Hey folks, finished the rough forging on the blades for two more swords. One is going to be a 36" viking, and the other is another 48" longsword (the first failed HT and became a destruction test ). I still have to draw out the tangs on these and give a few more heats on the blades to true everything up and smooth things out a little bit more. But here they are so far. I should hopefully be finished with all the rough forging tonight, and maybe get a good jump on grinding tomorrow, could probably even have the rough grinds done tomorrow since the KMG makes things go about 5 times as fast and smooth . I am itching to finish a big one... so I thought I'd do two

Will post the progress as it comes.

Wonderful work Alderion!

Thanks guys.

Completly finished the rough forging last night and got the tangs all drawn out. Going to start on the grinding here soon, just waiting for the shop to get some air through it and cool it down a bit first, its mighty hot out there. I have them forged pretty close to their final shape/size and have the bevels and edges set close to where they should be prior to HT so the rough grinds should go pretty fast without having to remove too much steel, the fullers will be what will take the longest to grind in right, but not too bad already being rough forged in.

Anyway, here are a couple more pics with the tangs complete and rough forging finished.

Well, back again with some more progress. I have the 36" pretty much all rough ground, the fuller needs a couple places touched up and it will be good to go. I will probably do the final adjustments by hand. I also got the profile on the 48" ground.

Been really busy with work as of late, but finally got some more time to work on things a bit. I finished up the rough grind on the longsword, so both blades are ready for HT now, which I plan on doing tonight so long as the rain doesnt pick up (its been sprinkling/raining lightly all evening). Everything should go well with that hopefully, I learned a lot on the first 48" that didnt come out right and I think I have gotten the HT technique for longer blades down a bit better. Anyways here are a couple of pics of them rough ground.

WOW! those look absolutely fantastic!

i love the smaller one. has a great grind on it as well.

both are outstanding.

quite an accomplishment in such a short time.

Really nice work. I'm just starting to mess with blades. I get them rough forged and then they. Eventually I start another one. One day I get to finish them.

Very nice work. Having never made a sword I am wondering how you did the groove. Is it forged in or cut in later? If forged how did you do it? Thanks William

Thanks guys. Unfortunately the HT didn't go very well the other night, the viking hardened up just fine but warped near the tang, and the longsword stayed straight and the edges hardened, but I could still easily bend and put a set in it (spine didnt harden). Good news is its no big loss, I pulled the hardness off and have re-normailzed and will run another hardening cycle tonight, hopefully (rained too much to do it last night).

William, as to the fullers on the blades, the answer is both. As you can see from the first pictures of the blades, as they were straight out of the rough forging, the fullers are present. I rough forge my fullers first, then clean and adjust them on the grinder. Forging them in is easy, I use a spring fuller tool, which is an elongated U-shaped spring with two fullering dies on the open end. You place the blade in the fullering dies and strike the tool and when both dies come together it forces the steel together and outwards, making the blade "fuller", hence the term. If you don't get what a spring fuller is from my description, I will be happy to grab a picture of it for you. You can also use a guillotine tool to achieve the same results. or if you have extra arms, a bottom and top set of fullering tools. After I rough forge in the fullers I use the small wheel attachment on my KMG to grind the fullers to a larger and deeper size as well as to clean them up. The fullers are some of the trickiest parts to get right and to prevent them from shifting or becoming too deep/not deep enough. The rough forged fuller creates a fairly nice and straight impression to follow with the small wheel, instead of trying to grind it all in by hand. You can also cut the fuller by hand, but it will probably take you about 6 hours a side, depending on the length. After HT I will touch up the fullers as best I can on the KMG, then go at them by hand with sand paper for the very very fine adjustments.

Hope that helps, if not PM me and I can give a "detailed" process

I will keep you all up to date with the progress. I am trying to get these done here within the next two weeks, and if the HT goes alright, I should definately be able to.