Hot forged copper guard

One

One

Banned
The bulk of the forging on the copper guard was done hot, but the actual scrolling on the ends cold. The blade of course is also hot forged. The rest of the fittings are cold forged and fabricated.

18 inches OAL

Blade- 12.5 inches from 1075 steel

Fittings- Copper

Handle- Crown stag

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That Sir is a handful. Very creative piece; where does it balance? Did you use your coke forge for the heat source when working the guard, or was a torch used instead?
Thanks for sharing, Fred
 
Thanks Fred. It balances right about where the edge starts. I hot forged it from a propane muffle furnace. It helped block out the light to see the heats better and helped keep it from a melt down. I had to set the temp below the melting point and it sure seemed to take a long time to get up to a red heat. Once there though, it moved like butter and I could forge well into black heat. I used a special pair of copper tongs I make long ago to hold it. Steel tongs tend to mark it up quite a bit.
 
About as big as my finger.

I did the main shouldering on the copper "cross" form, just by squeezing it in my leg vice hot, using it like a press. I was surprised at how easy and well that worked, then hot forged the ends to a taper. To do the scrolling cold, first I annealed it real good, (quenched in water from a red heat), then used a wooden hammer so as not ding the scrolls. When it got to the thicker sections, I really had to whack it good and solid, while holding/cushioning it with my other hand over my knee for support.

It was fun to do it that way, and I'll probably do more like it.
 
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I really like the look of that one Tia!

The ferule behind the guard I am assuming that ring is all filework. That in itself took some real work, to achieve the design you put on it!

The more times I look at this one the more I see things I missed the first time I looked at it! :35:
 
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You wouldn't want to drop this one on your foot. It's a big one and sharper than a razor...
 
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One said:
Thanks.

It's fabricated from twisted wire.

Here's some links from my blog that should help:

http://taigoostudio.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-making-decorative-twist-on.html

http://taigoostudio.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-making-decorative-twist-with.html

http://taigoostudio.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-to-making-ring.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links Tia, very informative. Have you got one on making the ferule itself? I am working on a knife that has a handle like the one you just made and the making of the ferule and fitting of the handle has me thinking as too what I have in mind or not is going to work!!!!!
 
You bet.

This one is for a domed top, just some extra steps you won't need for the type on the big bowie, which is basically just an opened flat ring capped off with the guard. The easiest way to do a copper ferrule is from a suitable sized piece of copper pipe. If it's an odd size or oval instead of round, you can either stretch it out of a smaller piece by planishing and/or forming it over a mandrel, or take a sheet and silver braze the seam. For fitting it to the handle you just rasp the handle down to a snug friction fit and epoxy the ferrule in place.

http://taigoostudio.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-to-forging-fabricating-and-fitting.html
 
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