Finally got around to making a sword!

[Chloe]

Enough people asked me "when are you gonna make a sword?" until someone finally paid me to make her one for her wedding. Four months of work (on and off) and I have this thing! She's fully heat treated 1075, brass crossguard with bronze fittings, and a handmade scabbard. I hear she cuts wedding cake quite nicely.

Thanks, y'all, for leaving all sorts of interesting and helpful info on this site. I spent cumulative days of research reading about tempering, heat treating, nonferrous metals, grinding, and assembly to get this blade finished. Lots of testing and trials, too!

And all without writing an ambiguous post asking "how do I make a sword"

[George N. M.]

Nice work.  Is that you or the bride?  The blade shape would be 15th century IIRC my sword history correctly.  Did you model it on a particular historic blade?

Technical questions:  Length and weight?  How did you heat the full length of the blade for heat treatment?  Quenching medium?

I like the fact that it was used to cut a wedding cake.  At both my weddings we cut the cake with a reproduction Model 1840 Light Artillery saber.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Chloe]

That's me! I had a few days before they picked up the sword so I did a photoshoot.

Since it was my first sword, I kinda just went minimalist on the design and didn't really base it on anything. Length is about 27" blade, 33" overall. It weighs about a pound and a half? I never weighed it so that's an estimate. The balance was perfectly on the crossguard and she handled like a dream.

I quenched it over a double-lung-bellows-driven coal fire in a 200-year-old forge, slowly bringing up the temperature for the normalizations and the quench by moving it back and forth. I worked in near darkness, the forge only lit by the yellow-white of the fire. It was an absolute pain. I quenched the sword in hot canola oil around midnight.

I think I'm sending the next few off to heat treat.

[George N. M.]

I think that is a wise decision regarding heat treating.  It is such a delicate process and if you don't have ideal situation for uniformly heating a long blade it is worth the hassle and expense to have it done out of house.

Still, very nice work and I hope the bride and groom were well pleased and that you were paid a fari price for your time and skill.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The sword and scabbard turned out very nice, especially if it is your first attempt at making one.

[Frosty]

NICE SWORD! depending on heat treatment that's a great weight for a fighting sword, even that would exhaust the fighter in a short time but it's light enough to flick it in for the kill like a serpent.  

While your pose for the photo shows the sword off nicely it's hard to identify with. If you make another sword take a look around the internet for Lady Justice pics, they all have the scales of judgement in one hand and the sword of retribution in the other. The below pic is one of my favorites. It's the model for the statue on a courthouse in Utah maybe IIRC. Use a different angle of course. Or perhaps held like a salute rather than a threat.

Bear in mind I'm an old fart and what I identify with is probably 50 years out of your time frame and culturally entirely different so I just don't get it. Don't worry, I don't get lots of stuff I like. I like the pic below because it SHOUTS hard case warrior do NOT mess with me! Hmmm?

Well done, really well done and I concur about having future swords professionally heat treated.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Very nicely done!