Rantalin

Brian, to my knowledge, the fuller line in the sword is still called a fuller line, but some people wrongly refer to it as a "blood-groove". In actuallity, the purpose of the groove was not to let blood run off the blade, or to help pull the blade out of a victim. The fuller in the blade actually made the blade stronger, and lighter. I'll have more for you later (after class)

Kevin, let me be the first to tell you (as many people will) you should spend some time learning the basics of blacksmithing before moving on to bladesmithing. Practice drawing out and upsetting, practice scrolls and bends and tapering. Get a feel for how to work the metal and how it reacts to your hammer. Then start making some knives. I would reccomend making knives from pieces of mild steel first. Mild steel tends to be less expensive, but does not hold an edge like higher carbon steels. This way you can practice making the shape of a knife. Then you can move on to higher carbon steels. Some books I'd reccomend are The Complete Modern Blacksmith, and Practical Blacksmithing and Metalworking. I've never read any of Jim Hrisoulas' books, so I can personally reccomend them, but everyone who has read them highly suggests they be read. Have fun, and Good Luck!

That looks great Jeremy. Great work!

The furnace cement I was able to get as my first refractory for my coal forge was only rated to 1200 degrees or so, (Farenheit) I think you'll need to find some specialty cement through the internet.

Alex, the forum is a wonderful place to learn from. I've learned a TON just reading other's posts, and then contributed my own knowledge to others. I've been smithing for about a year a 3 months or so. Keep learning more, keep wanting to learn more.

I'd also like to say great idea on the tanto. No use wasting work because it didn't turn out EXACTLY as planned. Another question, what grit did you use for sand paper? I've got a 6" belt grinder with a 160 grit belt on it I believe, thought it MIGHT be a bit higher. As tedious as it would be, the results from a very fine grit sand paper would be worth it. I haven't done any heat treating, but from what I've read, it sounds as though you were correct in assuming the water was to harsh on the steel. If the metal was cooled too quickly, it could become brittle, and snap, as has happened in this case. In my mind, uneven heating could have cause the warping, but someone with a litle more heat-treating experience might have more to say about it. good luck with your forgings.

The polishing job looks good Alex, what did you use for it? The handle also looks good, nice and simple. Your next step, in my mind, should be making a collar and cap for the handle. I know the saya is the scabbard of the japanese sword, but what is the habikki, wait...nevermind. I just found it in my book. (Talk about up to the minute posting) For those like me who don't know what it is, according to my source the correct spelling is habaki, and is "A metal ferule surrounding a Japanese blade next to the guard." It's the little collar on the sword that keeps the blade snugly in the saya (scabbard). A question on the construction. Did you make the handle from one solid piece of wood, or two pieces? The only handle I've made was for a small dagger, in a style reminiscent of the roman swords. I made it from one solid piece of wood that I a slot into to fit the tang of the blade. The fit was so snug that I didn't need any epoxy or pins to keep it on.

Good line from V for Vendetta. Not an extremely wonderful movie, but a good message

Tim Lively's forge design is the one that I built about a year and 3 months ago, when I first started smithing. It worked great, I just don'thave the patience to deal with fire tending. So I bought a gas forge off E-bay that uns off a simple 20 pound propane tank. The Lively forge design got much hotter, I am only capable of a mid-orange heat with the gas forge. It's definatly a great forge to build, as all the "parts" can be bought at the local hardware store.

You did a great job with the pommel. I can't see any change in material where the weld is.

Excellent work. I really love it. How did you attach the pommel? Is the end of the tang peined over, or did you do it another way?

Armoring would be very tough to include, as it is very tough to do in real life as well. When reheating the sheet, you only heat the area you will be working with. Armor pieces were assembled with rivets, and when they were worn the defferent pieces were held together by leather straps

By the way, great idea. And I had another one. As others have said, make other tools available, better hammers and such. And the better the equipment that you use, the better the item comes out, more damage/defense, or better looking.

