How To Make a Sword - A Real Functional Medieval Sword
Dec 19, 2013 6:27:26 GMT
Post by Jack Loomes on Dec 19, 2013 6:27:26 GMT
Michael Tinker Pearce - Sword Maker
Editor's Note: This is by far the best sword making tract on the net. If you like it I strongly suggest you buy Michael Pearce's The Medieval Sword in the Modern World - available here: The Medieval Sword in the Modern World on Amazon
Hi All - I have been requested to once again post a description of my sword-making methods, and as I unexpectedly have some time this morning, here it is in several installments- please do not post questions or replies until all the posts are complete!
I start the process with a bar of steel- 5160 or 5160H spring steel. 5160H is called the 'High-harden-ability grade,' but all this really means is that they've kept to tighter tolerances in the alloying process, but it is the same alloy. I order this from Pacific Machine and Tool Steel in Portland, Oregon- a good company to deal with. Typically I order a full bar (20-23 feet) of .250x 2-1/2 or .262x3-1/2 inches. They cut this into three roughly equal lengths for UPS shipping. BTW- bar steel is the ONLY thing I trust UPS to ship- not even they have managed to significantly screw up bars of steel.
The steel is cut on a Grizzly 64-1/2 inch metal cutting band-saw. This type can be used vertically or employed as a cut-off saw. For these stages I use the saw vertically, sitting on the base to stabilize it as I feed in the steel. I use a flex-back Bi-metal blade, 64-1/2x1/2x.025 inches. I used to have these custom-made by Do-All, but now I buy them from Tool Town on Elliot Avenue in Seattle as it is near my wife's work.
I cut the steel to a more convenient length, depending on the type of sword that I am making- I am going to describe making a 32 inch Type XIIa sword, but the principles are the same as any other sword. I then clean the steel with Acetone to remove any grease, oil etc. Measuring the dimensions carefully, I mark the steel with a Sharpie brand marker- these markers have a fine point and use water-resistant non-toxic ink. I will mark the tang approximately 1 inch longer than it needs to be- it's easier to make things shorter than longer, and this allows room to drill a hole in the tang so that the heat treater can hang the sword vertically in the furnace. The tang will be marked 3/4 inches wide at the shoulder, and marked so that the shoulder will finish out well-rounded. I mark the tang so that it tapers to just under 1/2 inch wide at the tip, however long it will wind up. Because I tend to cut out 10-12 blades at a time for heat treat I will often cut out a much longer tang than I actually need as I am often not sure what I will make of the finished sword- for the same reason I leave the point squared-off. What I wind up with is an un-pointed sword-shaped flat bar of steel with a hole at the tip of the tang. I refer to this as a 'Sword-Blank' as it can at this point be made into any of a variety of swords. For our 32 inch long type XII the blade would be 32-1/4 inches long, 2 inches wide at the base and have a straight taper to approx. 1 inch wide at the flat tip. The tang will be approximately 9 inches, allowing room for a six-inch handle. The sword is now ready for Heat Treat.
When I have 10-12 Sword Blanks I take them Pacific Metallurgical in Kent, Washington for Hardening and Tempering. I have them use a process called 'Marquenching' which yields the toughest possible structure for this alloy- but that's another post. Most swords I will have tempered to HRc58-60. This really is rocket science to these folks- they generally come back between HRc58.5-59.5. Note that this is far too hard for a finished sword blade- I use this spec because I will be selectively drawing the temper through the spine and tang of the blade later.
After I collect the blades from heat-treat, I will select the blade I will be working on and 'true-it up.' This is the final shaping of the profile where I establish the shape of the point and make sure the edges are straight. This is done on a Bader 2x72 grinder set up to run at 2650 SFPM. I will usually use an old 60 grit Carborundum Ceramic Medalist belt for this. There is a 4 foot-long water tank underneath the Bader to keep the blade cool. As all the grinding takes place after Heat Treat, care must be maintained to insure that the blade stays cool enough to not interfere with the temper of the steel. Blades will sometimes 'saber' in heat treat due to stresses in the rolled bar of steel- this means that the blade will curve like a saber, so that I have to grind the blade back to the finished shape that I want. If this sabering occurs and is too extreme I will not be able to use the blade for it's original purpose, but I can always make something of it. This occasionally causes delays in swords made-to-order, and I then have to try again on the next cycle of heat treat.
After the sword is 'straight-and-true,' I go to the 2x72 Wilton Square Wheel grinder. This grinder is setup to run at 4850 SFPM and is much quicker. I adjust the grinder so that the platen is at a 45 degree angle (approximately) with the table very close to it. I then grind angles onto the edges of the sword to establish the location of the cutting edge. At the end of this process the edge is beveled and there is a flat approx. .010 (10 thousandths of an inch) running down the center of either edge of the sword.
This is the end of the process of preparing the Sword Blank for grinding- it is now ready to be ground into a sword.
Part 2-Grinding the Blade
For our Type XIIa (or any other fullered Blade) the next step is grinding the fullers. Type XIIs have a fuller running 1/3-2/3 of the length of the blade.
The first step is to again clean the blade with acetone, then mark the center-line of the sword with the Sharpie. For a type XII I typically mark the fuller about 5/8 inches wide. For this sword I will install a 1-1/2 inch contact wheel on the Bader. I use the lower speed grinder because the blade stays cooler, and at the lower speed it takes longer to screw it up. Whenever possible I use a fresh belt for this.
Note- I use the Carborundum Ceramic Medalist 60 Grit for all of my rough grinding, Alox for all of my 240 grit belts and Silicon Carbide for all of my 400 Grit belts; years of experimentation have shown these types and grits yield the best results for my methods.
The grinder is set up low enough that I can lean over the contact wheel and see what I am doing on the back side of the blade where the grinding happens. I also direct a light to shine on this side of the blade. I start at the base of the fuller (which usually extends slightly onto the tang per period examples) and start a fairly deep cut between the marked lines. I will gradually work this cut down the length of the fuller, trying to stay between the lines and keep things as straight as possible. At the tip of the fuller I may grind the fuller square or rounded, depending on the effect I want. For Type XIIs i general round it off- for Type X's I usually run the fuller straight off the end of the sword as the distal taper and edge beveling will result in a rounded end on the fuller. Again, great care is taken not to over-heat the sword, frequently quenching it in water in the long tank to keep things cool.
Note- I don't wear gloves, as I started out without them and I am used to the feel of working without them. YOU should start with gloves and wear them always- if you start with gloves you will always be used to the feel and they can save you from some nasty abrasions. On the subject of safety, I wear a full-face protective mask with dust filters. This is the best $120 to $200 you will ever spend. Not using this type of mask can result in serious injuries to your eyes and lungs. If you are just setting up and are on a budget BUY THIS FIRST. I'm not kidding!
Once this fuller is ground, I flip the sword and grind the fuller on the opposite face. Once both fullers are ground I finish them with a 240 grit belt followed by a 400 grit belt. It is HUGELY easier to grind the fullers before any other part of the blade, and if you screw up REALLY bad you can start over before too much work has gone into the blade. Once the fullers are finished I am ready to rough-grind the edge bevels.
For this stage (sometimes referred to as hogging) I will be removing up to 60% of the remaining weight of the sword blank, and sterner measures are needed. I use a 7 inch 5000rpm angle grinder for hogging, with a rubber Spira-Cool backing and cloth-backed Ceramic Medalist disks. This tool weighs about 12 pounds. I have a special grinding bench for this with a 6-foot board attached to the edge with a thin steel shield protecting the rest of the bench from the spark-stream. I use an adjustable-grip locking pliers to clamp the blade to the grinding bench by it's tang. I mark the blades primary bevel on either side with the Sharpie. I mark from the base of the fuller on one side to the opposite side at an angle so that this bevel will cut well across the center line near the point so that distal taper will be 'built-in' when I grind the bevels on the opposite side. I start by expanding the existing edge bevel towards the marked line, removing the blade from the grinding bench frequently to cool it in the long tank and alternating sides of the blade to equalize stresses in the material. Once this bevel is established on each side I mark the secondary bevel to the center-line of the sword and grind these bevels. The Type XLL[?sic] has a flat ogival section from the end of the fuller to the point, so after the edge bevels are established I will carefully grind a flat about 1 inch wide from near the tip of the blade to the tip of the fuller on either side.
