I've been making knives for a little while now, and I noticed one of the places I get steel from had it in 1 metre lengths. Hmm, I think. I could do something with that...
. I've been working on this for about a week, doing 30 minutes at a time in the evening after I've done everything else in the shop. My intention with this is to have something in the LOTR style, probably with a little decoration on the hilt, haven't quite decided what to have yet.
So this is what I started with, a bar of flat stock with a design drawn on it with a sharpie.
After that it was time to cut it out with the angle grinder and put it on the belt grinder to tidy it up. I did a lot more work on the profile after this to get it even and I made the leaf shape a little more pronounced as well as finishing shaping the tang.
Back to the belt grinder to start putting some bevels on it. Increasingly large pile of swarf under the grinder.
I did some drawfiling with the hand files to help set the bevels so I could follow it on the belt grinder a little easier. I have to be honest, at this point I was thinking a leaf shape may not have been the easiest blade to start with, but I've started now, so I'll finish.
I put it back on the grinder and tidied a few things up; it's still pretty rough, particularly around the tip but that will be taken care of after heat treat. In the process of grinding it's gone from 1.6kg to just over 1kg, and probably needs to lose another 200g or so. I can also say that finding people to heat treat blades this big is not easy. I've found a commercial company that is willing to put it in with larger jobs, but I'd still prefer to use someone who specializes in swords. Of course, all the sword guys are way too busy with their own work! I've left it a little thick behind the edge to try and help stop any warping during the heat treating process, but who knows how it will go. Anyone who's made some blades knows that the whole thing can go completely pear shaped at this point.
That's it for now, hopefully next week will see it heat treated and more progress.
. I've been working on this for about a week, doing 30 minutes at a time in the evening after I've done everything else in the shop. My intention with this is to have something in the LOTR style, probably with a little decoration on the hilt, haven't quite decided what to have yet.So this is what I started with, a bar of flat stock with a design drawn on it with a sharpie.
After that it was time to cut it out with the angle grinder and put it on the belt grinder to tidy it up. I did a lot more work on the profile after this to get it even and I made the leaf shape a little more pronounced as well as finishing shaping the tang.
Back to the belt grinder to start putting some bevels on it. Increasingly large pile of swarf under the grinder.
I did some drawfiling with the hand files to help set the bevels so I could follow it on the belt grinder a little easier. I have to be honest, at this point I was thinking a leaf shape may not have been the easiest blade to start with, but I've started now, so I'll finish.
I put it back on the grinder and tidied a few things up; it's still pretty rough, particularly around the tip but that will be taken care of after heat treat. In the process of grinding it's gone from 1.6kg to just over 1kg, and probably needs to lose another 200g or so. I can also say that finding people to heat treat blades this big is not easy. I've found a commercial company that is willing to put it in with larger jobs, but I'd still prefer to use someone who specializes in swords. Of course, all the sword guys are way too busy with their own work! I've left it a little thick behind the edge to try and help stop any warping during the heat treating process, but who knows how it will go. Anyone who's made some blades knows that the whole thing can go completely pear shaped at this point.
That's it for now, hopefully next week will see it heat treated and more progress.
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