Swordsmithing

First of all sorry if this is the wrong place to put this new to this Forum. Hello all i'm Matt i want to try and forge a Japanese style Katana sword. Instead of Folding method i would like to make this out of a more modern steel flat stock. i was advised to start with 1075/1080 High Carbon Steel. I want to make my measurements and cut out the basic shape then take that to the forge etc. I have a small brick propane forge that i built in my backyard so ill be doing the pass through method of heating it. sorry for the long winded explanation but here is what i want to know. 1. Good website to order flat stock 1075/1080 steel. 2. Are there any good tutorials on this sort of…

This is one I just finished . Made from folded 1075 and 9260 . I left the tsuba polished plain . here are couple pics .... James

I did not make these swords, I bought them at this store, he made them

Hello I am a new member here, I am a swordsmith/ Bladesmith and I just finished this one. The tsuka is Hard Missouri white oak with cherry accents To prevent tsuka from splitting. It is hand forged fro 1075 and 9260 silcon steel . Its nice and limber . Never cut anything with it . Eventually I will outfit it with Tsuba and ito wrap. I made 3 of these until I got one that did not delaminate a little . sword cutting edge is 29 " I am cutting saya for it at the present time . Thanks for looking ... James

I'm working on a hunting sword that has a 21 inch blade made out of 1075. The thickness at the hilt is 5/16. Tapering down to about an 1/8 at the point. One inch wide. On my knives I leave the blade about the thickness of a dime to prevent cracking during the quench. Is that a good rule of thumb for these longer blades as well or should it be thicker? Thanks very much!

Hello all! I've got a few questions for you guys. Now I have been doing a LOT of reading, and I hope these are not the typical newb kinda inquiries. I wanna make a sword, but I realize there is a ton involved. I want to start out with some smaller blades first - a large knife, a machete-length blade, etc and work my way up to a 30-or-so-inch practical-tactical sword. Going to stick with stock removal, no forging. My MA training is in filipino/thai arts (both blade and stick), so i want to stick with relatively straight single-edged weapons. Intuitively the thickness differential between spine and edge makes me think that sabering of the blade shape will be a major p…

Hello: Something I made from recycled/scrap materials..the only new thing used as the solder that I sweated the fittings together with. Blade is a 3 core twist/.counter-twist interupted pattern welded from an old bed frame and a old LPG tank. Edge steel is an old truck coil spring. The brass started out as old cartridge cases that I melted and made into barstock. The Cu pieces in the guard and pommel were once a Cu Buss bar. Old bone that I gave my special treatment to.. All in all it didn't turn out half bad if you ask me...Especially when you consider I am working with just one good hand at the moment.. Hope thse pics turn out.. JPH

Hello!! Here are a couple of pieces I just finished and sent down to me E-Vile Minions to sell at RPFS for me... Both are Ladder Patterned PW blades.the leaf bladed sword has a blade length of 22" and the Dag has a blade length of 18". Both have my infamous Bovine Ivory grips... I am basically working with one "good hand" due to this thing I got growing on my rfight hand which should be removed in the next few weeks... Hope these pics turn out... JPH

I have a replica of the sword of duncan macleod from the Highlander the tv series and I've had issues with the blade staying inside the handle. It's not a typical handle and I've tried glue but it doesn't seem too stick for long. Any ideas?

This was my first sword. my first blade over five inches really. I had spring steel on order but just had to get started and figured it would be good practice. the rep on the phone told me it was "forged spring steel". i followed the heat treat guidelines for 1075 and it worked quite well. ill be posting progress pics even though it is finished. a bit of WIP feel.

Here are some great photographs by Peter Rebac of Amber Studios, Edinburgh of a Sword made by Paul Macdonald of Macdonald Armouries. The sword is a reproduction of the Gilling sword in Yorkshire museum. I made the blade , the commission and the rest of the work was Paul Macdonald's. Blade is en42J and 15n20, 7 layer twists with high layer edge (700 or so) . the handle is wrought iron stabilised bog oak and silver. I really love the look of this piece and the photographs bring out the visual texture briliantly. there is an underplay to it all that I really love. I get great satisfaction when a blade of my making is brought to life in this way in someone else's hands. …

I have been grinding blades a while now and find that I am good and quick at it , (relatively). I am heavy and strong and good angular control of my hands. However I find it hard on my body, the constant force applied through wrists locked in a very controlled manner leaves me in pain , wrists , elbows forearm the whole power train so to speak. Now that is not too surprising really as I have been grinding and smithing for 20 years and have pushed myself a little too much in the past. however I have had a growing suspicion that we (us modern folk) are missing a trick or two that the "old time" grinders of yesteryear did not miss. and slowly a realisation has grown upon…

Home alone for Christmas, and not much going on, so I decided to give a whirl at what I first started about four years ago. I might, might just be able to put out an honest to goodness sword. Not one of the masterworks by any means, but something that will somewhat balance, won't break easily or shake your hand apart upon use, and has a decent distal taper. A swordlike object. Of course now that I've made enough pointy objects to maybe complete one, why suffer the masochistic trials needed to produce a basically useless object? (oh lord, I fear the filing and polishing far, far more than the forging......) Well, cool factor alone isn't worth it, but there's the challe…

