Search the Community

Hi All. Recently I was really lucky to finish a replica of a sword found in Norway. http://secretsoftheice.com/news/2017/09/05/viking-sword/ There are some differences: My sword weights 1080g and the original was as heavy as 1203g (sic!). Blade lenght: 795mm. Blade width: 62mm. Material: spring steel 50HF, cross guard and upper guard: wrought iron. Handle: wood and leather. Inlay inscription is 36 layers pw wire - it is a customer's vision. Have no idea what that means ;-P I just forged it into a blade like an illitarate dark blacksmith The guy wanted it to be "rough" and look a bit older, and actually I like the style more than mirror polished blades

Howdy y'all. I finally got around to finishing the sheath for this knife . (It's amazing what a rapidly approaching show will do for your incentive). It still needs some wax cleanup and polishing, but the construction and dying is all done. It is fully lined with kip. I've been experimenting with sheath making and decided to try making a sheath that could be worn either hanging straight down from the belt loop or high on the hip in a cross draw fashion. Here is the back to show how the belt loop is made. And the two ways of wearing it.

Hello all! It's been a long while since I've posted any work here, mostly due to my never ending battle of finding a consistent shop space. However, I have not been quite so idle in finding things to learn and applications of various pieces of other skills which I can later apply to blades once the forge is hot again. Earlier this year I had closer look at fine wire inlay, and though a bit of experimentation and adapting to what I was able to make work, settled on a fairly straight forward method of engraved inlay. That is to say, wire inlay that begins as an engraved channel. With a lack of where to find existing gravers and the like, I had to make my own, and after figuring out what works best to me it comes down to three (and occasionally a fourth) that I use most often. Before going into a lot of detail, here's a much more in depth post on the process I wrote for my blog which explains with a lot more pictures. Because I would just be plagiarising myself, I'll just link to that instead. Engraved Inlay post Now then, for the gravers (if that is even the right word for them), the workhorse is narrow and chisel ground (first on the left). The angle is steep and the back has a very slight angle to it so I can lower the cutting angle if it starts to dig in too deep. I use that one to carve out the channel, about the depth of a thumb nail's thickness. The width of the channel is determined by the gauge of wire being inlayed. Too wide, and the wire won't seat later. Too narrow, more or less the same thing but if it does hold, more of the wire is just being filed away later. Next up is another chisel ground graver with a much steeper and wider edge. This one comes back and undercuts the groove, making it from a rectangle into a trapezoid. That is what allows the wire to lock in place. Ignoring the third one which I occasionally used to planish the bottom of the channel, that leaves the punch. The face is more or less round with a slight crown to it, and is what sets the wire in the groove. Sometimes, I pass over the groove before setting in the wire just to make sure the edges are flush with the surface of the piece. Then I set the wire in the groove and drive it firmly down until it holds itself in place. Working in overlapping blows, work down the length of the groove to set the entire line. From there, it's as easy as setting the rest of the wire, then leaving it be or sanding the face back to flat, whatever suits your fancy. I realise that that was probably a gross simplification of the process, but take a look at the link above for a lot more info and hopefully a better explanation. I'd be happy to answer any questions! This is the first thing I have ever inlayed, so hopefully it gives a look at the learning curve involved. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but that is all part of the game. Once you get the hang of the groove geometry, the rest is easy. Anneal the wire as fully as possible, that was one of the main obstacles I had without realising what was happening. Also, once the wire is set, make sure it is fully set and try not to work backwards, as the expansion of the wire can pop it back out again. Needless to say, it's good to be making things again, whatever form it takes. Cheers! John

This is a follow-up to last year's "Tiger under a tree" http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=26501&hl=tiger I found this photo of a kozuka with the same tiger, and decided there and then that it will be my next stock project. With kozuka conforming to quite rigid dimensions (14 x 96 mm) it was a simple matter to transfer the design to a folded steel handle. Then the trouble started. It is a very shallow carving, the amount of depth one sees in the photo is only an illusion, it took me a couple of days to get the basic form ready for the inlays, and as I worked on the inlays I kept on correcting tiny mistakes. I'm not going to bore you with the 14 in progress photos, these you can see here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+TiaanBurger/albums/6145466349135758385, I want to show you the good stuff! The two pictures show my progress as at 16h00 this afternoon, about four weeks into this project: The handle is 14mm wide (about 9/16" for you imperialists). The base metal is mild steel, the inlays are 24K gold. Q&C welcome. More pics coming over the next couple of days...

