Pattern Welded Spear

[Latticino]

Just got back from a great class at the New England School of Metalwork.  The guest instructor was Emiliano Carillo, a very talented young smith who has been doing fantastic work in period reconstruction pieces.  The project drew inspiration from multi-bar Viking work and all participants developed their own versions.  Here is mine:

Core and socket are forge welded wrought iron, (4) twist bars are 7 layer 1095 and 15N20, and edge bar is 300 layers of 1095 and 15N20.  I went for a fairly simple pattern, as this was my first try at a full forge welded spear and I felt that was enough of a challenge.  I also brought some wrought from home for the socket, which unfortunately wasn't all that figured, but it blended fine with the core and welded nicely.  Wanted to forge out the blade further, but ran into concerns with the size of both the heat treat ovens and the etch tank.  In retrospect I should have just forged what I wanted and heat treated in the forge.  Was worried about tempering.

Here is the rest of the class (mine is on top):

[LarryFahnoe]

Beautiful work Latticino. I particularly like your somewhat simplified/regular pattern from the 7-layer bars as I think this is visually more effective than some of the more random patterns.

--Larry

[George N. M.]

Oh, that is beautiful work!  The core plus a twisted layer plus and edge layer reminds me of the Sutton Hoo sword in the British Museum.  How did you weld the socket?  Did you weld the wrought iron over a hat mandrel?  How long did it take you?  Or, because it was a class, how long would it take you to do one at home?

"By hammer and hand all art do stand."

[Latticino]

Thanks for the feedback.  Unfortunately not a patch on the phenomenal Sutton Hoo sword, but it was only my second multi-bar billet, so I still feel pretty good about it.

The socket was welded using a coal forge, swage block and a "cold" mandrel.  I did use the bick I forged for final shaping, but the mandrel I made to match it was just a little too large in diameter (that will go back in the forge soon, or perhaps I can figure out how to do a tapered turning on my small 1914 Dalton desktop lathe...).  I ended up using a mandrel they had at the school that looked suspiciously like a repurposed bull pin. It was nice because I could use it with a glove and put it directly into the socket to pickup the stock while still in the forge to not lose any time.

The whole class took a full 5 days, running a solid 8-5 and working hard.  There was a lot of prep work to get the various elements prepared, and we worked together on some of those.  I'm not sure I could do it much more quickly at home, particularly without the big power hammer or hydraulic press they have there.  Probably would speed up a little once I make more of them.  Emiliano mentioned that I was pretty deliberate in the shop (which probably is a code word for slow), but I don't mind being methodical with such a challenging build.

 

[JHCC]

Excellent work!

[M3F]

Yours and the rest all look amazing! I love low layer count patterns, really awesome work!

[Frosty]

Beautiful blade Latticino! Even with lunch break that's a long class with results to reflect the time invested. Mind if I ask what it cost?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

That's about the best looking spear I have ever seen. I've made a bunch of buffalo spear's but never from pattern welded steel.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Latticino]

Thanks again for the feedback.  Really appreciated as I'm not sure my friends' and coworkers here understand or appreciate what was involved.

Frosty, I try not to consider the overall cost of the vacation to keep from being depressed.  The school rates are in line with similar others at around $830 for the week including material fee.  Then there were hotel fees, meals, travel expenses...  I'm pretty certain I could have commissioned a spear head of equal quality for what I laid out for the week, but for me it is more about the experience than the end product.  I got to work with a great group of guys and learned a bunch about what I am capable of making. 

Next one will be even better.  The transition between the socket and spear body is difficult to execute well, and basically sets the stage for the rest of the spear geometry.  I was lucky enough to get to handle a fair number of original Viking artifacts (several spear heads and one small axe) at the class that were brought in by a collector.  Even with the centuries of corrosion I was able to take tracings and some thickness measurements.  For the next I will try to be more true to the originals, particularly in terms of the mentioned transition and associated distal taper.

