Is my billet long enough?

[tormentchris]

I started a tripple twisted core viking sword last week. I drew out the core billet to 3' long, 7/16" squared. That only gives me 12." I'm thinking thats not quite long enough. If I weld up another billet identicle in numbers and draw it out, cut 18" I'll have 3, 18" 7/16" squared. That seems mch better. I'm afraid of the blade being way too thin after the final shaping. I'd rather have too much than not enough. In length I mean. I've already replied to athother post of mine about this smae sword. If read then sorry for the mix up. I didn't know how to repost something new on an older post that would pop up as a new post. Anyways.

Thanks, chris

[owen bush]

Everyone will do it differently. I tend to do my billets at 14mm square (9/16) and then forge to round and twist and back to around 14mm by 11.. and then make up my core billet so a 3 core would be around 33mm by14mm by around 18 inches long. and weigh around 1.6 kilos or 3.6lb.

I tend to think in weight as much as dimension.

[Al Massey]

I agree with Owen- think in terms of weight. You'll likely lose about 50 per cent of your material in working it either through scale or grinding, so make sure you have at least twice what you think you'll need in mass.