RustyLaidlaw Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Forged a spear for my buddy's Viking wedding. He called me a week before the big day because he had ordered enough stuff for his groomsmen but forgot a spear. It only took a few hours to knock it out from 3/8 x 2 5160 flat bar. Pics show the flat bar in the forge, spear head tapered and socket swaged out, socket rolled, grinding done, getting to hardening heat in the forge, and the finished spear. And a shot of the forge and anvil etc in there too. Wedding was awesome, it was nice to have some of my work in the spotlight. Enjoy! - Rusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gergely Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 I like it, nice work. Have you hardened it? How hard? I've always thought spear heads have to be as tough as they can be and no brittleness is allowed for the case it is thrown. Nice work and nice pics. Gergely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyLaidlaw Posted May 29, 2014 Author Share Posted May 29, 2014 Hey Gergely! I hardened it at non-magnetic and then tempered it back to a spring temper, in the blue color range (round about 490F). This works good for me with this batch of steel and gives great edge retention and awesome toughness to handle lots of abuse. The slightly softer edge makes it easy to sharpen in the field too, which is a big bonus. The socket is welded but not hardened, I only quenched to the base of the blade and then drew the temper on the whole piece. Thanks for the compliments! Yours - Rusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benton Frisse Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Beautiful! I love how you left the scale in the middle of the blade. For the socket, did you basically swadge it out, roll it around some sort of a mandrel and forge weld it closed to whatever radius you needed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyLaidlaw Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 Hey Benton! I swedged it out with my straight peen. Started at the base of the socket working a taper in from 1/16 (or so) from the edge of the socket to the blade, thinner at the base and thicker near the blade. I formed it without a mandrel rolling freehand and forge welded it over a 3/4 inch bar with a rough taper forged in. If I had taken the time to make a mandrel it would have turned out way more even. It was supposed to fit a 1" shaft, so doing the circumference calculation C=2 x pi x r, you end up with 3.14. Spear sockets are wonderfully easy. So I flared the end with the allowance for the lap for welding, and off it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benton Frisse Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Wonderful, thank you for the information! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gergely Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 This sure is turning out to be a tutorial. Thank you for sharing Rusty! Gergely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EtownAndrew Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gehljoe Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Good job looks good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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