I then move back to the Wilton grinder, and set it up for slack-belt grinding by removing the table and rotating the platen/small wheel assembly to present the 3 inch contact wheel and adjust it so that the belt is extremely tight. Starting with the blade held at 90 degrees to the belt at the base of the blade I will then smooth out the marks from the hand-held grinder. At the end of this each bevel with have a series of straight grinding marks running the across the width of the blade perpendicular to the long axis of the sword. To create the flat-ogival section of the blade from the tip of the fuller to the point I will make a series of passes to 'roll' the edges off between the edge bevels and the central flat resulting in the desired cross section. Note that this doesn't result in a perfectly flat and even finish- there will be some ripples in the finished blade, but these are unavoidable unless I wish to block-sand them out, which is enormously time intensive (read this as EXPENSIVE- time is by far the costliest element of making a sword.) I accept this, and some even feel that it lends a more authentic look to the sword as it is the same sort of 'flaw' found on period blades.
The sword is rough ground now, and ready for Differential Tempering.
Differential Tempering the Blade
BTW- when I start with the blank for a sword of this type the blank typically weighs 3-1/2 pounds or so- the rough-ground blade weighs about a 1-1/2 pounds.
The blade was hardened and tempered already, so this is actually a second stage of tempering. As mentioned the sword, at HRc58-60, is far too hard and would quickly shatter in use. Now we fix that. The idea is to finish with a sword that is still HRc58+ at the cutting edge, but only HRc45-48 at the center of the blade and through the tang. This yields an optimum balance between edge retention and flexibility/shock resistance. I temper the center third of the blade because of the beveling of the edge this means that well over half of the sword's mass winds up at a full spring temper. To accomplish this I use a fine tip on my oxy-propane torch. I use oxy propane for this as this mix of gas shows the color of the steel better than oxy-propane and is enough cooler than oxy-propane to reduce the risk of over-heating. It is VERY important not to over-heat the steel, as 5160 will air-harden in thin section- over-heating can result in air-hardened sections which are very brittle, causing the sword to fail on impact.
I set up the torch and stool next to the long cooling tank with a very bright light shining directly on the working area. Starting at the tip of the tang, I heat the steel until the steel oxidizes to a blue color. On the tang I work in sections approx. 1-2 inches long, alternating sides so that I don't induce stresses that might cause the tang to warp. I work all the way up the tang slowly enough to insure that the heat soaks all the way through, and when I reach the shoulder I color that thoroughly almost to the cutting edges. then quickly cool it in water to prevent the heat from spreading too much. Starting at the base of the blade, I heat the steel to the same even blue color across the center third of the blade, working in approx. 1 inch sections and alternating sides, with a quick dip in the water tank between sides to prevent the heat from 'Bleeding' to the cutting edges. As the blade gets thinner and narrower towards the tip I work in shorter and shorter sections, as the heat will bleed much faster through the thinner, narrower steel. I work to just within an inch of the tip.
When finished, this type of sword will easily flex over 90 degrees yet the edge is hard enough to shear (cheap) chain-mail without doing more than dulling the cutting edge.
Now we are ready to finish-grind and polish the blade.
Finish Grinding and Polishing
For finish grinding I once again turn to the Wilton, this time mounting a 240 grit alox belt. Staring at the base with the blade held at approximately 45 degrees to the axis of the belt, I grind out the 60 grit marks and slightly refine the shape of the bevels, evening them out. By grinding at 45 degrees to the 60 grit marks, these marks are readily apparent and it is easy to tell when the marks are completely removed. The sword is cooled in the long tank any time it gets too hot to handle comfortably, so that the temper is not interfered with. As the fullers are already finished to 400 grit and are ready to polish I leave them alone at this stage. The edge also gets thinner during this process, and care must be taken not to actually sharpen the edge. Sometimes further truing is needed at this stage, and for this I use a 9 inch bench-mount disc sander, as the rotating disc at 90 degrees to the table makes it very easy to straighten the edges as needed.
Once I am satisfied that all the grinding marks from 60 grit are removed, I progress to 400 grit, mounting a Silicon Carbide belt on the Wilton grinder. Grinding perpendicular to the belt and cooling frequently, I then remove all of the 240 grit marks. Again as I am grinding at 45 degrees to the previous marks it is easy to see when I have ground enough. At the end I have very fine grind lines running across the sword perpendicular to the sword's axis. Typically the cutting edge of the sword now has a flat approx. 4-6 thousandths of an inch across. The sword is now ready for polishing to a bright finish.
For polishing I use a 1 hp Balder buffer with two 14 inch x 1/2 inch Sisal (rope fiber) wheels mounted side by side to produce a 1 inch wide surface. The buffer is on a free-standing table only slightly wider than the base of the buffer allowing free access to the wheels on either side. The on-off switch is mounted on the leg of this table so that I don't have to reach anywhere near the wheels to turn the machine on or off, and in the event of disaster I can actually kick the switch off while clutching an injury. Buffing is easily the most dangerous stage- the 14 inch wheel can grab the blade and 'throw' it sideways with great force if you aren't careful. Smaller metal parts can be grabbed and thrown at speeds easily exceeding 100mph. Serious owies. ALWAYS exercise extreme caution when using a buffer such as this.
I use a 'Black Stainless' rouge that is quite aggressive- I purchase this in bars from Chemithon of Seattle, Wa. Grinding length-wise on the blade and cooling frequently either in the quench-bucket positioned next the buffer or the long tank under the Bader grinder. This rouge/wheel combination is aggressive enough to ruin the temper if you are not careful, especially in the thinned sections near the the tip. I start at the tip of the blade while I am still fresh, buffing along the length of the blade to remove the 400 grit marks. I then move to the base of the blade and buff there. The ends are the most dangerous, so I get them out of the way before fatigue becomes an issue. I work in sections, always along the length of the blade, and do the fullers last. Since all the grinding marks in the fuller run the same direction across the blade, it is easy for 60 grit marks to 'hide' here, so this are requires special attention. Once the 400 grit marks are removed and a bright, even finish is established this stage is done and I generally take a long break- this is hard on the back and shoulders!
After polishing, the edges of the tang are radius-ed and the join of the tang to the shoulder rounded. I use a 60 grit belt on the Wilton Grinder to accomplish this, using the slack-belt and the edge of the contact wheel as needed. I measure the tang and grind it to length, then grind at the tip to produce a section 1/4 inch square centered on the tip- the length of this section depends on the type of pommel to be mounted, but as my XIIa's usually have a wheel-pommel this section is usually 5/8-3/4 inch long. I round this section well, then clamp the tang in a bench vise and using a die cut 1/4-20 threads on the tip of the spring-tempered tang. The blade is now finished and ready for a hilt. Whee-Hah!
I am now out of time, so I'll post the hilt construction later- hopefully over the weekend.
Making the Hilt- Starting with the Guard
The part of making the hilt that I always do first is the guard. For our mythical Type XIIa let us go with a cusped straight steel guard that flares towards the tips- that looks good on this type of sword with a wheel pommel.
