Hello everyone,

as a way of introducing myself here, I thought I would share two longswords I'm currently working on. Both are type XVIIIb blades of imposing dimensions, the longer one of the two has an overall length of 57" with its blade measuring 43", the shorter one spans 52" overall. Big swords but not crowbars and well suited to the German school of longsword fencing.

It all starts with paper templates on an 8mm thick piece of 56Si7, next to it an already finished sword of the same type:



Blades are cut out and the pre-HT edge thickness set to 2mm, as with the rest using an angle grinder:





The distal taper is ground in. These blade sport a convex distal taper, starting at 8mm base thickness down to 4mm at the tip. Massive and very stiff blades but with excellent point control and a very precise feel during movement.



Finally the actual blade geometry is shaped:




Now I can put the angle grinder away and after several hours of filing and belt sanding, the blades are ready to be sent to the heat treater.







As you see, I'm keeping a short hexagonal cross section at the base, which is quite typical for these blades (could be a good deal longer as well, on some originals it spans the entire lower third). This has mainly aesthetic value but also adds mass close to the handle and aids in keeping the base stiff.

Now fingers crossed that the blades make it through heat treat straight and in one piece. I'll update here as the swords progress.

Thank you for looking, questions, critic, etc all welcome!

I love those blades. Looking great.

Looking forward to following this! What will the width (approximate at this point I understand) of the larger be at the base and at the CoP? I love large XVIIIb's!

Thank you for your interest, guys.

Base width of the larger one is around 1.7", at the CoP it is ca 1.3". The shorter one starts with the same width but tapers more in profile.

Thanks for the info. I love big XVIIIb's, everyone has a favorite sword that just "calls to them" , XVIIIb/e is that sword for me. I will definitely be watching this thread with keen interest!

The proportions are very elegant and classic. I will be watching this post with great interest.
Henry

DO WANT!!!!!!

Yeah, I've been a sucker for swords of this type for a LONG time. I really like those long, graceful, yet SHARP lines-- reminds me of a spiked spire atop a gothic cathedral.

Nicely-done! I look forward to seeing what the future holds for your craft!

Any updates? Interested to see how this project comes along.

Both blades have been successfully heat treated and are on the way back to me. I haven't seen them yet so I can't say how much tweaking I'll have to do to get them truly straight... we'll see.

Look very nice and an interesting topic so far.

Great work Lukas - I need to try this asap - too much moat blades to deal with, but shaping a blade with angle grinder and belt sander is definitely on my list.

I'd love to see what you come up with Julien...

Anyway, I now have both blades in hand and would you believe it, they are both perfectly straight! I didn't have to do any tweaking and started with the final grind right away.
Apart from straightness, the next thing I check for is hardness, using a file and a blade of known hardness. My sharp blades are heat treated to 58Rc and tested by the heat treater before shipping them out but I always check them as well. Finally, a flex test performed. That last one has to wait until I've ground off the decarb layer on all sides. Very strangely, a freshly quenched and tempered blade sometimes easily takes a set when flexed but once the decarb is ground away, it will resist the bending and spring back to true, as is desired. No idea why but it happens.

Anyway, here's a quick pic. Not too much to see though:



The white residue on the blades is salt, my heat treater uses salt baths for tempering which allows for a finer edge before quench and guards against brittle spots. You can also make out the metal loop that is welded onto the end of the tang to avoid having to drill a hole in the sometimes very slender tang.

Finished the final grind on the bigger blade. Not too much difference to see compared to the pre-HT pics (other than the hexagonal base being shiny now) but anyway:



The blade is edged now but not actually sharp. That will come as I polish it by hand. Blade weight is 1600g right now, the end weight will be around 2200-2300g I think. Bit more than my first estimate but well within historical parameters for swords of this size.

You can also make out that the end of the tang is being worked on to fit the pommel slot.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of the guard so stay tuned...

Working on the guard:





The work is only now beginning really as this will be a very complex guard assembly with several more pieces... cool stuff.

Forming the inlet for the blade's shoulders. The angle grinder is far from ideal for this but it works. Takes a very steady hand and careful little motions though, a slip could be ruinous.

Finished the blade. It will still get the final honing and polish but it's 99% there. Next to it the "little" brother. Notice the width difference, especially at the tip. It's obvious that this blade is much more cut-oriented yet still retains a well defined point.

Looking good there. A thought on the blade rebate in the cross - I do this using a dremel and cutting wheels - slower, but much easier to control.

Thanks for the tip. I do have a dremel laying around that I've been wanting to get cutting disks for but I didn't get around to doing it so I used the angle grinder... for the next one I'll try the dremel. Though I have to confess, part of me likes pushing my angle grinder skills and seeing what's all possible with it ;)

Looking forward to seeing the finished product. It all looks great so far!

Sooo... the guard is a huge pain but I'm getting there:











Obviously the side rings will be mirrored on each side, I'm just lacking the fingers to hold more than one in place. I did underestimate the amount of work it takes to get everything fitting and lined up. I tell you, once these two swords are done (thankfully the other one is a lot simpler regarding the guard), I need to make something small to remind myself how it is to finish a piece in a few days... :D