A Single Edged Viking Sword WIP: Florianek/Stephens Collaboration

[Mark Green 17]

Very cool Dave!!!

I love these swords.


Heheheh, you handle will fall off.

 

 

Mark

[John Page 51]

Way cool, Dave! I love collaborations, and this is shaping up to be something spectacular. I'm with Michael on the forging depression. Since moving to a temp house before I have to go down south, I have not had the shop space I expected. No forging since mid May (excepting a little at hammer-ins), and I'm itching to get back to it! Thanks for the inspiration, can't wait for more progress!

 

John

[MLenaghan 56]

Dave your not going to keep the rebar in the tang...

[Jon Stormm 0]

John, I'm nearly in the same boat as you. I'm stuck in Savannah till the end of the month.

[MSchneider 5]

That looks fantastic, I can't wait to see the end result. How thick are the core bars? It is probably the perspective, but in the first pic they look like they are an inch thick.

[Jon Stormm 0]

Lol, I just read the comment about the rebar on FB!!

[Alan Longmire 1,750]

Glad the expert could help, Dave! Oy...

[GEzell 132]

Awesome project Dave, I'm trying not to be too envious of your induction coils...

 

There is some tradition of using whale oil for heat-treating purposes, looking at blades like that one with what looks like a typical oil quench nose-dive makes me wonder just how far back that tradition goes.

[Jerrod Miller 293]

Dave -

I guess I also should have asked if your unit has variable frequency, not all do. If not and your unit forces you to go high that is better than the opposite, it just means that you have to go slower and soak a bit longer. The surfaces will be getting hotter before the center, just like a fired forge. Hope you can handle that. <I do indeed feel terrible for the handle/tang reference while poking at your "obvious lack of experience". Puns and sarcasm; I thought I was better than this.>

 

I also want to add that while I too am a little (read: very) envious of your tools, it is your drive, passion, and skill that blow me away every time you post something. Thanks for sharing that energy, it is what really helps me get going more.

[Dave Stephens 296]

Jerrod,

 

I think I can adjust it. I just need to learn how to do so (there are some knobs and dials and stuff . . .)

 

Thanks for the kind words. They mean a lot.

 

Dave

[Dave Stephens 296]

That looks fantastic, I can't wait to see the end result. How thick are the core bars? It is probably the perspective, but in the first pic they look like they are an inch thick.

 

The edge bar was about 1/2" thick, and the top bars were about 3/4" thick. I sacrifice a lot of material on multi-bar blades because I'm paranoid about trying to weld thin bars in a tall stack. In my experience, it's easier to get a "buckle" in a thin stacked bar as you try to set the weld. And once it buckles, I don't know of any way to fix it besides breaking the bar apart, grinding the edges parallel again, and restacking. So, I go thick and then grind alot of material away after it's welded up.

 

I've seen Michael Pikula stack a 3" tall bar of 1/4" rods and weld it on the edge flawlessly. So, it certainly CAN be done with thinner bars and less material waste. I just don't have the hammer control to do it.

 

Dave

[Collin Miller 136]

Dad gum it! Guess it's back to the drawing board for you, Dave.

I agree, from now on I'll be doing thicker bars.

[Matthew Parkinson 162]

I never go thinner than 3/8 if I can help it, 1/2"r 5/8" by preference.

[Tyler Miller 0]

This is going to be an exciting project to watch. Awesome work so far, Dave!

[Petr Florianek 21]

Hello!

very nice piece of work Dave!
i have some fresh ideas that i would like to discuss that popped in my head while returning from Norway.

this will be a seriously cool piece

[Emiliano Carrillo 174]

Dave,

 

Thanks for the answer! The way the bars looked in one of the pictures threw me off, but it makes a lot more sense now! I will have to try that, so far I've been doing my twists with square bars.

[Eastvillage 0]

Great project! Can't wait to see the pattern. Dave how many KW is your induction forge?

[J.Arthur Loose 38]

Nice work, Dave!

[Dave Stephens 296]

Update:

 

The blade is coming along nicely. Here's a shot of it being hand polished on the bench.

 

I believe I'm going to skip the wire inlay.

 

I'd like to make up some story about how I've decided that the wire inlay would detract from the blade's lines, etc., but the truth is I'm really happy with how well the pattern, fuller, and bevels have turned out on this sword so far, and I just don't want to risk screwing it up by trying something new on it.

 

I did a quick etch late this evening. Really pleased with the twist density and the san mai effect of the high layer core sandwiched in the medium layer edge layers.

 

More photos after the real etch and polish.

 

Cheers.

 

Dave

 

 

[Collin Miller 136]

That's awesome! I can see the subtle nosedive. Good call on the wire inlay, you could attempt it at this point, and make it look good, but you'll be kicking yourself for it if it didn't go as perfect as the blade has, I know I would.

[Jeremy L. 0]

Been thinking of this sword waaaay too often and that teaser photo isn't going to tide me over very well.... Really looking forward to more .

 

Jeremy

[Miles Hebbard 2]

Very interesting Dave! Way to go!

[Petr Florianek 21]

Dave' I love it and I can't wait to see it in person

[Kevin (The Professor) 114]

that fullering is sweet! I am happy that things are going well. You are doing great work. Keep it up...

kc

[J.Arthur Loose 38]

Dood. All this time I've been sanding wrong.