I start with a bar of steel- big surprise... I use mild steel for guards, usually SAE 1018-1020. For this project I would use a bar 1/2 inch by 3/4 inch. First thing is to measure the length of the guard- 7-1/2 inches will be about right. This piece is then cut to length on the metal-cutting band saw. I then clean the faces with a 60 grit belt on the Bader grinder set up with the flat-grinding assembly with the grind lines cutting across the width of the blade. I then take a dial caliper and set it to half the width of the stock- in this case .375 inches. Locking the caliper at .375 inches, I set one jaw just off the edge of one side of the piece, and the nice, sharp tip of the other jaw in the center of the piece and rake it down the length of the piece from one end to the other, making a nice scribed line down the center of the guard. This line cuts across the 60 grit grind marks so it is highly visible. I then decide what the width of the arms of the guard should be- about 3/8 inch in this case, so I back the caliper off 3/16 (.185) inch and scribe a line from either side- now the width of the arms is laid out. I mark the center of the guard, and since the tang is 3/4 inches wide- excepting the rounded shoulder- I make a mark 1/4 inch from the center on either side of the center line. To do this with precision, I first use a center-punch to mark the center, then set the dial caliper to .25 inches- well, actually to a few thousandths over .250- then stick one jaw in the center-hole and scribe an arc to either side of the center mark. Where this arc crosses the center line is the spot to drill on either side of the center. I mark both of these spots with the center-punch as well, then I am ready to start making a slot for the tang to pass through the guard.
I first set up the drill press to run at about 1250 rpm and mount a 1/4 inch cobalt drill bit. These drill bits are less fragile than carbide, but much more heat and wear resistant than high-speed steel. I generally use a 'jobber short' bit for this- a bit about 1-1/2 inches long. I then clamp what will become the guard in a milling vice that is bolted to the arm of the drill press. This allows me to adjust the pieces location in two dimensions with great precision. The arm of the drill press is adjustable for height, so I adjust it to about 1/4 inch below the point of the bit before I lock everything down. Drill presses are precision machines, but they are a lot less robust than a milling machine, so having everything close together minimizes what little play there is. I then drill three 1/4 inch holes centered on the marks made with the center punch. I use short plunges ( only cutting with the drill bit for a couple of seconds before lifting it) and lubricate frequently with wd40. When these three holes are done, there is only a thin web of metal between holes. I then use the crank on the milling vice to make shallow passes across the webs with the drill bit, taking them down a few thousandths at a pass until they are gone and I have a slot just over 3/4 inches wide by 1/4 inch across centered on the middle of the bar. I then work this over with files and a carbide burr in the Foredom tool (kind of a super-Dremel tool with a flexible shaft connecting the hand-piece that holds the bits to the motor) until it will slip down over the tang to the rounded shoulder.
Next the guard is cut and ground to its final form. The arms width is already scribed on, and type XIIa's usually don't have a defined quillon block, so I draw a line at each end of the slot across the guard, then draw 'swooping' lines connecting the tips of these lines to the scribed line of the arm on either side, taking care to make these four lines symmetrical. I then cut along the scribed line until I get to the convex 'swoop' line, then follow that curve to the edge of the guard. It is usually necessary to cool the guard between cuts or it becomes uncomfortably hot. Now the guard has it's rough form. Using the 3 inch contact wheel on either grinder with a 60 grit belt, I remove the saw marks and round off the corners between the cuts and the flats on either side of the center. This is a lot easier to demonstrate than describe, so if I've left you behind don't worry about it. In the end the arms of the cross start straight at the tips, then sweep out to form a rounded center before sweeping in again before straightening to form the opposite arm.
I specified that this would be a cusped guard, meaning that there is a low point at the center. I switch to a 1-1/2 inch contact wheel, and again with the 60 grit belt I grind about 1/8 inch deep along either side of the center, leaving a part-round cut on either side of the center with a point in the middle. Then I grind away the excess material on the arms to either side of these guys so that the faces of the arms taper towards the center, then curve up to form the cusp. I then switch to a 240 grit belt, bevel the edges so it won't scrape the users hand, clean up the 60 grit marks and polish on the sisal wheel. This steel is much softer than blade steel, so the 240 grit marks clean up surprisingly fast.
The guard must now be fitted to the shoulder of the blade. I start by reliving the inside corners of the tang-slot to accommodate the rounded join of shoulder and tang. When this fits snugly against the shoulder, I switch to a cutting wheel on the Foredom tool. I mark the outline of the base of the blade on the guard, then use the cutting wheel to hollow-out the resulting outline until the base of the blade is slightly recessed into the face of the guard. The guard's polish is touched-up, and the guard is now finished. If perfectly fitted the guard will require some small effort to remove.
Next- the pommel- hopefully later tonight or tomorrow night.
The Pommel Part 1
Consulting 'Records of the Medieval Sword' and other sources we see that variations of Type 'J' pommels are used rather often, Type 'K' and several other similar types are used rather frequently as well. Many of these pommels have a diameter that is greater than the width at the base of the blade, and this looks right to me. To keep the weight and balance in the correct range, we'll use the Type 'K' pommel, which can be made lighter than a 'J' of the same diameter. For those without handy references the 'K' is a flat disc with raised bosses in the center in the form of flat discs.
Pommel Part 2
When determining the size and weight of the pommel, we have to examine the blade and guard. The theoretical sword, based on other that I have made recently, is .250 inch thick at the base, tapers to .200 inches thick (1/5 inch) at the tips of the fullers which are approx 40% of the overall length of the blade, then distal tapers rapidly to approx .083 inch (1/12 inch). It has already been noted that the blade is 2 inches wide at the base. Following my usual practice of late, the blade will be slightly flared at the base (like the Type XIV pictured above) and so is approx. 1-3/4 inches about 2 inches from the base. The blade then has a straight taper in profile to approx 2-1/2 inches from the moderately acute point to approx 7/8 inches across. This gives the sword blade an unmounted COG approx 7 inches from the guard. The blade weighs approx 1.5 pounds.
The sword can be balanced in a number of ways- there is considerable lee-way with a blade of this configuration as to where the COG should be located on the finished sword. This is not always the case- swords with different rates of distal and profile taper can be much more restricted as to where the COG must be located to prevent excessive shock from being transmitted to the user's hand when striking- this relates to the much-debated Harmonic Balance, or the location of the swords rotational Nodes.
Because I like the look of a pommel that has a greater diameter than the width of the base of the blade, this will of necessity be a heavy pommel. I know in theory how to make a hollow pommel, but it's a bloody lot of work and I never have- also, it has not proved necessary to achieve the dynamics that I want. So, a heavy pommel it is. This will draw the balance point quite close to the cross- as little as 3 inches. This will not work for an awful lot of swords, but recent experience has shown that it will work for this one. We'll talk about the dynamics more later.
So for this pommel I select a piece of mild-steel round-bar stock approximately 2-1/2 inches in diameter. Using the Grizzly band-saw as a cut-off saw, I'll slice a section approximately 1 inch thick off the end of the bar. Actually I stand around, look outside, set up the tools for the next stage, smoke a cigarette and listen to NPR on the radio while the saw slices off a 1 inch thick piece... As I will be removing a LOT of weight from this I've got a lot of lee-way on making the pommel.
