce a softer, rounder profile at the end of the quillion. The blade and hilt sides of the cross guard aren't perfectly symmetrical in the reference image. So adjust the basic shape first, until everything lines up with the reference, then add the support loops with a single bevel operation.

@count23 If the edges aren't creased then it seems like the smoothing artifact is likely caused by the support loop that's directly behind the spherical cap. Uneven segment spacing near curved surfaces can cause unintended pinching artifacts when subdivision smoothing is applied. Moving that edge loop away from the shape transition should resolve the artifact.

Although it may not be necessary, it should be possible to simplify the mesh a bit further and that will preserve the segment spacing on the wall of the larger cylinder. Which will help reduce the possibility of smoothing artifacts appearing there. The example below shows what this could look like.

@kuronekoshiii The mesh in the original post looks like it should be fairly straight forward to remodel but if the mesh provided by the client is a lot more complex then it may make sense to take a slightly less conventional approach. If none of the proposed solutions will work within the project's constraints: another option would be to redirect the loop flow, as shown below, then manually move the highlighted edges in along the normals until the subdivided surface evens out.

There isn't a lot of geometry to work with. So, the results of manually compensating for the mismatched segments won't be perfect but that trade off might make sense if the only alternative is scrapping a complex mesh. If the customer expects artifact free subdivision and the supplied mesh needs to be re-worked then that's something they should probably be charged for.

Toby3D said:

I'm trying to figure out how to make holes in a cylinder with booleans, and I just can't get it to look good. I've been checking this thread, google and a few other places, but I haven't found any solution yet. As you can see, there is some weird shading around the holes. I played around with different cylinders, trying out to change the amount of sides on both the main piece and the boolean, but nothing really changed.

I did play around with hard / smooth edges and giving the whole model hard edges fixes the shading, but of course that isn't a solution since I want it to be a smooth cylinder. 

Is my cylinder simply too low? Is there a problem with the topology? Is it perhaps some tension?