the Falcata and the egyption Khepesh are all great sword designs that seem to be really rare in the reporduction world. And making your own sword of knife can be fun, but there are risks you should know about.

Bass - cooper tin and zinc

acts differently when smelted to your body than traditional bronze - 9 parts copper 1 part tin

anyone playing with brass/ galvinized metal should know there is a risk with working with the alloys that contain zinc. granted what you might be doing may not be enough to harm yourself if you smelt it in the amount you want to use, but if your going to start playing with these things you better go to anvilefire.com go to the i forge page and read the safety demos. when zinc is inhaled by grinding - or smelting it does the same thing as when you take that little zinc pill, it sets your immune system into over drive and will wear it out.

i've been working with metals for about 3 years now - and i've done a few stupid things myself that's why i'd caution any beginner. yeah i looked up on the net how to electro plate one metal to another, and using an car battery made copper dioxide and some kind of hydrogen gas that did not make me feel all that good after i sat back and watched the boiling green mess.


sorry i didn't mean to interrupt the brainstorming design ideas - but felt that a warning should be given.