The first step now that I have my inch-thick 2-1/2 inch diameter disc is to establish a flat where the pommel and handle will meet. Some period swords have a flat on the base of the pommel, some don't- I prefer it. To do this I have set up the Bader grinder with the flat-grinding platen and table with a 60 grit belt. Laying the pommel flat on one of it's faces I grind in one spot until I have a flat approx 1 inch across. As the Bader is not extremely precise for this use, I go to the disc sander with the table set at 90 degrees to the disc and make sure that it is nice and square to the axis of the pommel. I mark and center-punch two holes centered on the flat just over 1/4 inch apart, set it up in the milling vice and mount the 1/4 inch cobalt bit. I can adjust the depth of the plunge on this machine, and set it for the depth that I want- as the pommel is not approx 2.8 inches across from the flat to the tip now and I like the nut that secures the hilt to penetrate ate least 1/2 inch, I will set the plunge to about 2.2 inches, leaving .6 inches of the pommel solid. I drill two holes right next to each other located by the center-punched marks 2.2 inches deep then knock out the web between the holes as described when making the guard. This must be done carefully to produce a good slot, as tools don't reach very far down into the slot. When finished I have a slot with radius-ed sides just over a 1/2 inch wide and 2.6 inches deep. I then release the lock on the plunge of the drill press so that I can have the full 3-1/2 inch plunge that the drill press is capable of , carefully center the bit on the slot and grind a 1/4 inch hole all the way through the pommel. Releasing the pommel from the milling vice, I rotate it 180 degrees so that the 1/4 inch hole is uppermost. I slide this hole over the drill bit, and lower the drill until the pommel is in the vice again and tighten the vice on the pommel. This insures that the pommel is centered on the bit. I then swap out the bit for a 3/8 inch cobalt bit to counter-sink the pommel for the nut. with the machine off, I lower the bit until the tip of the bit is firmly against the pommel centered on the 1/4 inch hole, then lock the plunge so that the machine can lower the bit 1/2 inch, and drill the hole. The pommel is then fitted to the tip of the tang so that it is snug and the threaded section at the end of the tang protrudes into the 3/8 inch diameter 1/2 inch deep counter-sunk hole. Most of the fitting is done by modifying the tang- my tools will only reach about 3/4 inch deep in the slot but the tang is easily accessible. Properly fitted the pommel will be quite snug and will not be able to wobble on any axis.
Next- the nut. I get the nuts from Angus Trim swords. I showed Gus this method of securing a hilt when we first met, and we used it on the Tinkerblades production swords and Gus and I both continue to use it to this day. Since Gus makes handfuls of these things at a time on an automated metal lathe why should I bother? When I get these nuts they are not threaded or cross-drilled to facilitate take-down. So the first thing I do is lock the nut in the vice and cut the threads with a 1/4-20 tap. I won't bore you with the details- it's pretty simple. After the threads are started I switch to a bottom-tap to extend the threads as deep as possible into the nut. Then I set up the nut in the milling vice and setting the speed to 1800 rpms I drill a hole just over 1/8 inch in diameter through the nut side-to-side to allow a rod to be inserted through the nut to provide leverage to install or remove the nut. I then check the fit of everything by installing the pommel and nut on the tang.
I then grind the flats to he pommel to an even 60 grit finish on the flat-grinding platen on the Bader. Once I have a good finish I use the dial caliper to scribe a circle on either flat of the pommel approx. 1 inch in diameter that represents the boss. Then I scribe lines around the circumference approx. 1/4 inch from either face. I then set of the Wilton Grinder to produce a 45 degree bevel, install a 60 grit belt and grind bevels all the way around the pommels edges. I then install the pommel again and test the balance- I might have to change my plan if the balance comes in before the pommel attains it's final shape. It will still balance too close to the guard, so I dismount the pommel and return to the Wilton. I then remove the table from the Wilton grinder and set it up to present the 3 inch contact wheel and install a 60 grit belt. Adjusting the tracking of the belt so that the belt rides just over the edge of the contact wheel I begin carefully removing material around the marked central boss, starting with the boss over-sized so that I can adjust the roundness of the boss and remove the correct amount of material to achieve the desired dynamics for the sword. There is a lot of room to play with the weight at this point. When I am satisfied with the form and weight of the pommel, I will leave it rough so that I can adjust the weight as needed after making and installing the handle.
With the pommel rough-ground and fitted to the tang with the nut completed it is time to make the handle.
Making the handle
There are a lot of options for making the handle as far as details, materials, decoration etc. For the sake of simplicity I'll describe making a simple leather-covered handle.
I use a lot of exotic hardwoods for sword and dagger handles, but lately I have been favoring the leather-covered handles- nice grip and a more period look. Gus has proved that Walnut makes a pretty nice basic wood for handles, so I use a lot of that for leather-wrapped handles. It has good hardness, impact resistance and is relatively stable when properly cured. I want a six-inch handle here, so I'll start by measuring to cut a piece just over six inches long by 1-1/2 inches wide. By the time I have the ends properly squared off the handle will be just a hair over six inches long. Butting it firmly against the cross I trace the tang with a Sharpie marker, then extend the lines onto the ends of the handle material. I clamp the handle in the milling vice on the drill-press, then set the machines speed to 3000 rpm. Since this handle is too long to use a full-length bit, I start with a short bit and drill a 3/4 inch by 1/4 inch slot in the base of the handle, first drilling the three holes side-by-side then knocking out the web between the holes as described when making the guard. I can then remove the handle from the vice, insert the full-length bit in the slot in the handle then replace the handle in the milling vice and clamp the drill bit into the presses head and extend the slot a full 3-1/2 inches deep. I then remove the handle and repeat the process at the tip of the handle to produce a 1/2 inch wide slot that meets the 3/4 inch slot in the middle of the handle. I then remove the handle from the vice and using a 1/4 inch round Chain-saw file I file away material where the 1/2 inch slot and 3/4 inch slot meet until the handle fits entirely down over the tang with a snug fit. This means that the handle grips the tang at the center, not the tips, which greatly reduced the likelihood of the ends of the handle splitting as there is no dynamic load at the ends.
Now that the handle blank fits on the tang the handle is fitted to a 'tang-tool,' a tapered and radiused bar of 1/4 inch steel about 2 feet long, this allows me to shape the handle while keeping my fingers away from the grinding belt. Going to the Wilton Grinder I will then shaped the handle using the contact wheel and slack belt to achieve the desired shape, in this case around 1-3/8 inches wide at the base and tapering to about 3/4 inches across at the pommel with an oval cross-section. I will leave a bit of clearance at either end so that the leather covering will not protrude past the edges of the guard or pommel.
With the handle still on the tang-tool, I will apply a thin, uniform coat of Duro brand contact cement over the entire handle and set it aside to dry. I will then take a piece of chrome-tanned garment leather (lets use brown) and with a sharp knife and a metal rules will cut a nice, straight line along one edge and then coat this with the contact cement and allow it to dry for 5-10 minutes. Once the glue is ready I will carefully apply the edge of the leather to the handle so that it runs vertically along the edge of the handle, then careful stretch the leather around the handle until it overlaps the other edge of the leather and press it down firmly all over the handle. I will then trim the leather from the ends of the handle with shears, and with a sharp knife to cut the leather to form a tight seam where the edges of the leather meet. I will then peel the leather slightly back at the seam and apply a layer of Duro brand super-glue under the edges of the leather and press them firmly together forming a good, tight seam.
I do not stitch the leather- experience has shown that the leather applied correctly in this fashion will eventually wear through without the seams or glue giving up. This leather covering will likely last decades under low levels of usage.
Finally the pommel is finished to 240 grit on all surfaces and polished as describes for the other pieces, and the sword is assembled- done!
The final sword (based on recent similar pieces that I have made) will weigh 2-3/4 to 3 pounds, with a COG approx 3 inches from the cross. The sword will feel very lively in the hand and seem to weigh much less than it's actual weight as the accelerating distal taper and heavy pommel give it a high Polar Moment, i.e. concentration of mass around the center of rotation (your hand.) But that's another post... we'll get to that.
Thank you for your kind attention- that's it, soup to nuts. I've got to go, but I'll be back this evening to field responses, and maybe we can discuss sharpening and scabbard making etc. Toodles!
