1st try

[ross_lad]

this is my first try at a full length sword. It is just made of mild steel with no edge. Will be used for practice. All feedback is greatly appreciated!!!

[ross_lad]

here are some pictures of the blade and hilt

[ThomasPowers]

Feed back, the pictures don't seem to give the dimensions and the weight or the distal taper
Things you need to know to give good feedback.

[ross_lad]

k, weight is about 2.75 lb, full length = 3'1". blade length = 27 an 1/2 inches. blade width = approximately 1 and 1/2 inches. blade thickness at center is 1/4 inch. balance is not very good, about 5 and 1/2 inches forward of the guard. and if i knew what a distal taper was i'd certainly tell you, haha

[Falconer]

You did a great job on shaping the steel. What you have is not a sword though. It is a piece of mild steel in the shape of a sword. That is only the first step...and it's the easiest.

The next phase is to learn to choose the right steel for the kind of sword you want to make. (Will it be for piercing steel armor?, Will it be for cutting through armor?, Will it be used for drawing? "Iaido in Japanese", Will it need to bend and still hold an edge?, Will it simply be a wall hanger?)

Then, learn to harden and temper it correctly. That's an art all by itsself... One that many blacksmiths are not very good at.

The final stage in making a true sword is learning to sharpen it without damaging the temper and learning to polish it.

Breathing life into steel is what a true sword maker does...

You did a great job and I don't mean to sound discouraging at all...but tool and weapon making are the highest forms of the art of blacksmithing (in my humble opinion!).

I collect swords, mainly Japanese, and I make them. I'm still learning and still have a long way to go. Definitely keep hammering...Keep studying...and reach for perfection!

[ross_lad]

thanks very much. i'll keep all you have said in mind. i did intend, however, only for it to be a "test" to see if i could make something that remotely looked like a sword. Thanks for the insight, and i'll keep working

[rmcpb]

You have a real lot of patience, something that not many young fellas have.

That is a great job and you are doing it right by using mild to get the skills before trying harder and more expensive carbon steel.

I would give it another go and aim at the balance point in the correct position and just a better finish, then repeat again and again. Each time you will get better. Then move up to tool steel and heat treat the beast, not a job to take lightly.

Then the hilt has to be set up and a sheath, all skills to be learned in their own right.

All this advice is given by a simple tool maker, I do nothing like making swords, a few small knives for the kids but that is all.

Great first step!!

[ross_lad]

Thank you your advice. I'll try another mild steel one.

[TarAlderion]

Originally Posted by rmcpb

...That is a great job and you are doing it right by using mild to get the skills before trying harder and more expensive carbon steel.

I would give it another go and aim at the balance point in the correct position and just a better finish, then repeat again and again. Each time you will get better. Then move up to tool steel...

I have to disagree with this advice. If you want to do blades, don't mess with mild, period. Firstly a proper highcarbon steel suitable for making a sword lengthed blade out of is not very expensive in comparison to the cost of mild steel. Brand new 5160 stock for example, in proper dimensions for blade work can be had for roughly $2-$3 a foot or for enough for a longsword roughly $8-$12. 1075/1080 about $2 a foot. Now something like O1 can become quite pricy, $20 a foot, but that is used mostly for knives. Not up on the current cost of mild flatbar or how the cost varies per region, but awhile ago, Im pretty sure mild steel flat bar in blade-workable dimensions was running up almost close to $2 a foot for new stock where I am. And these prices are the worst case senerio, brand new 5160 drops from a shop that does leaf spring re-arching and other work can usually be had for free if you go and ask nice and explain what you are trying to do, and if not free, pretty cheap. There are also old leaf springs that can be had at the scrap yard for the cost of scrap weight that will work for learning, but I don't recomend old unknown steel after you get some skills down. 5160 is an excelent steel both for beginning to learn to work with high carbon and alloy steels, and for its performance characteristics.

Banging out a mild steel sword like object, while it gives you a general feel for how to shape stock, thats really all it does. You will also have to go and re-learn how to work high carbons and alloy steels when you move on to them. They are much more picky about working temperatures and have a whole different feel to them. The sooner you learn to work with these things the better off you will be. Also, for the same amount of work that you put into a mild steel look-alike, you could actually have a sword, something that is heat treatable, will hold an edge, and will perform like a sword. The sooner you start working with the proper materials, the sooner you will be able to develop valuable skills like heat treatment, and the sooner you will be able to advance your skills and become better.

But a piece of advice, while you may want to make swords, they are not really the best place to start, and I say this from experience. I started out early on trying to do large pieces and as I learned more and more about the craft I soon reallized that swords take some special skills and I was getting ahead of myself, so I went back and kept things small for awhile. I still don't really do much in the way of swords due to lack of proper HT equipment to handle something as long a sword. I would recomend to keep things small for awhile until you can develop the skills necessary to do something larger, then work your way up. Knives and daggers and the like are much more forgiving and will teach you a whole lot about forging, grinding, heat treatment, and all the finishing steps and will build a good foundation for doing these processes on a larger scale. If you cant do these things on a small knife, you will not be able to do them on something as large and complex as a sword. Heat treating a knife is alot easier than heat treating a sword, and a knife will help you to learn the metallurgy behind what is occuring durring heat treatment, and once that is understood you can work on translating that into what has to happen to successfuly heat treat a sword. Same with grinding/filing/sanding/polishing, a knife is smaller and will take less time, therefore you can spend a bit more time on it to develop the proper skills then take them to something big.

And distal taper is a decrease in thickness (tapering) of the blade. So a blade that is thicker at the ricasso/hilt area, and gradually gets thinner as it progresses towards the tip has distal taper.

[ross_lad]

thank you, i will keep what all of you have said in mind. i'll let you know what i'm up to.