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I Forge Iron

Tom Kinder

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    Alton, IL (near St. Louis)

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  1. Yeah I don't know about the Mameluke swords. Could be anything really. I was talking European a la Oakeshott typology. Different cultures did things differently and just talking about a "sword" with no more specifics than that really is not helpful. There is a huge variety in swords and any question can and usually does have half a dozen different answers depending on culture and historical period
  2. A sword has what I believe is called a hidden tang or through tang in knife terms. I'm talking European style swords here not Japanese Chinese or others. the tang is narrower than the blade. the guard is pierced, punched, drilled or milled to have a slot in it as close to the tang size as possible. I think there are a few historical swords that had guards soldered in place but I can't think of any specifically. generally they were held in place by compressing the tang (making the slot in the guard slightly smaller than tang) or simply held in place by compression from the wood grip and pommel assembly that were slid on the tang behind the guard. sometimes wedges were used too. I can't think of any medieval swords that had guards or hilt integral to the whole. that did happen with older broze age swords a lot though.
  3. It is a good idea to have a strong picture of your finished product in mind when you start a project like this. if you haven't already I strongly suggest you study the Oakeshott typology (google will get you loads of info) and look at as many antiques as you can. if you go to www.sword-site.com there are a ton of photos of antiques there as well as information on Oakeshott's typology. as said above your tip may be too thin. the tip section on most European swords tended to be in the neighborhood of .080-.120 inches (2-3mm) thick but you need to add about .060 inches (1.5-2mm) to that for your final forged size to account for what you will take off with the grinder for shaping, sharpening, and descaling. you should start a sword by making a pre-form or what the Japanese call a sunobe. all this is, is a plain bar with the distal and profile tapers set in. so you should work your bar thinner as it goes from guard to point and narrower also. do all this before you do bevels or fullers or the tang. once you have this pre-form made you straighten it and then you can do the rest. this is actually the hardest part of the forging in my opinion because even though I Suck at forging bevels they can always be ground, filed, or scraped in pretty easily while the sword is unhardened.
  4. A good belt grinder will do you a lot of good. sadly, they are often quite expensive. I made a fuller tool by cutting two pieces of round stock and welding a steel arm on each that I bolted loosely through a square bar that sits in my hardy hole. the arms hold the rounds directly on top of each other, you just have to insert your bar and pound away on the top round. what everyone above said is still true. is this the easiest way? I don't know, but it works with some practice. to clean the fuller up after you can get Cratex wheels and either mount on a buffer arm or in an angle grinder. cratex makes all kinds of shapes and sizes you just have to find what works for what you have. I also use scothbrite-like circle pads in an angle grinder but that is for lighter duty work.
  5. Thanks man, it's good to know it can be done so cheap. I'll be spending more, I'm sure, but I'm not going to collect scrap for years to get what I need (i hope).
  6. A question, did you build your own? if so what was the material cost? if not who did and do they still build them? one way or another I'm gonna have one I just need to figure out budgets and logistics
  7. Well, I just ordered the plans. this is a tool I simply must have.
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