Old South Creations Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 so, when making a blade, is it cheating to start with stock that's roughly the length, width, and thickness of your final product? I'm making a sword as a prop for an Easter program at church and I'm not terribly concerned about it holding an edge, etc (since I'm going to go out of my way to smooth the edges anyway to make it as safe as possible) I'm just curious if this is condidered "cheating"? I'm gonna do it anyway! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 If it's just a prop - then why not make it out of wood? - it'll be lighter and way easier to make. - JK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gobae Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 "Cheating" is based on what rules you set for yourself. The rules I have for myself when making historical reproductions is much stricter than those I have when I'm making something for home use or for sale to the general public. In general the "rules" blacksmiths give themselves can vary from one extreme to the other. All the way from using only iron that you mine yourself, smelt yourself, using historic techniques/tools all the way to using so many modern techniques, tools and materials that you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between what they're doing from that of a machinist or welder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Aluminum would make a suitable prop sword and it's really easy to work. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divermike Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 nah, not cheating, just learn from what you do, and as time goes by, and your skills increase, you will likely take on harder and harder tasks, until you reach the level where you say "enough is enough, this is as far as I want to go" we all have our own limit here. Just remember that the journey is every bit as important as the finished product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.w.s. Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Not at all. We make hundreds of pieces including swords, daggers and even more exotic items in a year, mostly for stage combat. Our stage pieces need to be of extremely high quality steel with perfect tempering. Safety is a must for the people buying our weapons and unfortunately to do that work with fire and anvil is not practical. We work with a large metal fabrication factory, which happens to be in our backyard, who will cut blanks to our specs. We have about 5 overall blade blank designs that we then free form by stock removal. We generally weld on the crossguard and pommel, which provides a very nice ring that is very important when performing theater and other shows, then we send the pieces out to be professionally tempered. I've taken one of our completed longswords and used it as a spring board in between two large stumps just to show off a piece! Personally, I haven't done stock removal in years, I'm the only one in the shop that actually forges blades, but most companies or individuals cannot afford my time on a practical level, especially when needing to outfit a troupe of a dozen or more. Stock removal, when done right yields wonderful results, saves hours of work and brings the price down considerably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 It's not called cheating, it's called Stock Removal. You take the appropriate piece of steel and then grind away anything that don't look like a knife or sword. When it looks like what you want stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Browne Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 There is nothing wrong with stock removal, afterall even someone who forges blades finishes with stock removal to sharpen, refine and polish the blade. However, for your project some suitable, cheap hardwood shaped to look like a sword and painted would be more than ample. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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