Michael Tinker Pearce - Sword Maker
Source: howtomakearmour.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/how-to-make-swords-method-of-sword.html
See also: tinkerswords.com/
Editor's Note: This is by far the best sword making tract on the net. If you like it I strongly suggest you buy Michael Pearce's The Medieval Sword in the Modern World - available here: The Medieval Sword in the Modern World on Amazon
Hi All - I have been requested to once again post a description of my sword-making methods, and as I unexpectedly have some time this morning, here it is in several installments- please do not post questions or replies until all the posts are complete!
I start the process with a bar of steel- 5160 or 5160H spring steel. 5160H is called the 'High-harden-ability grade,' but all this really means is that they've kept to tighter tolerances in the alloying process, but it is the same alloy. I order this from Pacific Machine and Tool Steel in Portland, Oregon- a good company to deal with. Typically I order a full bar (20-23 feet) of .250x 2-1/2 or .262x3-1/2 inches. They cut this into three roughly equal lengths for UPS shipping. BTW- bar steel is the ONLY thing I trust UPS to ship- not even they have managed to significantly screw up bars of steel.
The steel is cut on a Grizzly 64-1/2 inch metal cutting band-saw. This type can be used vertically or employed as a cut-off saw. For these stages I use the saw vertically, sitting on the base to stabilize it as I feed in the steel. I use a flex-back Bi-metal blade, 64-1/2x1/2x.025 inches. I used to have these custom-made by Do-All, but now I buy them from Tool Town on Elliot Avenue in Seattle as it is near my wife's work.
I cut the steel to a more convenient length, depending on the type of sword that I am making- I am going to describe making a 32 inch Type XIIa sword, but the principles are the same as any other sword. I then clean the steel with Acetone to remove any grease, oil etc. Measuring the dimensions carefully, I mark the steel with a Sharpie brand marker- these markers have a fine point and use water-resistant non-toxic ink. I will mark the tang approximately 1 inch longer than it needs to be- it's easier to make things shorter than longer, and this allows room to drill a hole in the tang so that the heat treater can hang the sword vertically in the furnace. The tang will be marked 3/4 inches wide at the shoulder, and marked so that the shoulder will finish out well-rounded. I mark the tang so that it tapers to just under 1/2 inch wide at the tip, however long it will wind up. Because I tend to cut out 10-12 blades at a time for heat treat I will often cut out a much longer tang than I actually need as I am often not sure what I will make of the finished sword- for the same reason I leave the point squared-off. What I wind up with is an un-pointed sword-shaped flat bar of steel with a hole at the tip of the tang. I refer to this as a 'Sword-Blank' as it can at this point be made into any of a variety of swords. For our 32 inch long type XII the blade would be 32-1/4 inches long, 2 inches wide at the base and have a straight taper to approx. 1 inch wide at the flat tip. The tang will be approximately 9 inches, allowing room for a six-inch handle. The sword is now ready for Heat Treat.
When I have 10-12 Sword Blanks I take them Pacific Metallurgical in Kent, Washington for Hardening and Tempering. I have them use a process called 'Marquenching' which yields the toughest possible structure for this alloy- but that's another post. Most swords I will have tempered to HRc58-60. This really is rocket science to these folks- they generally come back between HRc58.5-59.5. Note that this is far too hard for a finished sword blade- I use this spec because I will be selectively drawing the temper through the spine and tang of the blade later.
After I collect the blades from heat-treat, I will select the blade I will be working on and 'true-it up.' This is the final shaping of the profile where I establish the shape of the point and make sure the edges are straight. This is done on a Bader 2x72 grinder set up to run at 2650 SFPM. I will usually use an old 60 grit Carborundum Ceramic Medalist belt for this. There is a 4 foot-long water tank underneath the Bader to keep the blade cool. As all the grinding takes place after Heat Treat, care must be maintained to insure that the blade stays cool enough to not interfere with the temper of the steel. Blades will sometimes 'saber' in heat treat due to stresses in the rolled bar of steel- this means that the blade will curve like a saber, so that I have to grind the blade back to the finished shape that I want. If this sabering occurs and is too extreme I will not be able to use the blade for it's original purpose, but I can always make something of it. This occasionally causes delays in swords made-to-order, and I then have to try again on the next cycle of heat treat.
After the sword is 'straight-and-true,' I go to the 2x72 Wilton Square Wheel grinder. This grinder is setup to run at 4850 SFPM and is much quicker. I adjust the grinder so that the platen is at a 45 degree angle (approximately) with the table very close to it. I then grind angles onto the edges of the sword to establish the location of the cutting edge. At the end of this process the edge is beveled and there is a flat approx. .010 (10 thousandths of an inch) running down the center of either edge of the sword.
This is the end of the process of preparing the Sword Blank for grinding- it is now ready to be ground into a sword.
Part 2-Grinding the Blade
For our Type XIIa (or any other fullered Blade) the next step is grinding the fullers. Type XIIs have a fuller running 1/3-2/3 of the length of the blade.
The first step is to again clean the blade with acetone, then mark the center-line of the sword with the Sharpie. For a type XII I typically mark the fuller about 5/8 inches wide. For this sword I will install a 1-1/2 inch contact wheel on the Bader. I use the lower speed grinder because the blade stays cooler, and at the lower speed it takes longer to screw it up. Whenever possible I use a fresh belt for this.
Note- I use the Carborundum Ceramic Medalist 60 Grit for all of my rough grinding, Alox for all of my 240 grit belts and Silicon Carbide for all of my 400 Grit belts; years of experimentation have shown these types and grits yield the best results for my methods.
The grinder is set up low enough that I can lean over the contact wheel and see what I am doing on the back side of the blade where the grinding happens. I also direct a light to shine on this side of the blade. I start at the base of the fuller (which usually extends slightly onto the tang per period examples) and start a fairly deep cut between the marked lines. I will gradually work this cut down the length of the fuller, trying to stay between the lines and keep things as straight as possible. At the tip of the fuller I may grind the fuller square or rounded, depending on the effect I want. For Type XIIs i general round it off- for Type X's I usually run the fuller straight off the end of the sword as the distal taper and edge beveling will result in a rounded end on the fuller. Again, great care is taken not to over-heat the sword, frequently quenching it in water in the long tank to keep things cool.
Note- I don't wear gloves, as I started out without them and I am used to the feel of working without them. YOU should start with gloves and wear them always- if you start with gloves you will always be used to the feel and they can save you from some nasty abrasions. On the subject of safety, I wear a full-face protective mask with dust filters. This is the best $120 to $200 you will ever spend. Not using this type of mask can result in serious injuries to your eyes and lungs. If you are just setting up and are on a budget BUY THIS FIRST. I'm not kidding!
Once this fuller is ground, I flip the sword and grind the fuller on the opposite face. Once both fullers are ground I finish them with a 240 grit belt followed by a 400 grit belt. It is HUGELY easier to grind the fullers before any other part of the blade, and if you screw up REALLY bad you can start over before too much work has gone into the blade. Once the fullers are finished I am ready to rough-grind the edge bevels.
For this stage (sometimes referred to as hogging) I will be removing up to 60% of the remaining weight of the sword blank, and sterner measures are needed. I use a 7 inch 5000rpm angle grinder for hogging, with a rubber Spira-Cool backing and cloth-backed Ceramic Medalist disks. This tool weighs about 12 pounds. I have a special grinding bench for this with a 6-foot board attached to the edge with a thin steel shield protecting the rest of the bench from the spark-stream. I use an adjustable-grip locking pliers to clamp the blade to the grinding bench by it's tang. I mark the blades primary bevel on either side with the Sharpie. I mark from the base of the fuller on one side to the opposite side at an angle so that this bevel will cut well across the center line near the point so that distal taper will be 'built-in' when I grind the bevels on the opposite side. I start by expanding the existing edge bevel towards the marked line, removing the blade from the grinding bench frequently to cool it in the long tank and alternating sides of the blade to equalize stresses in the material. Once this bevel is established on each side I mark the secondary bevel to the center-line of the sword and grind these bevels. The Type XLL[?sic] has a flat ogival section from the end of the fuller to the point, so after the edge bevels are established I will carefully grind a flat about 1 inch wide from near the tip of the blade to the tip of the fuller on either side.