[George N. M.]

When I showed your photos to my wife she said, "Oh, that is beautiful!"  (Probably with the unspoken question of "Can youn make one like that?")

One or 2 more questions"  Did you make the socket separately and then weld it to the core of the blade or was it all one piece of iron?  What are the dimensions, including the diameter and wall thickness ofr the socket?

Comment on the cost:  The importnt thing is that you learned how to make something complex and beautiful.  It is very hard to place a subjective value on that.  I'd say that for the result in improved skill and the beautiful result that the totsl cost was very reasonable.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Frosty]

I wasn't asking about the cost of a spear head, like you say you can buy one. It's the education and experience you pay for and for the length of the course and what you learned I think it was a bargain. You'll always have what you learned and that will grow with every use of the skills. 

Makes me kind of envious.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Latticino]

George,

Good questions.  The socket was made separately from a sheet of ~3/16" thick wrought iron which was then forged to the assembled spear blank.  The core of the blank needs to extend past the blade around 3/4" with a stub tang.  This then gets hot fit into the top of the pre-made socket right before forge welding the final assembly. Note  that the transition between socket and blade becomes much easier if you have the core section of the blade, at least, slightly larger than the diameter of the OD of the front of the socket.  That was the major mistake I made in my piece, and resulted in me flattening the center of the spear blade rather than having the full central ridge I had been intending.  A flattened center is still acceptable and even traditional, I just had to pivot during the grinding to maintain proper distal taper.

If you use wrought iron for the socket be careful of the "grain" orientation of the wrought.  Unless extremely well refined, it should be set to wrap around the circumference rather than longitudinal.  This helps to limit splitting along the socket length with the relatively tight bends required.  Some of the smiths in the class elected to use forged black steel pipe instead of forging a socket from sheet when they had difficulty with the latter.  This was a lot simpler, and afterwards it was hard to tell the difference.

A decent swage block or bottom swage is your friend for this.

I brought the attached pattern with me that I drafted up in advance (Print to scale on a 11 x 17 sheet.  I'm not sure if the server will accept attachments, I will try to also include an image).  Please note the overlap "tab".  I forged bevels on each side of the socket to gain a little extra width for that overlap and made sure the "thick" sections overlapped, and the bevels served as scarfs.  The socket should be forged a little smaller in diameter than the eventual plan to allow for some adjustment as the process goes on.  I ended up using a 5" socket length due to the heat treat oven restrictions.  Please note that this socket design was made to match my bick and mandrel.  Feel free to change to suit yours.  Overall spear head length, including socket, is just over 17" if I recall correctly.

Look forward to seeing yours.

Socket template.pdf

8 minutes ago, Frosty said:

education and experience you pay for and for the length of the course and what you learned I think it was a bargain

Frosty,

Agreed.  This is my favorite type of vacation.  I felt like I came back with new skills that I can apply for the rest of my time black/blade smithing. 

Don't be jealous, just do it.  There was one guy in the class that must have made a bunch of money along the way because he said that he tries to take between 10 and 12 classes per year!  Now that made me jealous.   I'm lucky if I can fit in one or two.  I think one version of heaven for me would be to be taking craft classes almost full time.  Improving my skills, learning from new instructors on the way, and hanging with like minded individuals.  Certainly the students all came from different walks of life, and had widely different perspectives, but all had a true passion for the craft (which shows in the final products).

[Steve Sells]

When I wrote book 2, I did a 2 piece weld for the spears socket, and I think its a royal pain and I am glad I dont have to make a living making spears.

[Frosty]

What I really envy is being able to spend 5-8 hrs/day at the anvil and still be able to open my hand or move my thumbs.  All I do when we have demonstrators up is audit and maybe give something a try at home where I won't be taking time one of the other guys could put to better use. 

You know Steve, I'll bet if you were making a living making spears you'd be a LOT faster by now, fast enough it looked easy. 

Frosty The Lucky.