Swords: Update

Here’s a quick recap.

 

Two weeks ago there was this

 

And then there was a lot of this

 

And some more of that

 

 

And now we have this.

 

Lots of polishing this week. Maybe make a start on the hilt. We shall see.

But In the meantime, I want to show how the tang of this sword was forged as it was welded on separately rather than simply being drawn out of the sword billet.

 

This is beneficial for a few reasons, namely not sacrificing any of the blades length but also welding on a separate piece of soft iron will make final peening of the tang easier when it comes finish and fit the hilt.

Firstly, the "handle" was cut off. This handle was is part of the sword and runs internally along the blades entire length. Once this had been cut off, it left a stub of steel that did not match the taper of the rest of the blade so it was from here that the new tang of mild steel was welded on

At welding temperature, this was “necked- in” forming the shoulders of tang but also upsetting the tang stub, providing more material to weld the soft tang to.  The tang material is shown on the anvil, it was a piece of scrap bent double and hammered in place.