Stuart Smith dropped by a while back, and gave me a piece of damascus. I forged it into a kiridashi but managed to open one of the welds, probable worked to cold. As the flaw was not near the edge and in keeping with my belief that even a bad piece of iron can be made into something beautiful or useful I did some inlays to turn it into a knife suitable for a samurai's wife. Carving the recesses in the damascus steel was the worst part. Apparently the K600 in the steel has a bad habit of air hardening. Even after tempering the blade my chisels still chipped. The inlay and carving was routine, except that this piece was left "as chiselled". No scraping, no abrasives. The marks are as they came off the chisel. Specs: length: 155mm (a bit over 6") 18mm at widest, 6mm at thickest Damascus: Bohler K600 and O1 Inlay: Copper and sterling silver Thank you for looking.

I am planning a knife with a flower theme, and needed a bit of practise on doing raised inlays of complex shapes. While I was at it I decided to make a video showing the process. This clip shows one method of doing a raised inlay. In the clip the recess is cut, and then the lip that will hold the inlay in place is lifted with a wedge punch. This has the advantage of not having to cut the lip level with the background after the inlay is done, but there is very little room for error. I'll make a clip, showing the method where the lip is raised before the recess is cut, in the coming week.

As we all know ,there is not enough time to become proficient in the use of every tool that can benefit us in this craft, and we tend to learn to use tools as they are needed.. One tool I am completely inexperienced with is the graver. I've always gotten away with my trusty Dremel tool, but there are some things it just can't do with the precision that hand tools can. To be specific, I'm working on a project in which I'd like to experiment with copper inlay in mild steel. It is my understanding that gravers are the best option for this task , especially for the undercutting to hold the inlay . Now my questions . First of all, how many different shapes of gravers do I need for cutting inlay ? And second, I'm in need of recommendation about obtaining the tools to begin with. Are there quality gravers available for sale that will do a decent job, or is it better to make my own? The gravers I see for sale are all high speed steel (HSS) ... is that tough enough for use on mild steel? Any help would be appreciated.

Hi! This is my latest thing - a birthday present for my better half . It is a more complicated version of a knife I posted here some time ago... and looking at it now, I already know what I would do differently. Since it´s supposed to be a knife for a rich woman (or a woman with a rich husband), I decided to reconstruct one copper inlaid chape... it was my third inlay so far, and I must say that I am not completely satisfied with the thickness of my lines, nor with their straightness... well, I will do better next time, hopefully. Oh yes, and the knife is with wrought iron body (forgewelded from 4 different wroughts to get a bigger piece ) and tool steel edge. Rest of the sheath is sewn with a hand-spun linen thread.

Hello Gentlemen! i am here afain to share completed work- this time a generous commission. its a sax wit 10 inches long blade made of of wrought iron and hearth steel. there are 3 grooves and three inlayed rondels in fine silver. Handle is reindeer antler chip carved in deep relief. fittings are silver and are reinforces with chased ridge. Pomel is cast silver with engraved sides and garnet set in the bezel. scabbard is leather over wood core. Inside is lined with felt. Leather is carved, incised and tooled. Fittings for the scabbard are moose antler and silver I would love to read your thoughts and criticism. its my first chip carving of this type and i love it, i will use it often from now on Petr

My friend is in need of a new reenactment belt, and so I decided to learn a new technique - inlay. Many Great-Moravian buckles and strap ends were decorated using this technique, but so few reenactors today seem to care about that. These two pieces - the buckle and the strap end - are my first attempts. I had to do the strap end twice, since I wasn´t very happy with how the first one turned out... I also did the leather belt.

I finished this little knife today, an order from a 76 year old lady who grew up on a farm where arum lilies flourished. Blade: 1070 Handle: Patinated mild steel with sterling silver raised inlay and sterling silver pinning. Questions and comments welcome.