It´s been a while since I´ve posted anything on this site...So, here´s something to chew on. Last spring I gratuated from my school, and since then I haven´t been able to put on much of an effort to sword making. Last week I finally decided to give a try.
I still had some leafsprings to start working with, and I thought that a spatha style of sword is something that I don´t own yet. Working conditions where a bit rustic, and I did most of the work with angle grinder(well,all of the metal work infact).
While grinding the blade, the leafspring started to go back to its original form because of the heat generated by the grinding. I thought for a while wether to use gas torch, or build up some kind of forge to heat and straighten the blade.
I decided to go with the forge. Weather was starting to get bad, and since I was working outdoors, I had to build some kind of wind cover. Of course it started to snow in addition. I built a forge-kind-of-object from bricks, and loaded it with coal. I managed to heat the blade enough to remove the tensions and forge the blade straight.
I didn´t do any more heat treatment, due to the lack of proper conditions. After all, the sword wasn´t going to get handling wich it wouldn´t bear.
I grinded the blade clean, and started to work with the handle. For the cross guard and pommel I used a splitted brass cylinder. Handle is made out of birch tree, and leather. At the school workshop I was used to work with milling tools to make fittings for cross guard and pommel. It was somewhat of a challenge to get them done cleanly with a dull hand drill and a file.
Result wasn´t too bad after all. Finally after two days of work, the sword was more or less finished. It came out in sort of a celtic-looking outfit, wich I thought was quite nice.
For the scabbard I used plywood and pinetree, and covered the whole thing with leather. The suspension of the scabbard is bit of a modification. It´s made with one leather strap that goes around the scabbard in two places, and it´s connected from the backside. I thought that I would make a suspension piece out of brass and tie it on it´s place to make it match the historical pieces, but since this seems to work just fine, it can wait.
This spatha isn´t propably historically accurate, but that was not the meaning after all. I did do some research for the proportions and basic characteristics, so I think it can be recognised as a spatha. For me this piece of work was like a therapy after almost a year of doing no metalwork. It gave a spark that will hopefully light the fire to learn the discipline of steel soon again.
There are on-progress pictures, and some pictures of the finished piece.
Some measurements:
OA length: 72 cm
blade length: 60 cm
blade width at the cross guard: 4 cm
blade width at the point: 3,5 cm
blade thickness at the CG: 0,85 cm
blade thickness at the point: 0,5cm
cross guard and pommel width: 5,5 cm
grip length: 8,5 cm
weight: 1,025 kg
The blade could have some more distal tapering, and it could be thinner at the cross guard, but I didn´t have the patience to do any more grinding that was necessary.It will do just fine(although it could be a bit lighter)
Oh, I did do some cutting with milk cartons, and the spatha did its job just fine The blade is still definitely hard enough to do cutting, even with no heat tratment.
Hope you like it. Any comments are welcome.
(and sorry about the poor resolution in some pictures)
Attachment: 95.87 KBgrinding [ Download ]
Attachment: 97.46 KBblade roughly shaped [ Download ]
Attachment: 84.33 KBleafspring trying to maintain its original form [ Download ]
Attachment: 85.49 KBsort of a forge [ Download ]
Attachment: 96.58 KBheating the blade [ Download ]
Attachment: 93.4 KBstraightened blade [ Download ]
Attachment: 81.55 KBconstructing the handle [ Download ]
Attachment: 89.67 KBfinished piece [ Download ]