ScottB

I haven't had a warpage problem myself, but I've heard of post heat treat warping happening now and then... sometimes a fair amount of time after it was heat treated. My own 'repeat' problem wasn't warpage... I had a piece of new steel that had been scratched or creased somewhere along the line of its life in storage. No big deal I figured, just grind it out and heat treat the blade. So, I ground it out, heat treated the blade and found the same mark had returned. I kid you not... I thought I must have had magical gremlins at work on that one. Ended up making another blade from new steel with no flaws and had no troubles. But that was aggravating... It has sort of made me think steel sometimes has a bit of memory of its own and will act up if given a chance. lol Btw, warped or not, I like the flow of that blade shape there. I've been intending to do similarly profiled blades for some time but have not found time... They just look mean...

Well, I am just guessing but it seems to me that this one was bent around to fit in that container... However, that may not have been a common thing. I am not sure how many more blades have been found in the same sort of conditions. I do agree with the other folks here that this appears to me to have been a sacrificed sword. You can find a fair number of later Norse blades bent into all kinds of ribbons after the death of the blades owners... One of the theories/ideas behind that appears maybe to put the blade into such a shape as to keep thieves from stealing it... I suspect that there were many reasons that blades were deformed in such manner....

The top sword is considered the sword of the Chieftain of Oss.... It was found in an urn, bent apparently to fit it inside there... Here is one page that turns up with a quick search: http://www.siteclx.nl/rmo/index.php/do-col...b-eenrijkevorst It did help that I knew the name of the sword already, though... Have wanted to make or have a similar sword made for some time now...

I don't use a fuller tool for the shoulders but am going to build something to make the job more efficient.... it can be a bit of a challenge to keep the tang centered sometimes, especially if you have a short attention span like me. That said, I find that working off the corner of the anvil works if you turn the tang over ever couple of whacks and hit the opposite side the same number of times. It does require a bit of care to make sure you hit on the tang and not in the ricasso area, but it ain't that big a deal. I just did a tang that a couple weeks back that I changed my mind on at the eleventh hour. I had it where it was an L shape with the tang spine being right in line with the blade spine... It was interesting to put it back in the center... Yep, I am going to make myself something to make drawing those things down easier...

It is an interesting idea, there.... I think maybe if it were mine I'd draw the very end of the tang down and maybe lightly scroll it around and I think it would flow well... Right now the handle seems to overshadow the blade a bit... In any case, it is not a bad thing as is....

Looks nice to me, Al... Ofcourse, we need a picture or 2 that shows the pattern better, since you always do such nice random pattern work.

I ship stuff inside the US by postal service all the time. And have gotten blades shipped from Canada through the postal service as well. But, as was noted it is good to check locally... then go and make sure that the locals told you correctly. In any case, there is usually a shipping method of one sort or another available in most places be it post office, Fedex, UPS, or whatever... I expect in some places it may be harder than others, though... At least here I don't have to spell out what I'm shipping, while it is inside the states. Only tell them if it is fragile, or dangerous, or liquid, and such... Oh, and as an afterthought, being able to package stuff to be resilient in case somebody decides to jump up and down on your package is always a good thing.... heh, heh...

Neat little knife, Bob... but I also like the scythe like thingy drawing used as a backdrop....

I will second most of what Alan said, even though I use gas instead of coal... I did start out with coal, though, for my first half dozen or dozen blades (or more, I didn't keep count)... And I did pretty much as Alan says, which goes right along with what I was instructed to do in a local community level course on basic blacksmithing... I do wet forge now and then, though... Or maybe I should just say I follow my whims on that... I forge my tangs out the same way as Alan mentioned, for the most part. I don't have a fuller tool or anything else to aid me there, so I haven't go many other options... Btw, Alan, I like the looks of that blade. I've got an itch for a kriegsmesser of my own, but I've got about a zillion other things to finish up before I can hope to even think about making one and I can't afford my own work much less commissioning one from somebody else.... Wahhhhhh..... lol

Hi, David... Good stuff you have there. I like the textured as forged look a fair bit, just finished up a simple freebie seax (I wanted to add it as thank you for a very delayed project completion) that is left forge textured except for the side planes, which are polished. It has a charm to it that was surprising for such a simple piece. Ofcourse, the highly finished and polished 'brother' to it has a different charm.... Ofcourse, variety gets to be something necessary for some of us after a while in whatever form of art we may do. Or at least it is that way for me... Wish I could stir up my old love of Tolkien's world a bit more but I'm seemingly becoming jaded in my old age and lots of stuff that used to be important to me doesn't hold as much interest anymore... That said, I do have a Tolkien inspired design or two that I feel might get done at some point..... Anyways, keep up the good work, hope to see more of you guys ideas materialize....

Nice lines on it.... I like the textured fitting effect. I use it a lot when left to my own preferences. Don't get asked for it on commissioned things, too often. More often I get the request for a textured blade area, which I also like but it has proven a pain on more than one occasion trying to make a very finely detailed polished area meet up with a very delineated rough area... Oh, well, I'm rambling again.... Again, nice knife. But I tend to like anything with a nice curly maple handle...

Very cool little device, Richard. I had the same idea but sized up a bit to use ala the Gaijin's Guide sanding method. Haven't built it yet, though. Need to get around to it because I hate that 'wave' in the paper and the way it loses nice sharp lines...

Cool pictures. I love that vise too... very neat, wish I had one....

As Ron suggests, a little radius at the tang/ricasso shoulder is usually recommended, and I always do that on mine. But to really make it clearer than mud, looking around and studying old blades will turn up exceptions to that idea, so it may not be a universal truth. But, I figure it isn't too hard, it may indeed give a benefit and reduce chances of blade breakage, so I use a radius when I can... Just a big chicken, I guess....

Cool... like said before, I'd like to get something like that as a gift myself... Good work.