I then move back to the Wilton grinder, and set it up for slack-belt grinding by removing the table and rotating the platen/small wheel assembly to present the 3 inch contact wheel and adjust it so that the belt is extremely tight. Starting with the blade held at 90 degrees to the belt at the base of the blade I will then smooth out the marks from the hand-held grinder. At the end of this each bevel with have a series of straight grinding marks running the across the width of the blade perpendicular to the long axis of the sword. To create the flat-ogival section of the blade from the tip of the fuller to the point I will make a series of passes to 'roll' the edges off between the edge bevels and the central flat resulting in the desired cross section. Note that this doesn't result in a perfectly flat and even finish- there will be some ripples in the finished blade, but these are unavoidable unless I wish to block-sand them out, which is enormously time intensive (read this as EXPENSIVE- time is by far the costliest element of making a sword.) I accept this, and some even feel that it lends a more authentic look to the sword as it is the same sort of 'flaw' found on period blades.
The sword is rough ground now, and ready for Differential Tempering.
Differential Tempering the Blade
BTW- when I start with the blank for a sword of this type the blank typically weighs 3-1/2 pounds or so- the rough-ground blade weighs about a 1-1/2 pounds.
The blade was hardened and tempered already, so this is actually a second stage of tempering. As mentioned the sword, at HRc58-60, is far too hard and would quickly shatter in use. Now we fix that. The idea is to finish with a sword that is still HRc58+ at the cutting edge, but only HRc45-48 at the center of the blade and through the tang. This yields an optimum balance between edge retention and flexibility/shock resistance. I temper the center third of the blade because of the beveling of the edge this means that well over half of the sword's mass winds up at a full spring temper. To accomplish this I use a fine tip on my oxy-propane torch. I use oxy propane for this as this mix of gas shows the color of the steel better than oxy-propane and is enough cooler than oxy-propane to reduce the risk of over-heating. It is VERY important not to over-heat the steel, as 5160 will air-harden in thin section- over-heating can result in air-hardened sections which are very brittle, causing the sword to fail on impact.
I set up the torch and stool next to the long cooling tank with a very bright light shining directly on the working area. Starting at the tip of the tang, I heat the steel until the steel oxidizes to a blue color. On the tang I work in sections approx. 1-2 inches long, alternating sides so that I don't induce stresses that might cause the tang to warp. I work all the way up the tang slowly enough to insure that the heat soaks all the way through, and when I reach the shoulder I color that thoroughly almost to the cutting edges. then quickly cool it in water to prevent the heat from spreading too much. Starting at the base of the blade, I heat the steel to the same even blue color across the center third of the blade, working in approx. 1 inch sections and alternating sides, with a quick dip in the water tank between sides to prevent the heat from 'Bleeding' to the cutting edges. As the blade gets thinner and narrower towards the tip I work in shorter and shorter sections, as the heat will bleed much faster through the thinner, narrower steel. I work to just within an inch of the tip.
When finished, this type of sword will easily flex over 90 degrees yet the edge is hard enough to shear (cheap) chain-mail without doing more than dulling the cutting edge.
Now we are ready to finish-grind and polish the blade.
Finish Grinding and Polishing
For finish grinding I once again turn to the Wilton, this time mounting a 240 grit alox belt. Staring at the base with the blade held at approximately 45 degrees to the axis of the belt, I grind out the 60 grit marks and slightly refine the shape of the bevels, evening them out. By grinding at 45 degrees to the 60 grit marks, these marks are readily apparent and it is easy to tell when the marks are completely removed. The sword is cooled in the long tank any time it gets too hot to handle comfortably, so that the temper is not interfered with. As the fullers are already finished to 400 grit and are ready to polish I leave them alone at this stage. The edge also gets thinner during this process, and care must be taken not to actually sharpen the edge. Sometimes further truing is needed at this stage, and for this I use a 9 inch bench-mount disc sander, as the rotating disc at 90 degrees to the table makes it very easy to straighten the edges as needed.
Once I am satisfied that all the grinding marks from 60 grit are removed, I progress to 400 grit, mounting a Silicon Carbide belt on the Wilton grinder. Grinding perpendicular to the belt and cooling frequently, I then remove all of the 240 grit marks. Again as I am grinding at 45 degrees to the previous marks it is easy to see when I have ground enough. At the end I have very fine grind lines running across the sword perpendicular to the sword's axis. Typically the cutting edge of the sword now has a flat approx. 4-6 thousandths of an inch across. The sword is now ready for polishing to a bright finish.
For polishing I use a 1 hp Balder buffer with two 14 inch x 1/2 inch Sisal (rope fiber) wheels mounted side by side to produce a 1 inch wide surface. The buffer is on a free-standing table only slightly wider than the base of the buffer allowing free access to the wheels on either side. The on-off switch is mounted on the leg of this table so that I don't have to reach anywhere near the wheels to turn the machine on or off, and in the event of disaster I can actually kick the switch off while clutching an injury. Buffing is easily the most dangerous stage- the 14 inch wheel can grab the blade and 'throw' it sideways with great force if you aren't careful. Smaller metal parts can be grabbed and thrown at speeds easily exceeding 100mph. Serious owies. ALWAYS exercise extreme caution when using a buffer such as this.
I use a 'Black Stainless' rouge that is quite aggressive- I purchase this in bars from Chemithon of Seattle, Wa. Grinding length-wise on the blade and cooling frequently either in the quench-bucket positioned next the buffer or the long tank under the Bader grinder. This rouge/wheel combination is aggressive enough to ruin the temper if you are not careful, especially in the thinned sections near the the tip. I start at the tip of the blade while I am still fresh, buffing along the length of the blade to remove the 400 grit marks. I then move to the base of the blade and buff there. The ends are the most dangerous, so I get them out of the way before fatigue becomes an issue. I work in sections, always along the length of the blade, and do the fullers last. Since all the grinding marks in the fuller run the same direction across the blade, it is easy for 60 grit marks to 'hide' here, so this are requires special attention. Once the 400 grit marks are removed and a bright, even finish is established this stage is done and I generally take a long break- this is hard on the back and shoulders!
After polishing, the edges of the tang are radius-ed and the join of the tang to the shoulder rounded. I use a 60 grit belt on the Wilton Grinder to accomplish this, using the slack-belt and the edge of the contact wheel as needed. I measure the tang and grind it to length, then grind at the tip to produce a section 1/4 inch square centered on the tip- the length of this section depends on the type of pommel to be mounted, but as my XIIa's usually have a wheel-pommel this section is usually 5/8-3/4 inch long. I round this section well, then clamp the tang in a bench vise and using a die cut 1/4-20 threads on the tip of the spring-tempered tang. The blade is now finished and ready for a hilt. Whee-Hah!
I am now out of time, so I'll post the hilt construction later- hopefully over the weekend.
Making the Hilt- Starting with the Guard
The part of making the hilt that I always do first is the guard. For our mythical Type XIIa let us go with a cusped straight steel guard that flares towards the tips- that looks good on this type of sword with a wheel pommel.
