Greetings,

I am currently working on a seax and am making a tutorial of the process.
Take a look and let me know what you think.

SEAX TUTORIAL

Enjoy,
Ben

Thanks for the tutorial Ben; I sent this to my brother who is getting into bladsmithing. He says he can't wait to see the next segments on filing and sanding.

It's interesting that you work the tip first; he was working that last.

A quick question while we're on the topic; my brother is making a glasius and had intended for it to be 26 inches long by 2.25 inches wide. Now that he's got the bevel hammered most of the way down the blad it looks like the blade will be longer and thinner than he had indended; closer to 28 inches by maybe 1.75 inches. Is there a way to bring some of the mass back into the width of the blade?

Upsetting would be one way but seems to be too heavyhanded for this application. I suggested that he simply get more steel stock and hammer it into the spine of the blade to give it more mass to work with, but he is worried about inclusions.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, and thanks again for the tutorial.

I'd almost say cut the blade where you want to add mass, and forge-weld a piece of iron or low-carbon content steel in it. Iron is less brittle, and in the middle of the sword hardness is not as important as flexibility. If I'm not mistaking, swords often have a lower carbon content closer to the middle of the blade.

I would take my advice at face value though, and it's not that great a face. Either wait for someone more reputable to chime in or disregard it entirely.

I tried making a sax lately, but when hammering the edge phase it bent backwards and started looking more like a falchion/scimitar type blade. I ended up liking it so much I kept it that way. :p

Is there archeological/historical evidence for the prayer circle? it sounds very interesting from an historical point of view.

My real issue is that I'm simply trying to flatten out the 3/4" piece of round stock I started with, and as I go along it's getting flatter but also longer. It occurs to me that since I'm using a cross pein hammer with a convex (not flat) face, the deflection at impact goes in all directions from the actual impact point.

So the question I have is, is it possible to draw in one direction ONLY, using a different hammer type or a different technique or both?

I guess I'm fighting Poisson's ratio here, and maybe that one can't be beat. If so, I'll just have to calculate that and start with stock that's smaller in both dimensions than I'm looking to end up with. I just don't have the patience or time to fold it over or forge weld new stock in. That's another question - don't you end up driving a lot of oxide inclusions into a piece as you forge weld? Doesn't that weaken the end product?

Thanks for all of your input. I'm the original hack referred to in the second post - and I started at the tip too. -KK

P.S. Ben - Thanks a ton for the tutorial - I was going along the right path generally but that filled in a lot of gaps.

Just got the Tempering section up on the tutorial.

Blade test and begining polishing sections are up.

Does anyone want me to post here when I put new sections in the tutorial? Let me know if you are interested.

Enjoy

Hi Ben,

Cool tutorial!

It looks like we live pretty nearby (I live on Mt. Washinton ). I'm a hobbyist bladesmith as well...

I noticed a couple things that give me pause in your heat-treat regime:

Ben Potter wrote:

Greetings, Bring the blade up to temperature, about 1600F for this steel. Bringing it up a bit hotter than needed allows me to get the blade to the quenching tank at the right temp. Next the blade is plunged in to 450F oil and allowed to cool fully to that temp. Once the blade is at 450F it is semi-plastic and can be molded by a gloved hand. As the blade cools it "sings" making a shimmering noise as the martinsite crystals form and the blade reached its hardend state. Finaly, the blade is given 3 one hour heat cycles at 475F, this converts more of the steel to martinsite, and releives the stress of the quench. Ben

If you are using 1095, heating to 1600F is well above critical! I see that you mention that you heat it this hot to give you some time to get it to the quench tank, but i would worry that this would be causing unnecessary grain growth. Have you noticed any problems with this?

Furthermore, the nose on the TTT curve for 1095 gives you a very small window of opportunity (you need to get below ~900 deg F in under 1 second)...do you think oil heated to 450 deg is able to get your blade below the nose in time?

Anyways, just a couple things I noticed, i'm sure you have things under control...

Mind if I stop by your shop sometime?
You are free to stop by my house (shop is in the garage) anytime!

I really like the look of your blades and would love to talk shop sometime.

Dustin

Next round is up, have at it.

Thanks again for posting this Ben, I've been following it eagerly.

Ben,

I am commissioned to make a few seax myself and I am wondering how you bevel the edges, do you bend into the cutting edge and allow the bevels to straighten the spine back out or do you leave it unbent and only slightly bevel by hammer and grind the edge thinner?

also a tip, use it or not, but if you want to save wear on files from that scale, just soak the blade in white vinegar for 3 or 4 days, each day remove the blade from the bath and brush with a wire brush then re submerge.. This way takes longer and is more messy but you don't eat up files like mad.

Pat B

That is indeed interesting, Id not have thought of the saber curve straightening out in the quench, Just shows that everyday you learn something new.

I just posted the Engraving section.

All questions and comments welcome.

Enjoy.

I see your nice straight lines chiseled into the pommel and handguards, and I have to admit this has been really difficult for me - just making a consistently deep and straight chisel line in steel. Aside from practice, can you give any tips on technique and tool selection for that?

I ended up giving up trying angled chiseling and just went to direct 90 degree blows, cuneiform style, in order to at least get the line straight, then going at it with a rotary tool to get more depth if needed. I can't imagine getting straight lines on a curved surface.

Many Thanks Again....

"Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. Chaos always defeats order because it is better organized." - Terry Pratchett