OK, I'm gonna skip reading everyone else's replies, and give my ideas. First, don't make things TOO complicated. Yeah, there are a lot of steps in getting prepared to forge an item, but not ALL of them need to be followed exactly. Instead of having a place to mine for fuel, have an NPC merchant that's already done the work. (Although you could leave the option open for players who DO wish do mine or prepare their own fuel) Just got a good idead and don't wanna forget it. Each person should start off with very little skill. Only being able to forge basic, low quality items. As they progress, they "learn" to make new objects. This could be done by having a journal or notebook that has the techniques in it for making a weapon or armor. As the player "levels up" in smithing skill, a new entry is automatically added to the journal describing exactly what steps the smith must take in order to make the new item. It might be a good idea to do away with fire managment, as important as it is, and focus on just the hammering part. The ease of moving the metal could be determined by the length of time left in the fire, which has to be lit before each forging session. Ok, now for the forging process. Picture this, your screen shows a piece of iron in the fire, maybe just a 1 inch square bar about a foot long, as an example. when you want to take it out, double click it. The tongs are shown taking the iron out of the fire, and the screen shifts over to the anvil, with the bar sitting on it, no tongs holding it (to make the gameplay a little easier in terms of visibility and ease of play. The work is done on only two demensions, for now at least. So you have this orange/yellow bar, and you look at the diagram in your journal, showing the steps required to make, say a dagger. Single click to draw out (make the area longer and thinner), double click to upset (make the ares thicker and shorter). The steps could be a combination of sketches and text, to make things clearer for the player. The steps in making a dagger could be something like: 1) Draw out the blade (with an image showing a series of single clicks [represented by a symbol of some sort] along the upper part of the bar. 2) Upset the pommel (shown by another series of double clicks along the very back of the bar 3)Put a bevel on each side of the blade (shown by single clicks along each side of the blade section to form the edge) As the steps are followed, the image of the bar changes to reflect what is being done, ending in a finished blade. Further work could be incorperated, such as sharpening the blade, polishing it on a stone, etc. A good thing to do, would be to make sure that the programming only allows pieces to be made by smiths with the appropriate skill. If a smith tries to make something that he/she has not learned, the iron becomes junk, and must be scrapped. And don't make it TOO long between forging level up's, or make sure the player has a few different items he/she could make at each level. (Swords, axes, knives, daggers, spears, helmets, shields, etc.) This way, they aren't just making the same thing over and over and over. I'm sure I could come up with a whole lot more. If you have any questions or need more help, feel free to message me.

I have a handful of pewter statues sitting on a bookcase, and boy is pewter soft! A couple of figures have bent and others have broken. Those that were fixable, I repaired just by bending the bent part back into place with my hands, but once I felt tension, I stopped and didn't dare go farther for fear of snapping it off. The cone idead should work, as long as the pewter wants to bend back into place.

Mills, I do the same thing. I have 2 burners on my forge, so I always try to have SOMETHING under each burner while I work Even if it's just a piece of scrap stock for practicing a technique on. In terms of slowing doen fuel consumption, I turn down the regulator and decrease pressure if I don't need to extra heat. And I have also found that the forge will relight if the chamber is still hot enough.

Spending the Summers working for my Dad (an electrician) has its advantages. It sounds to me like a breaker tripped, or a GFI tripped, as was mentioned, if the breaker keeps tripping, there is a short somewhere in the circut on that breaker, and should be fixed ASAP to avoid fires and electrocution. Check the outlets that run off that circut and see it any GFI's tripped, then reset them, if the breaker was tripped, make sure you turn it completely off before turning it back on again, that's how they reset. You can't reset them by just going from the "tripped" position to "on". If it isn't a breaker or a GFI, and you can't find the problem, there's a problem, and your parents should hire an electrician to troubleshoot that circut.

So there wouldn't be much of an issue turning a cold chisel into a slitting chisel then, because I wouldn't be grinding much on the "business end"

Hi again, tomorrow I'm going to exchange my propane tank for a full one, and found on the Blue Rhino website that a gallon of propane will last about 3 hours if the demand is about 30,000 BTU's per hour. So what's the demand for forging? Second, Would grinding an old tool, like a cold chisel down to a hot chisel by increasing the angle of the edge, while keeping the tool wet while grinding keep the heat-treatment? I was thinking of taking old chisels from a flew market and grinding them down into hot chisels and slitting chisels. And maybe using some big ones for 'hawk heads.

