flyyoufool Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Forged from 5/8"x1/4" flat steel bar I found in a scrap pile. I have no clue about the composition. I just started hitting it with the hammer, saw where it was going, and started reading and watching videos. My approximation of a habaki is made of a piece of AC tubing I found in said scrap pile. I had the little piece soldered in, but i ground it too far and split it. So I filled it in with the tig instead. My approximation of the saya and tsuka are made of part of a pallet leftover from a chest I built. I also made these chisels when I found out how difficult it is to accurately carve out wood with a knife. I had it all clayed up before I realized that my forge wouldn't keep enough of the length hot enough to actually harden the whole blade. After a few attempts between the forge and O/A I decided to just try to harden the tip. I got as much of the tip as hot as i could get it and water quenched. I cleaned it up and heated it til it turned blue. Im not 100 percent sure it hardened. It felt harder when i ran a file across it, but I haven't tried a different way to tell. I think someone said something about soaking in vinegar.. After too much time filing and sanding and sanding and sanding in an attempt to remove the scrapes caused by irresponsible filing, I decided to go with angle grinder with a tiger paw. So here we are. I'm moving on to the next one because I want to focus more on forging, I want to re-heat treat it, and I used up all of my sandpaper... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otto Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Not bad. I tested my first couple of blades to destruction. One way to find out if your heat treating worked. Although it does suck to put a lot of energy into something just to watch it break but that's how I found out that I wasn't tempering well enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyyoufool Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 I thought about it.. I know the rest of the blade isn't hardened. I'm gonna build a better forge before I test it like that. That way, if something is wrong, I know it is my fault and not my equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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