So I have been forge welding and making larger and larger knives and am slowly working towards a short sword. As a result, I have started reading through books and posts on this topic. The crazy thing is how many people pick up a hammer and declare...'I am going to make a sword!' When I first saw these posts, I was amused and even a little dissapointed at some of the predictable responses from seasoned IFI members. But as I read more posts, I too, became a little agitated by the number of people that have never struck hot steel that are now going to make a sword. So I went from thinking you guys were harsh to thinking you weren't harsh enough. Anyhow, I will …

I'm new to blacksmithing and bladesmithing but i've got a question that i wanted the answer to. Swords and some knives have hilts on them and i was wondering is it better to forge the hilt or to make one and solder it into place later? I'm not planning on making a sword or anything big for awhile, but i'm just curious about how it's done.

So far all of my blade smithing have been knives from springs and im looking for a source of known steel to start practicing longer blades (dirks mostly). Any sources you all have as a go to that ships reasonably? Thanks for your input

I am currently 5 days into a 7 Day sword smithing class . I have been photographing the progress for Facebook and thought it ,may well be interesting for here as well. The class has 7 students and we will be making a single handed double edged sword, we forge , normalise , grind, normalise, straighten, normalise , harden and temper ..... Then straighten, grind , re-temper and polish the blade before punching out the guard and forging it and then fitting the guard to blade.....we then insett the blade in the guard , burn in handles . I have pre punched the pommels as I have found that punching a very thin hole through 60mm steel is not something that can be taught…

Hello guys. After a lot of reading and chating and advices and some knife forging attempts i finally started my longsword forging attempt from a leaf spring part. The attempt started about 2 years ago. i got a piece of a leaf spring and cut a piece of 60cm long 8mm thick and 4cm wide. Then i started the drawing out proccess wich took me a lot of time banging on the rail anvil with a pin hammer. Finally it ended up about the size i wanted to reach and it looked like that. So after some corrections and forging the bevels and some more corrections i finally grind it to clean out the surface from slags and hammer blows etc. And it looked like that. …

Hello everyone im new to blacksmithing and this will be my first project, the materials are a old lawn mower blade i plan to do a gladius style, how should i go about making that tapered point of the style should i anneal the steel and try to use a chisel to remove the corner chunks or just fold them over and hammer them flat and i plan on quenching in veg oil and tempering in an oven at 400 f for one hour. Any tips id apperciate!

Well here goes nothing and I expect many people cutting the idea down but oh well I have always been know to do things this way. I am looking for as many tips and tricks as possible to enable me to forge out a replica of frostmourne a sword origionaly made as a single handed blade but a friend of mine wants it to be a two handed monster. Here is a picture of the blade itself. the dimensions he wants for this blade are as such. Width 110mmm just after the last two little horns Witdh 150mm between largest side horns Length 1095mm thickness of blade 14mm handle 400mm from end of handle to beggining of blade Guard 400mm from end of skull to end of skull I wi…

Hey gang! I've got a question... or maybe a few. I'm forging a longblade and I'm getting to the point of forging a fuller. I'd like to insert one down the center, maybe a half inch wide or so. However, I've been wondering on the easiest, most effective method of doing so? Would it be best to have the same size fuller in the hardy and on a handle, and just work the blade along it, almost pinching it on the center? Or is there an easier way to do so? Last question, I see people using what is like a Japanese sword smith's hammer. Have any of you used this and prefer this? I've been told it really helps cut down on hammer marks, but can't that be done with proper…

I bought a few pieces of steel the other day and decided to try my skills out on it. I started working the blade on friday, and I thought it would be smart to bring it here to ask for suggestions on what to improve, what to get rid of... etc. I have attatched photos of my work. Any comments. suggestions, or questions are welcome.

So I am attempting to make a parrying rapier. Upon compressing the sides and drawing the steel out, the middle of the blade becomes fullered. One side is most defined by the fuller. The other side however has a shallow fuller and nearly completely flat. I am curious about the finer techniques that will allow me to develop the fuller on both sides equally with out the aid of a swage or die.

A while ago I was commissioned to make a sword blade. The blade is a 3 core interupted and offset twist with each bar having 14 layers, with a wrapped cutting edge of about 450 layers. I supplied the blade in a forged to shape finish to the customers spec of a 32" blade, 2 1/4" at the hilt and 1 1/2" wide at two inches back from the tip. These specs are about the same as a Giebig 3 classification blade. All the grinding, fixtures and fittings and leatherwork were by Rob Miller the Cutler/Bladesmith I supplied the blade to. Mick.

By which I mean technically the most effective. I've forged several swords before, but this one is by far the superior blade. 5160 forged to shape, triple normalized and quenched in Parks 50. I tempered the whole blade blue, and re-oxidized it before final assembly - wrought iron pommel has Space Invaders characters stamped in - both as requested by the customer. Copper spacers and mild steel guard with linseed oil finished cocobolo. The tang is peened over the pommel. There is a distal taper, and the balancing point is 5" from the guard... which I feel is a bit far, but I didn't have any heavier stock for the pommel... probably could have put more distal taper or fulle…