So on a recent cruise I bought my son a small "jack sparrow" cutlas for him to play with...and recently I picked it up and its PERFECT, fits my hand like a glove, is small but cool looking and would make a great "real" project. So I used it to trace out on some 1095 I got from Aldo, and im cutting out the shape, now here are the questions:
1) can I use a router with a small round stone bit to make a fuller
2) the handle is a through tang on the tou , but I was thinking about a full tang becase im such a noob at this stuff, what do you think?
3) I was thinking about the handguards but all I have is some copper sheet, would you use this for a handguard, I know this my project, but I like other ideas.
The steel is pre annealed so cutting wont be a problem, bring the whole thing up to non magnetic for the quench will be fun, but i'll burn that bridge when I get to it. Thanks.

Copper for a hand guard? Copper would be a bit soft, a more traditional metal for a naval cutlass would be brass. If you go back through some of the older post by Sam Salvati you can probably find his cutlass, a really nice blade even if a tad long and thin for a true cutlass, I'd still hate to come up against it. :blink:

Check out some of this guy's work:

Privateer Armoury / Ben Potter

He posts over on Don Fogg's forum a lot.

I am not sure about your choice of steels, 1095 tends to be a little too brittle for swords. I would recommend using 1060 or 1075 instead. Yes, it is possible to temper back the blade further, but using a lower carbon steel to start with will give you a better martensite structure for a sword.

Your most likely right, 1095 may not be the best match, but its what I have. I bought some to "tinker" with, as well as some small pieses of 1080 and 15n20 to experiment with damascus . I don't want to buy any more steel until I use what I have. Hopefully the armored orks will stay away from the house so I dont find out how really brittle a 1095 blade is ~lol~. Thanks for the insite though, maybe when I finish this and get back on track, i'll get some propper steel and have a go at it.

How thick is the copper? If thick enough it should work.

Go for a spring temper on the 1095!

Remember that *any* mucking with the hilt design will change the balance and handling. Helps to do a mockup and then tweak things to get what you want before riveting/soldering/epoxying down stuff for good.

Thanks for the insight Mr Powers, good idea on the pre assembly to get things fixed before final assembly. Ive been thinking about another dirrection
to take this, using the scrap 1095 I have to make the handguard and buttcap.

Well, things are moving along , so I figured i'd ask another dumb question. If you were going to make a "spanish notch" in the ricaso of the blade, would you do it before, or after the quench and temper, I think that would add another area for it to warp and crack, but im not sure, what says you pro's
I have some nice diamond wood for the grips and im attempting to find some brass for the hand guard and such. Maybe a few brass tubes to hold on the grips and a big disk shape for the handguard , sorta like a foil of sorts.

Well, things are moving along , so I figured i'd ask another dumb question. If you were going to make a "spanish notch" in the ricaso of the blade, would you do it before, or after the quench and temper

I would do it before, but I've never considered it until now. Although depending on your method of heating the thin spot created by it could make even heating a problem. I've only managed two larger blades that had satisfactory temperament and edge hardness. But I use charcoal and coat the blade to encourage a slow heat to yellow. I hope someone chimes in that can speak from experience otherwise good luck. Sounds you have a good idea what you are working towards.