Forging a Ukrainian Kozak saber/Turkish Kilij

[Alex Jemetz]

I've been reading and learning a lot about how to forge on this site and although I'm still a beginner and have only forged six knives I thought that my next project should be what I've always wanted to create--a sword.  A Ukrainian Kozak saber in the style of a Turkish Kilij.  I'm a believer of learning hands-on and so will be posting pics of the progress as I dive right in...  All feedback, criticism and suggestions are most welcome.  Apologies in advance if I post too many pictures.  The material is 5160 truck leaf-spring.  I hope to carve a cross-guard from sculptors wax and cast the brass piece myself.

Started from scratch with the leaf-spring, cleaned up the steel, cut in half and flattened it out before working on shaping the point.

[Alex Jemetz]

I started to work on the bevel and was surprised to learn how sharply the blade would 'saber'.  I tried to alleviate my worry by looking at historic examples of significantly curved Turkish sabers until I realized I could reduce the curvature by slightly making a bevel on the spine which actually worked (the steel is quite thick):

 

[Alex Jemetz]

I cut out a cardboard cross-guard to get a feel for the scale I would need to create out of wax:

 

[Alex Jemetz]

Had a little time last night to work on the pommel and grip:

 

[Doug Lester]

Looks good.  I see from your layout lines how you are going to deal with that bolt hole.  My one concern is the thickness of the stock that you started out with.  My impressions from the khurkuris that I have made from the car springs is that they're rather thick and might produce an overly heavy blade.  But all in all I think that it's coming along nicely.  Keep posting your progress.

 

Doug

[Jaro Petrina]

12 hours ago, Doug Lester said:

Looks good.  I see from your layout lines how you are going to deal with that bolt hole.  My one concern is the thickness of the stock that you started out with.  My impressions from the khurkuris that I have made from the car springs is that they're rather thick and might produce an overly heavy blade.  But all in all I think that it's coming along nicely.  Keep posting your progress.

 

Doug

If he has a 6" wheel for hollow grinding that fuller all the way, hell be ok

Edited March 17 by Jaro Petrina

[Doug Lester]

Ya, I guess it's one of those cases where you wish you could really examine the blade.

 

Doug

[Dan Hertzson]

Really don't understand why you didn't use the side with the half hole from stock as the tang end.  Seems tailor made for that, particularly with the size of full tang you are making.

[Alex Jemetz]

On 3/17/2023 at 1:58 AM, Doug Lester said:

Looks good.  I see from your layout lines how you are going to deal with that bolt hole.  My one concern is the thickness of the stock that you started out with.  My impressions from the khurkuris that I have made from the car springs is that they're rather thick and might produce an overly heavy blade.  But all in all I think that it's coming along nicely.  Keep posting your progress.

 

Doug

Hi Doug, thank you for your response!  I will be grinding the blade soon and will try my first attempt at a fuller so it will end up thinner and lighter.  Soon as I get started on this phase I will post the weight with pictures of the grinding/shaping progress.

[Alex Jemetz]

On 3/18/2023 at 5:16 PM, Dan Hertzson said:

Really don't understand why you didn't use the side with the half hole from stock as the tang end.  Seems tailor made for that, particularly with the size of full tang you are making.

DOH!  I will do that for the next sword I make from the other half...  Appreciate you pointing that out, probably because I was eager to get started...