EPTNew sword fresh out of the shop =] i'm quite proud of this one.
I dont have pictures of the process, so ill start with some specs then tell you how i made it.
(if you dont want to read this you can skip to the end for pictures of the finished product ; no, dont feel guilty, i understand. ;D)
So the blade is 75 cm long, and from tip to the bottom of the pommel it is approx. 1 meter long.
it is well balanced, though slightly blade heavy. this is a preference thing, and works well on a slashing sword like this one. Its made of iron, primarily because iron is easily available and also much easier to work with. its softer than steel, and you have to take better care of it, but other than that its a pretty great material to work with.
You may notice that the blade is slightly curved. This is to take as much weight as possible away from the blade to make it easier to wield. the blade thickens toward the center, so that when you swing it, the slashing tip of the sword accelerates faster.
The cross-guard is somewhat unconventional. the front side of the cross-guard bends down over the hand to protect it , while the back curves forward, to aid in disarming the opponent. this is seen more often on cutlasses than on broadswords or whathaveyou.
Basically the process is the same as with my Last project , but ill go through it again. Basically i start with a meter long piece of iron. the first job is to remove the rust resistant coating. while it is useful to keep rust off, it looks like shit and you cant weld as accurately on it. also its going to come off anyways once you start honing the blade. you remove the coating either with a wire brush, a grinder, or a a wire brush attachment for a drill. in this case i used a grinder. ( rougher grade stone)
Next you cut out the general shape. this is basically what you want the tip to look like, because most of the shaping of the blade (the curve, shape of handle, etc) is done with a grinder. cutting the tip out is done with a chop saw. i think thats what its called. hey i dont make the tools i just use em, gimme a break. its a saw with a blade designed to cut metal. Help me out TL!
After i had the shape of the tip cut out, i shaped the curve of the blade with the aforementioned grinder. this was really time consuming and i kept coming back to it, throughout the entire process.
Then comes the really difficult, time consuming and frustrating part, building the edge. the reason it is so time consuming is because you need to go over it multiple times in order to get the blade edge straight and even. then you need to taper it many times until its a gradual slope. i never do this in one sitting, it takes me a few days, generally.
(honing the blade doesnt end there though, its actually still incomplete, ill need to go over it with a stone and wire brush many, many times. its never really totally complete, because theres always minute imperfections you can fix. anyways, ongoing process ^^)
The final (easier) part, is balancing , doing the cross-guard and counterweight and finishing off the grip. in this case the counterweight is (again) a modified steel sphere originally from a ball hitch. You find the point you want the sword to balance on, find your counterweight, and then modify it (trim it) until it balances correctly. I affix the counterweight (and cross-guard) with an arc welder. not much to say about that
The cross-guard is rebar, bent and grinded down to the correct shape and welded on. (you must make the cross-guard part of your calculations when balancing the blade)
Finally, I welded additional pieces of metal into the hilt, and grinded it down to a more cylindrical shape to make the grip more ergonomic, then wrapped a few rolls of fine steel wire around it to finish it off. im not sure if this is going to be the final configuration of the hilt, but for now im satisfied enough to say that it is complete.
Anyways here are the pictures!
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://oi49.tinypic.com/n4i3gn.jpg)
in the (incomplete) sheath.
![[image loading]](http://oi45.tinypic.com/2qav2vp.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://oi48.tinypic.com/1589s08.jpg)
RAWR
![[image loading]](http://oi49.tinypic.com/m8d6ag.jpg)
this is the general idea
![[image loading]](http://oi46.tinypic.com/2ug1h69.jpg)
hilt
![[image loading]](http://oi50.tinypic.com/349c42g.jpg)
tip (almost?)
![[image loading]](http://oi50.tinypic.com/ma9irq.jpg)
Closer look
edit: Constructive criticisms and input is welcome!( on the sword , on the blog, on whatever :D) please let me know if the images are loading or if they are bugging out somehow, my internet here is crap so its hard to gauge!
thanks!
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