Currently, the Massachusetts state laws allow any single edged blade of ANY length to be carried on your person, so long as it is not a switch-blade. If so, the length limit is I believe an inch and a quarter or so. I collect non-gunpowder weaponry, and currently have...well, let's count...*after a few minutes of counting*...44 knives and swords. They stay in my room mostly, except one which I carry on my person DAILY for work and whatever else I may possibly need it for. My father and I built a cabinet for my blades, to be hung up later this month, with a locking plexi-glass front. All of my "illegal" blades have the edges ground down to about a 16th of an inch to make them not have a sharp edge, and therefore not illegal. You can't have a double-edged blade without the "edge" part of it. I have 3 books about weapons and armor from almost any time period and all geographic places in the world. I both collect and study weapons, and hopefully armor soon, and am focusing my college studies on the history of feudal Europe, and feudal Japan (Knights and Samurai). I plan on expanding my collection as much as I can, buying more expensive and well made reproductions, and eventually authentic antiques. There are MANY objects that can be used as weapons that are in everybodies house, beyond kitchen knives. Books, pencils, scissors, glasses, a phone, etc. Just because something was originally made to BE a weapon, doesn't mean it it has to be used that way. Done ranting now... The End

If I understand correctly, the hamon is the visible line between the hardened and unhardened metal in a knife. The effect is created primarily by putting clay on the spine of the blade, up to about 1/4 inch from the edge. The piece is then heated and cooled (can someone else describe the cooling process, I am unaware of whether this is done by air, oil, water, or if it depends on the steel) When the blade is polished, the hamon line appears where the darker metal meets lighter metal. I'm not sure if there is always a color difference.

beautiful I've been looking for a nice, well made but inexpensive war hammer to add to my collection, but haven't found the right one yet. That basic style but wood handle is sort of what I'm looking for. But I'm guessing that would cost me more than 90 dollars if I had you make it ;-)

Before switching to my major to history, I used Autodesk Inventor Version 7 in all of my Mechanical Engineering classes. The program is great, ad I was able to get a copy for my own computer to play around with. There is a book that I believe is just called Autodesk Inventor 7 that teaches you about the program and gives you little projects to complete while you learn. I've tried a few other CAD programs, but this is definatly my top choice for ease of use and learning.

Rick, you have hit on my area of expertise, or at least an area that I am somewhat knowledgable and confident in. A few years ago, I picked up the SAS Survival Handbook, written by John Wiseman, an ex-member of the Special Air Service, a unit of the British Army. I've pretty much read it cover to cover and it goes over what you need to know to survive in a variety of climates and conditions. A few examples of the contents are: Where to find water Edible plants and fungi Making traps and snares How to find, hunt, and prepare game Catching fish Building shelters and establishing a camp Starting a fire Rope and knots Using Nature to find North detailed First-Aid and CPR Survival at Sea How to survive a natural, or un-natural disaster (floods, tornados, fire, nuclear explosions, etc.) How to survive if trapped in or around your own house This book is extremely useful if you want to learn how to live off the land. I've been trying to plan a camping trip with a friend for sometime in August, where we will go out into the woods, and stay there for a weekend with no tent, some snack foods (crackers and granola bars) and the contents of my survival kit, which are: 100' of Clothesline a spool of fishing line fishing hooks a first-aid kit a survival knife a compass some very thin wire for snares matches a container of seasonings a machete a hatchet a small notebook and a few pens and pencils All of this equipment, with the exception of the knife and the hatchet were purchased at Walmart. This all stays in a backpack in my car, with the exception of the hatchet and the machete. If I break down or get horribly lost in an area without human contact, and no cell phone service, I have what I need to keep going until the next day. Or if I REALLY get into trouble, I can keep myself going for as long as I need to. Unfortunatly, too much land is now privately owned or protected, and it is illegal to stay overnight, nevermind a weekend, or week on it. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them, I'm definatly not a professional survivalist, but I will try my best to help

That is some amazing work vALENTIN! A wonderful addition to the already large group of skilled people here.