glen56 Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 just finished a display board,started it many years ago finaly have the time to finish things,the blade for the sword came out of a gerkin cutting machine ,the shield is a french oak wine barrel lid,and the hawk was an idea that i saw on this great site,1 of my old smithing ball peen hammers,i left hammer marks on both items to give the look of age,great site this 1, glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 Looks good; but "primitive" not old. A little mini-rant on a commonly held misbelief: "hammer marks as a sign of great age" isn't appropriate for swords, even 2000 year old swords don't have hammer marks on them! Swords were luxury items (most folks fought with spears and/or their fire wood axes). As luxury items they were made to very high standards and generally kept in very good condition! Would you expect a million dollar sports car today to have the fit and finish of a Yugo? The idea of leaving hammer marks on hand forged items really dates to the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900's when leaving the tooling marks visible was done to show that an item was hand made and not a product of a soulless machine in a factory, (about two weeks later there was a machine to leave false hammer marks on things...) Prior to the machine age everything was made by hand and a craftsman strived to hide the tooling marks on high quality work. leaving them in meant it was either too cheap to be worth doing well or not a skilled person in that craft---here in America we see quite a lot of "crude" items made out on the frontier where the same item in the cities were often made in europe to standards of craftsmanship we still would accept today! (The Arts and Crafts movement also did this for other crafts---you should hear my wife's rant on slubby handspun yarns people try to pass off as "old style" when even back in the dark ages spindle spinning girls still in their single digits were expected to be able to spin a fine unslubby yarn.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregDP Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Thanks for posting I like the way it was presented as one piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glen56 Posted April 20, 2011 Author Share Posted April 20, 2011 tom yes the idea was primitive,our forefolk were scottish and this dousn't represent any particular style in scottish history,but will make a claymore 1 day,i agree that some things should be spot on and as you say makers wouldn't let a bad sword out of the shop,seeya mate ,glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glen56 Posted April 20, 2011 Author Share Posted April 20, 2011 thanks mate ,love the idea of transforming old hammers into axes ,cheers,glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Thinking on it I have seen some "hammered" blades that came from Africa and again they were more of a "primitive" aspect compared to the wootz blades dating centuries earlier from similar regions... *nothing* wrong with "primitive vigor"! I really like some of the neotribal knives and have made some myself. I just object to mis-calling them. My great grandfather was the smith in Cedarville AR and I have seen a couple of items he made in the 1930's where they were quickly made, recycled steel items that as a hobby smith I wouldn't allow out of the shop---but he was making a living in a time where the extra time to gussy them up didn't pay and so he made them where they worked and his buyers could afford them and he still could make enough to feed the family. As he ended up with over 900 acres of farm land I'm guessing he worked in trade for large items! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiapan Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Then it seems he did a great job in his business dealings. And i love the look of the piece. Especially the hawk. there is just something about solid one handed axes that is brutal and fierce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christian Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 My great grandfather was the smith in Cedarville AR and I have seen a couple of items he made in the 1930's where they were quickly made, recycled steel items that as a hobby smith I wouldn't allow out of the shop---but he was making a living in a time where the extra time to gussy them up didn't pay and so he made them where they worked and his buyers could afford them and he still could make enough to feed the family. As he ended up with over 900 acres of farm land I'm guessing he worked in trade for large items! A freind once asked me "are you more likely to sell one $200 damascus knife or ten $20 knives?" the answer of course is the ten $20 knives, because they work and people can afford them. Id take functional and cheap over beautiful and expensive any day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 Fantastic.. Both weapons and the shield with the iron all as a single display just have good composition and style.. It wouldn't look out of place on a castle wall 1000 years ago... Nice job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironstein Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Very nice work! The hawk really looks nice to me, the sword too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba-san Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Great work , I sometimes leave hammermarks on my blades , some folks like the look . I will take performance over looks most of the time . I have a couple of Japanese koshinata that were forged in the early shinto period on one of the small islands ... they are full of hammermarks . early farming and agricultural tools were often left in condition that shows hammermarks. I like both those pieces you made . regards Bubba-san Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Welcome! I'm from NW AR originally; still have 13 acres of "family" land in Cedarville AR. Nice to see other takes on blades. Now for my twisted sense of humour and innate pickyness: "early farming and agricultural tools were often left in condition that shows hammermarks" Yes stone tools often show hammer marks---save for the ground stone era! (what I think of as "early farming and agricultural" predates metal use!) Pity my kids, once one of my daughters saw that we had a, rare for us, 2 liter bottle of Coke in the refrigerator and came and told me she was thirsty. I asked what did she want and she replied that she didn't care but it was cold and in the refrigerator---so I got her a glass of pickle juice! (she was going through a period where she wouldn't ask for what she wanted or needed but would only give hints. I was encouraging her to *ask* for what she wanted. I hate playing 20 questions!) She survived to graduate with honours from a tough math/science/engineering university. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 .... I was encouraging her to *ask* for what she wanted.... I love it Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba-san Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Glad to meet you Tom, I have a lot of friends in arkansas. I can tell you are an advocational archeologist. I have a huge collection of stone tools , axes , pottery all found in missouri after the floods of 1982. Been a member of Central states archeoligical society for over 30 years .I had so much stuff I had to haul it away in a pick-up truck ! My wife made me sell some pieces a few years ago to make a new bedroom , should have never did that . The better pieces just keep gaining in value despite the economy. Maybe I will post some stone tools ? Do we have a forum for pre- columbian art ?? this is a small sample. regards .... Bubba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glen56 Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 amazeing collection of stones,looking after a collection of aboriginal stone axes,(these were found 50 or so years ago in western new south wales )they look almost identical to the axes you have,next time im back where they are will send a pic,glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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