I start with a bar of steel- big surprise... I use mild steel for guards, usually SAE 1018-1020. For this project I would use a bar 1/2 inch by 3/4 inch. First thing is to measure the length of the guard- 7-1/2 inches will be about right. This piece is then cut to length on the metal-cutting band saw. I then clean the faces with a 60 grit belt on the Bader grinder set up with the flat-grinding assembly with the grind lines cutting across the width of the blade. I then take a dial caliper and set it to half the width of the stock- in this case .375 inches. Locking the caliper at .375 inches, I set one jaw just off the edge of one side of the piece, and the nice, sharp tip of the other jaw in the center of the piece and rake it down the length of the piece from one end to the other, making a nice scribed line down the center of the guard. This line cuts across the 60 grit grind marks so it is highly visible. I then decide what the width of the arms of the guard should be- about 3/8 inch in this case, so I back the caliper off 3/16 (.185) inch and scribe a line from either side- now the width of the arms is laid out. I mark the center of the guard, and since the tang is 3/4 inches wide- excepting the rounded shoulder- I make a mark 1/4 inch from the center on either side of the center line. To do this with precision, I first use a center-punch to mark the center, then set the dial caliper to .25 inches- well, actually to a few thousandths over .250- then stick one jaw in the center-hole and scribe an arc to either side of the center mark. Where this arc crosses the center line is the spot to drill on either side of the center. I mark both of these spots with the center-punch as well, then I am ready to start making a slot for the tang to pass through the guard.
I first set up the drill press to run at about 1250 rpm and mount a 1/4 inch cobalt drill bit. These drill bits are less fragile than carbide, but much more heat and wear resistant than high-speed steel. I generally use a 'jobber short' bit for this- a bit about 1-1/2 inches long. I then clamp what will become the guard in a milling vice that is bolted to the arm of the drill press. This allows me to adjust the pieces location in two dimensions with great precision. The arm of the drill press is adjustable for height, so I adjust it to about 1/4 inch below the point of the bit before I lock everything down. Drill presses are precision machines, but they are a lot less robust than a milling machine, so having everything close together minimizes what little play there is. I then drill three 1/4 inch holes centered on the marks made with the center punch. I use short plunges ( only cutting with the drill bit for a couple of seconds before lifting it) and lubricate frequently with wd40. When these three holes are done, there is only a thin web of metal between holes. I then use the crank on the milling vice to make shallow passes across the webs with the drill bit, taking them down a few thousandths at a pass until they are gone and I have a slot just over 3/4 inches wide by 1/4 inch across centered on the middle of the bar. I then work this over with files and a carbide burr in the Foredom tool (kind of a super-Dremel tool with a flexible shaft connecting the hand-piece that holds the bits to the motor) until it will slip down over the tang to the rounded shoulder.
Next the guard is cut and ground to its final form. The arms width is already scribed on, and type XIIa's usually don't have a defined quillon block, so I draw a line at each end of the slot across the guard, then draw 'swooping' lines connecting the tips of these lines to the scribed line of the arm on either side, taking care to make these four lines symmetrical. I then cut along the scribed line until I get to the convex 'swoop' line, then follow that curve to the edge of the guard. It is usually necessary to cool the guard between cuts or it becomes uncomfortably hot. Now the guard has it's rough form. Using the 3 inch contact wheel on either grinder with a 60 grit belt, I remove the saw marks and round off the corners between the cuts and the flats on either side of the center. This is a lot easier to demonstrate than describe, so if I've left you behind don't worry about it. In the end the arms of the cross start straight at the tips, then sweep out to form a rounded center before sweeping in again before straightening to form the opposite arm.
I specified that this would be a cusped guard, meaning that there is a low point at the center. I switch to a 1-1/2 inch contact wheel, and again with the 60 grit belt I grind about 1/8 inch deep along either side of the center, leaving a part-round cut on either side of the center with a point in the middle. Then I grind away the excess material on the arms to either side of these guys so that the faces of the arms taper towards the center, then curve up to form the cusp. I then switch to a 240 grit belt, bevel the edges so it won't scrape the users hand, clean up the 60 grit marks and polish on the sisal wheel. This steel is much softer than blade steel, so the 240 grit marks clean up surprisingly fast.
The guard must now be fitted to the shoulder of the blade. I start by reliving the inside corners of the tang-slot to accommodate the rounded join of shoulder and tang. When this fits snugly against the shoulder, I switch to a cutting wheel on the Foredom tool. I mark the outline of the base of the blade on the guard, then use the cutting wheel to hollow-out the resulting outline until the base of the blade is slightly recessed into the face of the guard. The guard's polish is touched-up, and the guard is now finished. If perfectly fitted the guard will require some small effort to remove.
Next- the pommel- hopefully later tonight or tomorrow night.
The Pommel Part 1
Consulting 'Records of the Medieval Sword' and other sources we see that variations of Type 'J' pommels are used rather often, Type 'K' and several other similar types are used rather frequently as well. Many of these pommels have a diameter that is greater than the width at the base of the blade, and this looks right to me. To keep the weight and balance in the correct range, we'll use the Type 'K' pommel, which can be made lighter than a 'J' of the same diameter. For those without handy references the 'K' is a flat disc with raised bosses in the center in the form of flat discs.
Pommel Part 2
When determining the size and weight of the pommel, we have to examine the blade and guard. The theoretical sword, based on other that I have made recently, is .250 inch thick at the base, tapers to .200 inches thick (1/5 inch) at the tips of the fullers which are approx 40% of the overall length of the blade, then distal tapers rapidly to approx .083 inch (1/12 inch). It has already been noted that the blade is 2 inches wide at the base. Following my usual practice of late, the blade will be slightly flared at the base (like the Type XIV pictured above) and so is approx. 1-3/4 inches about 2 inches from the base. The blade then has a straight taper in profile to approx 2-1/2 inches from the moderately acute point to approx 7/8 inches across. This gives the sword blade an unmounted COG approx 7 inches from the guard. The blade weighs approx 1.5 pounds.
The sword can be balanced in a number of ways- there is considerable lee-way with a blade of this configuration as to where the COG should be located on the finished sword. This is not always the case- swords with different rates of distal and profile taper can be much more restricted as to where the COG must be located to prevent excessive shock from being transmitted to the user's hand when striking- this relates to the much-debated Harmonic Balance, or the location of the swords rotational Nodes.
Because I like the look of a pommel that has a greater diameter than the width of the base of the blade, this will of necessity be a heavy pommel. I know in theory how to make a hollow pommel, but it's a bloody lot of work and I never have- also, it has not proved necessary to achieve the dynamics that I want. So, a heavy pommel it is. This will draw the balance point quite close to the cross- as little as 3 inches. This will not work for an awful lot of swords, but recent experience has shown that it will work for this one. We'll talk about the dynamics more later.
So for this pommel I select a piece of mild-steel round-bar stock approximately 2-1/2 inches in diameter. Using the Grizzly band-saw as a cut-off saw, I'll slice a section approximately 1 inch thick off the end of the bar. Actually I stand around, look outside, set up the tools for the next stage, smoke a cigarette and listen to NPR on the radio while the saw slices off a 1 inch thick piece... As I will be removing a LOT of weight from this I've got a lot of lee-way on making the pommel.
