Edge "Fuller" / forging tool Question

[Josh A Weston]

I'm in the process of making a new sword and I've got it almost rough shaped out. I'm getting ready to put the edge bevels and then do the center fuller. I have already made my fullering tool for the center fuller but I want to shape my edge bevels first. I was thinking about making a similar fullering tool to shape those edge and hopefully push some steel into the center of the blade. I would then push the edges into just short of where I want their final shape. Then go back through with the center fuller and push them out to just beyond the final shape and grind down. The main reason I think doing this will be helpful is to reduce some grinding and to help reduce the amount of bevel dents I get in the steel from hand hammering them in (still only been at this for a little over a year and I'm no pro... yet).

 

I would appreciate any thoughts or feedback especially from someone who may have tried this already.

 

Thanks!

 

[Pieter-Paul Derks]

that looks like it might just work,but it also looks like it would be able to not work well at all,if you get what i mean

i suggest building it and trying it out on some scrap steel first before you risk doing damage to yoursword blade.

 

i have never seen something like this before, but i could ofcourse work.

 

i am curious if it works..

 

ps, afterthought, itwould be better if you made it into a parallel system, like a blacksmiths magician tool.

the way it is set up now will probably twist your blade, because the jaws are not aligned.

[Freya W. Ward]

It's an interesting concept. Not sure how well it would work. My hang up about trying it this way would be the risk of it starting to fold the metal along it's length. It also seems like it would be difficult trying to force the steel to extrude into the channels of the tool.

 

If I were to make a tool for forging bevels, this would be it:

 

 

Hopefully this quickly drawn diagram illustrates what I mean. The yellow block is meant to illustrate the cross section of a heated bar

[Simon W]

Yeah, I'd be concerned about the vertical fullers you had originally sketched twisting or cupping the bar.

 

I think Freya's idea is more likely to work, but perhaps go further with it? Take your idea but flip it horizontally so that you have two wide angle fullers squeezing a horizonal bar (or a square bar rotated on axis 45 degrees) to form your bevels. The fullers should form the spine of blade at the top & bottom, while squeezing any excess material out to the edges of the blade.

 

I'm sure our much more experienced smiths may have an even better solution!

 

 

 

[Josh A Weston]

that looks like it might just work,but it also looks like it would be able to not work well at all,if you get what i mean

i suggest building it and trying it out on some scrap steel first before you risk doing damage to yoursword blade.

 

i have never seen something like this before, but i could ofcourse work.

 

i am curious if it works..

 

ps, afterthought, itwould be better if you made it into a parallel system, like a blacksmiths magician tool.

the way it is set up now will probably twist your blade, because the jaws are not aligned.

 

I tried it but it did not work. Well, it did and it didn't just like you speculated. It did start forming some bevels on the edges but it turned the blade into an "S" curve. Good thing I used a test piece.

 

 

It's an interesting concept. Not sure how well it would work. My hang up about trying it this way would be the risk of it starting to fold the metal along it's length. It also seems like it would be difficult trying to force the steel to extrude into the channels of the tool.

 

 

Yeah, I'd be concerned about the vertical fullers you had originally sketched twisting or cupping the bar.

 

I think Freya's idea is more likely to work, but perhaps go further with it? Take your idea but flip it horizontally so that you have two wide angle fullers squeezing a horizonal bar (or a square bar rotated on axis 45 degrees) to form your bevels. The fullers should form the spine of blade at the top & bottom, while squeezing any excess material out to the edges of the blade.

 

I'm sure our much more experienced smiths may have an even better solution!

 

I think I will try this tomorrow with the horizontal version. It does make more sense. Especially after trying it the other way.

 

Thanks for the input!

[Josh A Weston]

I'm going to try this one next.

 

[Jerrod Miller]

You may want to not have it peaked in the center so it is easier to run your center fuller later. With that design you will be trying to push a rounded surface exactly on top of a point, so it will want to "roll away" (meaning it will kick the sword to the side). Just a thought, never done it. I have been thinking of making dies like this for my press, so I've thought of a lot of things that could go wrong. I look forward to seeing what you find works best.

[GEzell]

About 50 seconds into this video Niels uses an interesting device for forging in the bevels....

[Josh A Weston]

 

About 50 seconds into this video Niels uses an interesting device for forging in the bevels....

Now if only I had the power hammer to go with it! I like that design though. Edited August 31, 2013 by Josh A Weston

[Freya W. Ward]

 

 

Now if only I had the power hammer to go with it! I like that design though.

 

It'll work just fine without one. Just make one with a significantly smaller surface area and use a nice hefty hammer. I use a 6 lb when I work with fullering tools nowadays