castlegardener

I have the first three books, and can't wait for the next one. The sword is simply amazing...

I love the last one, very impressive...super great work.

thank you so much for the photos and the test. I really appreciate how much work went into it. thanks for sharing. Is the rope test, 2x4 test and shave test part of the ABS test? Just curious..

wow...very impressive....really well done.

it appears to weigh around 2.9 pounds. It is probably too heavy on the front end. The tip feels like it wants drop when you hold it. It feels like it would do some great cutting but would not be a great sword to carry around for a long time. The handle is thin and probably too smooth. I had a design in mind for the handle but it didn't work out.

there is a fullered groove along the spine. I attempted in the forge but could not make it work so ended up grinding it out. The design is loosely based on Jody Samson's double grind sword.

a few more :

Hello everyone,
Thought I would share photos of my first sword.

It is far from perfect but it taught me a lot of thing and pointed out a lot of my weaknesses.

Some stats on the sword:
*I use a propane/firebrick forge
*the steel is car leaf spring steel
*the handle is mahogany
*the guard is a dragon from a single piece of steel
*the blade was quenched in motor oil, tempered over a charcoal fire, and a torch was applied along the spine

let me try one photo first, then more afterwards:

the knife is way impressive looking and the attention to detail is amazing...thank you for sharing and inspiring me to make my details better

I have been struggling trying to come up with the reason you insert filler wood plugs then remove them later for the metal pins. The only thing I could think of is you could do the rough filing of the wood handle and only touch wood and not touch any metal. What is your real reason?

it looks like a terrific blade, wonderful job.

thank you Matt for the Dan Fogg photo links, I may try something like that. It seems like a pretty easy to build system for a single blade.

thanks everyone for the inputs. I will try a variety of methods on my next project.

I just attempted a dagger with a bit of a fullered groove and really struggled with getting the groove sanded at the end. What is the best way to clean up a fuller groove on a blade?

I am a beginner blade maker so I can't really answer the questions. The bed frame is designed to take a lot of abuse and when it first arrives it is so hard I can't drill through it so it must have decent carbon content. The metal is probably a collection of various metals melted all together to form the bed frames so I am pretty sure it is not super high quality or consistent, but it does seem to harden well and hold an edge. The greatest advantage is it is already pretty thin as compared to a leaf spring.

thanks everyone, I have the main farrier for the island looking now, and I will check the scrap yards

what did you do to rebuild your forge to make it work welding?

thank you very much for the in progress photos...it really helps to see the steps

hello everyone,
I am a beginner blade making and am using a small chunk of railroad track currently for my anvil. I have not been able to find an anvil anywhere on this island (Oahu, Hawaii). I have tried the local feed stores and even the local farriers, but no luck at all yet.

If anyone knows of someone here or a place here that might have an anvil for sale I would greatly appreciate any help. A small anvil would be nice. Unless someone has an old one they wish to give away that I could pay shipping to get here? Never hurts to check.

Mr, JPH,
I just purchased your first 3 books and have read through most of the first two so far. Now looking at that sword I realize what I might be able to accomplish if I follow in your footsteps for 40 years or so. Truly amazing work.

I think the blade and the scabbard are very well done..

Ok, I bought all 3 of JPH's books and read through most of them and re forged the blade again. This is the final result. Thank you for all of your help fixing some of my heat issues and helping me along my knife making journey.

I really like it and think it really looks great. Terrific job

I will get JPH's books, they sure seem like great volumes of ancient information. It is quite an honor to have the author himself respond to my call for help. Thanks everyone. I will let you know when the books arrive.

that sounds like a great plan...thanks for taking the time to help a beginner along this long path....