Oh happy day! The contact wheel showed up at the end of the day yesterday. I'm glad I didn't have to wait too much longer for it.
So now it's time for grinding the blade. I'm not sure how much I can really explain or give details about. It's mainly a matter of getting rid of the material in between the guide lines.
With the fullers marked out and the wheel on the machine, you're ready to start grinding.
After a while, you'll have something that resembles a fuller in a flat piece of steel.
I didn't completely shape the fuller terminations at this stage. Balancing a sword of this size at its current weight between your fingertips is not the easiest thing to do. It has a bit too much junk in the trunk, as they say.... I felt it would be better to come back to the fullers once the bevels had been put in, thus getting rid of some weight and making it easier to balance.
And Jean, there really is no need to feel bad about size of this piece. I'm not saying that I would want to grind something like this all of the time, but I am actually enjoying the challenge of it. Plus, it makes the other swords I'm working on feel like they don't weigh anything, so they feel much easier to grind than normal.
Mark
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