I cut a tang into the base of this stingray spine cast and fit it into a hilt to make this Malay poison dagger, 19-20thc. Cf. Gimlette 1971:126-7, Ghiringhelli 2007:34.

http://ForensicFashion.com/1831PattaniRebel.html

When i first started out i used to visit the local steel works in my area, they are usually really appreciative of other local metal working enthusiasts and gave me a really good deal in buying there off cuts off them.
But old junk yards and scrap heaps, hunting leaf springs off land rovers is always going to be the best steel!
Or industrial bandsaw blades that the saw mills were throwing out after snapping them. today i keep them for spring catches on my work.
Though no matter what steel it is its pracitcly useless without a proffesional temper to it.
For swords i go for about rockwell C 43- 45 and knives i go rockwell C 50 - 55.

A little secret of mine i used to use high speed (tensile steel) about 3 mm to make my own knives with when i was about 11. it doesnt need tempering its keeps a shaving sharp edge but it is very brittle. Jus keeping a 3 inch blade shaped like a mellowed out kukri was my dream knife. it lasted easily 4 years until i lost it in the woods. i was gutted as it was my first 'useful' knife that worked.


Josef.

I'm a lurker here, and not a combatant, but I dabble in bladesmithing.
I mostly post such work @ professor Fogg's site:

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showt...l=frankish seax&fromsearch=1

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=16993

Here's my "Raven":

Total length 97 cm
Blade length 80 cm
Grip length 11,5 cm
Blade with at base 44 mm
Blade thickness 7 mm tapering to 3.5 mm
CoG 12 cm from guard
CoP 54 cm from guaRD
Weight 1,2 kg

It needs some finishing touches, but I couldn't wait...

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HI all thought I'd throw my two coppers in.

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my take on a keris. [ Download ]

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the first knife I ever completed [ Download ]

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a really big flanged mace i am working on. [ Download ]

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just a chainmail whip [ Download ]

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tsuba and habaki of the katana I did [ Download ]

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the kissaki [ Download ]

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the whole thing [ Download ]

Finally got a friend of mine take pictures of my arms and armor. There are a lot of them, but for now I will post photos of hilts that I have made. Blades are:

- Hanwei medieval practical
- Hanwei Tinker line bastard sword (blunt)
- Hanwei practical longsword
- Two-handed gothic sword by Jiri Krondak

The smaller swords are well-balanced and agile training weapons, I am very satisfied with all of them. The two-handed one is 155 cm long monster that weighs almost 3 kg. Definitely not the fastest weapon out there, especially for a small guy like met though the weight itself is perfectly OK for a sword of that length. I am thinking of regrinding the blade and modifying the pommel to make the sword lighter.

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The second post on my self-made stuff. A fingered gauntlet made just for the fun of it. Offers little protection since there in virtually no padding, but does not restrict movement at all. Good for light practice where you do not expect to get hit but can still catch an occasional blow. On the photos I bend my hand as much as I can. I could bend it more if I did not clench my fist, the gauntlet permits more movement.

You might notice that I was not trying to replicate any particular style. All my armor so far has been optimized for performance since first of all I fight in it and modern reenactment/WMA is in many aspects different from medieval tourney or battlefield and second I still have a long way to go to consider myself a master armorer so I try to make many different objects using different techniques rather then make a faithful replica of a single one.

Any comments are welcome, especially technical advices on how to make next gauntlet better.

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Some more blades, this time entirely self-made. Cutlass and cut-and-thrust sword are sharp, messer is a blunt. Unfortunately neither of these can be called very good since

- cut-and-thrust has no distal taper. While it is light, has a good balance and can deliver a pretty nasty cut, it would be much better if the blade was thinner and wider at the point. Or, if it had a longer blade, it could become a good rapier. Unfortunately my possibilities were limited by the size and shape of steel I had (this blade was made by stock removal).

- cutlass has too little distal taper and therefore is rather heavy for its size. The blade was also made by stock removal.

- messer is point-heavy and overall weight of around 1.2 kg is probably too much for such weapon. But it was intended to be that way from the very beginning because I needed a relatively short blade that could deliver a powerful cut to use as a side arm in reenactment events when my primary weapon is something two-handed. All metal parts were forged.

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Well I made this viking axe out of a cheap brand modern wide bladed axe, a large hickory handle + a couple of hours...

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Black parts are oil burnt with linseed oil. The axe is very sharp and retains a high edge hardening after careful stock removal with cooling. The ugly bit at the top was me slipping with the sledgehammer during wedging. Seems to have caused no structural problems within the axe handle as it cuts wood and metal nicely so i've let it be.

The original was found in Skåne, but there's also a very similar axe fond in Norway.

Wow, so much cool stuff on this thread. Heres my contribution, some axes I made. All done with welding and stock removal. No forging, unless you count heating up the eye part and bending it. :p They are all made of mild steel, no heat treatment.

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(the last one is upside down)


And just for fun, the first axe I ever made, back when I was 17 and had no clue what a real battle axe would be like. Heavily inspired by Conan and roleplaying games, its made of 10 mm steel, with 30 mm thick solid steel haft. It weighs in at a whopping 20 lbs.

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I been wanting to raise a helmet for a while so after I picked up Patrick Thaden Raising a Sallet http://talbotsfineaccessories.com/books/metalwork.html I thought that I would give it a try.It is still in progress and is too large a circumference to historically correct, but should do OK for my new WMA sparing helmet.

16gauge mild steel
heat source MAPP gas ( next time a acetylene set up or a forge)
lots of hammering

mackenzie

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Never tried this myself but it looks geometrically symmetrical and pretty good for a first attempt. :D :cool:

Maybe some of our armorers could give you some constructive feedback and as for size I guess it's difficult to estimate what size sheet of steel will give the right sized bowl ?

Well next time you may end up using too small a sheet and maybe the third attempt will be perfect ?

I guess there may be patterns out there to take some of the guesswork out of it, but good to see this project.

I don't think that circumference depends much on the size of the sheet. Well, if the sheet is too small then of course you can't make the helmet big enough. But if the sheet is too large then you simply make the helmet deeper and then cut off the excess. Or cut off some metal in the middle of raising process. So it's better to start off with a large sheet.

here's a flanged mace I've made recently

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Those big old washers?

yeah, there 3.25 inch diameter dock washers

Here are my two blades that I made while on Owen Bush's excellent knife making course!

Top one is a seax with a hamon the bottom one is a Wharncliffe style blade.
As I would not have enough time to do filework while on the course, we made sure that the tang would be soft enough to file.
I am very happy with how they are turning out so far, next up is to extend the filework into the blade as far as I can, then make grips and scales for both.