November 17, 201510 yr Be gentle it's the first sword I've ever attempted. Smithed from a land rover coil spring. Learned and applied many new principles as I worked on this. The hamon isn't great but it's there. Going to add some kind of thin hide under the wrappings, menuki and saya, but the blade itself is done. A lot of firsts with this learning sword - First time copper welding, first time differential hardening, first time doing ferric chloride. Worked on it infrequently for a year with breaks in between to make a few other things and fish a lot. There is a lot about this sword that is very basic, but it is very functional and I learned from a great many mistakes along the way. Most enjoyable experience I had while making this was watching the blade take shape, curving back on itself as the furnace cement crackled and flew off the blunt side of the blade. It was like watching the sword be born.
November 17, 201510 yr Amazing result for a first effort. Love the activity in the Hamon. A coil spring? Seriously? Did you forge weld it to make up the required billet width? I could see this from a leaf spring, but the only car coil springs I've seen were 3/4" dia. max and would be a real chore to spread out this far and keep enough thickness for the spine. What was your quench media? How did you accomplish tempering? I'm sure some of the experts will have suggestions as regards your grinding and polishing, particularly as regards the tip geometry, but all in all I would call this a major success. How does she cut? Sorry for all the questions, but this is exciting work.
November 18, 201510 yr Author yep coil spring. straightened it out and hand hammered. i'll have to measure it but they were the thickest ones from my metal stockpile. it was a big chore hammering it all out. i need the hammer practice and i really enjoy hitting hot metal. while it was enough stock to make the sword it did limit my options a bit - hence the hira zukuri bevel to. i was very efficient with the metal with almost no needed stock removal from the pre-quench finish. used satanite furnace cement and water in a plastic kiddie pool for the quench. tempered in an oven i made from pipe fed by exhaust from a cast iron stove at 400F for 2hrs. heat controlled by varying the air flow on the stove with a smoker thermometer in the pipe. i need to weigh it though, i designed it to be light weight and it sure is. holding one of my china bought katana's feels more like an axe in my hand when held. going from that to this sword you can REALLY feel the weight distribution is different. the weight of the sword feels much more centered, not tip heavy like my others. i don't have any tameshigiri but it cuts rolled up card board just fine.
November 18, 201510 yr Author i do have one question though that maybe someone can answer for me. i was surprised at the resulting color of the ferric chloride bath in that i expected the softer metal to take on more darkness than the hardened metal exposed during the quench. Walter sorrells blades blades have the opposite color http://waltersorrellsblades.com/gallery/ , hard edge white soft back black. is he using a different chem to achieve this? or a laminate outer with some nickle type of metal? i've looked at some of the build logs and it doesnt look like they're laminate.
November 20, 201510 yr Looks great! I recently got some coils from an old US Mail truck that are one inch diameter. I've hammered some good size camp knives out of 5/8" springs. Not sure what I'll do with the 1" coils but your work is inspirational.
November 23, 201510 yr Author You can see the coil that was from the same spring as the sword in this pic.
December 8, 201510 yr That is a pretty bold hamon. I am surprised you got that much contrast with coil spring material. Did you have any problem with the sword wanting to turn back into a coil spring (warping) during the quench? regarding your question about the hamon color: Different enchants will result in different light/dark combinations. I've never used ferric to bring out a hamon, but I suspect, from your results, it simply makes the hard steel dark and leaves the softer steel lighter. Lemon juice would probably do the opposite...
December 10, 201510 yr Author On 12/8/2015, 1:40:40, rhitee93 said: That is a pretty bold hamon. I am surprised you got that much contrast with coil spring material. Did you have any problem with the sword wanting to turn back into a coil spring (warping) during the quench? regarding your question about the hamon color: Different enchants will result in different light/dark combinations. I've never used ferric to bring out a hamon, but I suspect, from your results, it simply makes the hard steel dark and leaves the softer steel lighter. Lemon juice would probably do the opposite... didnt have any problems with warping. by the time this thing was drawn out to proper length it had been heated prolly 50+ times over a years worth of messing with it. i straighten the coil out while yellow/high orange hot all at once with a tree stump and 4x4 low on the jeep then pound away. gave it a few normalization heats before the quench just to be safe though. all my work is done with wood. i welded that forge together to where i can just dump raw wood on top and by the time it settles down to my working area it's all nice hot charcoal. the hamon was visible prior to the ferric chloride dip, but it was pretty ugly. I'll try lemon juice on my next one. i got some sodium persulfate etchant but havent tried it yet, dunno what to expect from that one yet. 20 hours ago, basher said: That is a totally awesome first sword. Great Job. kind words always appreciated. thanks.
December 12, 201510 yr Very nice! A truly fantastic first. For the color of the hamon question, the color is a function of the polish not the etch. In Japanese swords, they use a suspension of iron oxide to darken the blade. The darkening action is achieved by a burnishing affect of the oxide suspension. The hamon is then polished with a slightly coarser stone, the scratches showing as white in comparison to the darker blade. The iron oxide tends not to work as well on modern steel though, personally I have had good luck with Mother's Mag Polish. Then I use pumice powder to whiten the hamon. Google hamons and hybrid polish and you should be able to find some more info.
January 16, 201610 yr Wow! That looks just like something you would find in a museum! Have you got an idea for the sheath? (I'm not actually sure what actual Tachi sheaths would have been made of. Lacquered wood, maybe?) It is rather honestly amazing for a first try. Good luck to subsequent swords!
January 20, 201610 yr Author On 1/16/2016 at 3:17 PM, Redneck carp's-tongue said: Wow! That looks just like something you would find in a museum! Have you got an idea for the sheath? (I'm not actually sure what actual Tachi sheaths would have been made of. Lacquered wood, maybe?) It is rather honestly amazing for a first try. Good luck to subsequent swords! Hand chiseled poplar glued with wood specific gorilla glue - it claims to be water proof once hardened. working on it slowly as i have time. going to wrap about half the saya with the same leather cord as the handle, which i still need to re-wrap with a same underlay of some sort. i wanted to use gar scales.
April 6, 201610 yr Looks well done for sure. Nice job esp from coil. I have made much from tra torninolement coil springs And it is great hammer practice straightening them out. Good job
May 19, 201610 yr Author caught another good size gar this last weekend. ended up with about a 1x1 foot square hide cut. got it scraped and salted on a press right now, will have a pretty cool looking handle pic soon.
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