my first sword! (wip)

Vance C.

Vance C.

Well-Known Member
Recently i have been interested in two new things, swords and bayonets. so i figured what the heck?? ill try to make a bayonet style sword! i had a piece of quarter inch by inch and a half 1085 from admiral steel, i cut it to be about two and a half feet long, and started grinding on it. so far i got the bevel roughed in, with a false edge that goes a couple inches down the back.

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i still need to put a fuller in it, which i have been looking around on how-tos for them, i have seen a couple on here, and on don foggs website. ill see what i come up with. The plan is to do a basket style d guard with rosewood handle.. we shall see how it goes!

thanks for looking!
 
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So today i ground in one of the fullers, i actually free-handed it using my bench top grinder with a rounded out wheel on it, trying to keep it even, and just being patient with it. heres some pictures of how it turned out, and what not!

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its a little wider than i was planning on doing, but it doesnt look bad, ill probably try to find another grinding wheel on garage sales or something that is thinner to do the next one with.
 
if that wheel is very friable, you could dress it and shape it into a curve with a higher peak. Just use a rasp or piece of stock to wear away the edges of the wheel. I did this with one of my old wheels back when I had a grinder like that. Now, I only have a belt sander. I cut most of my fullers in by clamping a thick (thick is important I just learned) piece of stock to the blade before it is curved (I forge and harden to show hamon, so all the stuff I make is curved in the end). Clamp guide, cut fuller with side of angle grinder wheel (whatever size you need, or do multiple passes with 1/4" to widen. I like the effect that a cutting wheel gives, too).

You could probably set that sword up with 1/4" wheel on angle grinder to get a deep fuller (look at the daos I posted or the polearm). Those were done with angle grinder and CARE.

looks good. I just read a book about bayonets and daggers. I am glad to see a bayonet-type thing being made. cool.
 
i have thought about using an angle grinder, actually on my first ever failed attempt to make a sword, i used a cut off wheel that i rigged up on this grinder. the fuller was nice, but the rest was chocked up to the learning experience! this sword is pretty much a weekend project, so i was just using the first tools that came to mind in my shop. i did try to dress the stone a bit, just grinding on an old worn out file, but it wasn't removing too much of the stone. im sure ill run across a skinnier stone at an estate sale one of these days, then i will totally use it. the pictures dont show exactly how round that stone is, its a decent depth, and it will work for this project.
I think the heat treat on this is going to be full hard, then (probably when it starts getting snowy out here) ill soften the spine with a torch, and try to get it more springy, like a cavalry saber or something, although i have never had the opportunity to handle any swords other than a saber. one of these days I will though. on the english scale, where they bend swords and see how far they flex, how would a dao/katana/wakisashi test?

also i looked at some of your pieces kevin, very nice! i can easily say im jealous!
 
Vance , nice looking blade ! Most Japanese Blades are tested by a simple cutting test . The sport is called Tameshigiri . Its a pretty reliable test of a swords cutting ability . during this test the blade is flexed pretty violently . If a sword can cut through a 3-4 " piece of bamboo without damage , its a good indicator of sword strength and cutting ability.
 
cool, once its done, ill have to see what i can do with it! thats probably one of my favorite things to do hahaha, testing my stuff to see how well i did!
 
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