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As some of you may remember a little while back, I was asking about steel types for a rapier project. Well, I opted to use what I have on hand, spring steel. To refresh everyone's memory, I included pictures of my design drawings along with progress pictures. The design drawings show a general idea of what I want to accomplish. In the second drawing, I zoomed in to show the basket. The next pictures shows the start of the build. I started off with a long leaf and split it length-wise. Starting with the tang, I drew it out to roughly the shape and size I need then proceeded to start the blade taper. Next, I started to refine the shape on the anvil before any grinding. During this stage, I noticed what seemed to be a few small inclusions and possibly a small crack starting. Genuinely concerned, I chased the inclusions with an angle grinder and found the small crack and inclusions were only surface deep. Relieved, I decided to begin the cleanup grinding. During this part, the length of both the blade and tang was fine tuned. The blade length is 38" and the tang is 8" to give an overall length of 46". So far, I have about ten hours logged in for this. There will be more pictures as more progress is made.

Edit: Correction: I meant 1600s 17th C... typing too fast. Hey all, A friend of mine was kind enough to loan me an antique rapier to study. I apologize for the blurred pics, it was the best my phone could do. I will take some measurements and more detailed pictures with a real camera and update the post when I get home tonight, but I am hungry for any information anyone might have on this maker!!! The very small clam-shell guard has ornate fleur de li piercing and the rest of the hilt is finely engraved and pierced. It may have been gilded but it is difficult to tell for sure. There appears to be a soft metal (Lead?) spacer between the clam-shell and the blade that has been squished outwards leaving the hilt slightly loose. The tang passes through the spherical pierced pommel and then attaches to a pommel nut though I am not certain if it was threaded or peened. The blade is engraved with Pedro Del Monte on one side and En Toledo on the other. Despite the patina this thing still has an edge, not scary sharp but enough to be careful while handling... Thanks, James