The first step now that I have my inch-thick 2-1/2 inch diameter disc is to establish a flat where the pommel and handle will meet. Some period swords have a flat on the base of the pommel, some don't- I prefer it. To do this I have set up the Bader grinder with the flat-grinding platen and table with a 60 grit belt. Laying the pommel flat on one of it's faces I grind in one spot until I have a flat approx 1 inch across. As the Bader is not extremely precise for this use, I go to the disc sander with the table set at 90 degrees to the disc and make sure that it is nice and square to the axis of the pommel. I mark and center-punch two holes centered on the flat just over 1/4 inch apart, set it up in the milling vice and mount the 1/4 inch cobalt bit. I can adjust the depth of the plunge on this machine, and set it for the depth that I want- as the pommel is not approx 2.8 inches across from the flat to the tip now and I like the nut that secures the hilt to penetrate ate least 1/2 inch, I will set the plunge to about 2.2 inches, leaving .6 inches of the pommel solid. I drill two holes right next to each other located by the center-punched marks 2.2 inches deep then knock out the web between the holes as described when making the guard. This must be done carefully to produce a good slot, as tools don't reach very far down into the slot. When finished I have a slot with radius-ed sides just over a 1/2 inch wide and 2.6 inches deep. I then release the lock on the plunge of the drill press so that I can have the full 3-1/2 inch plunge that the drill press is capable of , carefully center the bit on the slot and grind a 1/4 inch hole all the way through the pommel. Releasing the pommel from the milling vice, I rotate it 180 degrees so that the 1/4 inch hole is uppermost. I slide this hole over the drill bit, and lower the drill until the pommel is in the vice again and tighten the vice on the pommel. This insures that the pommel is centered on the bit. I then swap out the bit for a 3/8 inch cobalt bit to counter-sink the pommel for the nut. with the machine off, I lower the bit until the tip of the bit is firmly against the pommel centered on the 1/4 inch hole, then lock the plunge so that the machine can lower the bit 1/2 inch, and drill the hole. The pommel is then fitted to the tip of the tang so that it is snug and the threaded section at the end of the tang protrudes into the 3/8 inch diameter 1/2 inch deep counter-sunk hole. Most of the fitting is done by modifying the tang- my tools will only reach about 3/4 inch deep in the slot but the tang is easily accessible. Properly fitted the pommel will be quite snug and will not be able to wobble on any axis.
Next- the nut. I get the nuts from Angus Trim swords. I showed Gus this method of securing a hilt when we first met, and we used it on the Tinkerblades production swords and Gus and I both continue to use it to this day. Since Gus makes handfuls of these things at a time on an automated metal lathe why should I bother? When I get these nuts they are not threaded or cross-drilled to facilitate take-down. So the first thing I do is lock the nut in the vice and cut the threads with a 1/4-20 tap. I won't bore you with the details- it's pretty simple. After the threads are started I switch to a bottom-tap to extend the threads as deep as possible into the nut. Then I set up the nut in the milling vice and setting the speed to 1800 rpms I drill a hole just over 1/8 inch in diameter through the nut side-to-side to allow a rod to be inserted through the nut to provide leverage to install or remove the nut. I then check the fit of everything by installing the pommel and nut on the tang.
I then grind the flats to he pommel to an even 60 grit finish on the flat-grinding platen on the Bader. Once I have a good finish I use the dial caliper to scribe a circle on either flat of the pommel approx. 1 inch in diameter that represents the boss. Then I scribe lines around the circumference approx. 1/4 inch from either face. I then set of the Wilton Grinder to produce a 45 degree bevel, install a 60 grit belt and grind bevels all the way around the pommels edges. I then install the pommel again and test the balance- I might have to change my plan if the balance comes in before the pommel attains it's final shape. It will still balance too close to the guard, so I dismount the pommel and return to the Wilton. I then remove the table from the Wilton grinder and set it up to present the 3 inch contact wheel and install a 60 grit belt. Adjusting the tracking of the belt so that the belt rides just over the edge of the contact wheel I begin carefully removing material around the marked central boss, starting with the boss over-sized so that I can adjust the roundness of the boss and remove the correct amount of material to achieve the desired dynamics for the sword. There is a lot of room to play with the weight at this point. When I am satisfied with the form and weight of the pommel, I will leave it rough so that I can adjust the weight as needed after making and installing the handle.
With the pommel rough-ground and fitted to the tang with the nut completed it is time to make the handle.
Making the handle
There are a lot of options for making the handle as far as details, materials, decoration etc. For the sake of simplicity I'll describe making a simple leather-covered handle.
I use a lot of exotic hardwoods for sword and dagger handles, but lately I have been favoring the leather-covered handles- nice grip and a more period look. Gus has proved that Walnut makes a pretty nice basic wood for handles, so I use a lot of that for leather-wrapped handles. It has good hardness, impact resistance and is relatively stable when properly cured. I want a six-inch handle here, so I'll start by measuring to cut a piece just over six inches long by 1-1/2 inches wide. By the time I have the ends properly squared off the handle will be just a hair over six inches long. Butting it firmly against the cross I trace the tang with a Sharpie marker, then extend the lines onto the ends of the handle material. I clamp the handle in the milling vice on the drill-press, then set the machines speed to 3000 rpm. Since this handle is too long to use a full-length bit, I start with a short bit and drill a 3/4 inch by 1/4 inch slot in the base of the handle, first drilling the three holes side-by-side then knocking out the web between the holes as described when making the guard. I can then remove the handle from the vice, insert the full-length bit in the slot in the handle then replace the handle in the milling vice and clamp the drill bit into the presses head and extend the slot a full 3-1/2 inches deep. I then remove the handle and repeat the process at the tip of the handle to produce a 1/2 inch wide slot that meets the 3/4 inch slot in the middle of the handle. I then remove the handle from the vice and using a 1/4 inch round Chain-saw file I file away material where the 1/2 inch slot and 3/4 inch slot meet until the handle fits entirely down over the tang with a snug fit. This means that the handle grips the tang at the center, not the tips, which greatly reduced the likelihood of the ends of the handle splitting as there is no dynamic load at the ends.
Now that the handle blank fits on the tang the handle is fitted to a 'tang-tool,' a tapered and radiused bar of 1/4 inch steel about 2 feet long, this allows me to shape the handle while keeping my fingers away from the grinding belt. Going to the Wilton Grinder I will then shaped the handle using the contact wheel and slack belt to achieve the desired shape, in this case around 1-3/8 inches wide at the base and tapering to about 3/4 inches across at the pommel with an oval cross-section. I will leave a bit of clearance at either end so that the leather covering will not protrude past the edges of the guard or pommel.
With the handle still on the tang-tool, I will apply a thin, uniform coat of Duro brand contact cement over the entire handle and set it aside to dry. I will then take a piece of chrome-tanned garment leather (lets use brown) and with a sharp knife and a metal rules will cut a nice, straight line along one edge and then coat this with the contact cement and allow it to dry for 5-10 minutes. Once the glue is ready I will carefully apply the edge of the leather to the handle so that it runs vertically along the edge of the handle, then careful stretch the leather around the handle until it overlaps the other edge of the leather and press it down firmly all over the handle. I will then trim the leather from the ends of the handle with shears, and with a sharp knife to cut the leather to form a tight seam where the edges of the leather meet. I will then peel the leather slightly back at the seam and apply a layer of Duro brand super-glue under the edges of the leather and press them firmly together forming a good, tight seam.
I do not stitch the leather- experience has shown that the leather applied correctly in this fashion will eventually wear through without the seams or glue giving up. This leather covering will likely last decades under low levels of usage.
Finally the pommel is finished to 240 grit on all surfaces and polished as describes for the other pieces, and the sword is assembled- done!
The final sword (based on recent similar pieces that I have made) will weigh 2-3/4 to 3 pounds, with a COG approx 3 inches from the cross. The sword will feel very lively in the hand and seem to weigh much less than it's actual weight as the accelerating distal taper and heavy pommel give it a high Polar Moment, i.e. concentration of mass around the center of rotation (your hand.) But that's another post... we'll get to that.
Thank you for your kind attention- that's it, soup to nuts. I've got to go, but I'll be back this evening to field responses, and maybe we can discuss sharpening and scabbard making etc. Toodles!
Michael Tinker Pearce - Sword Maker
Source: howtomakearmour.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/how-to-make-swords-method-of-sword.html
See also: tinkerswords.com/
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