[Don Halter]

Been a while since I've been by the forums!

We moved to Katy, TX thia past August, but I've just recently had time to get the new shop (garage) set up and start making some blades. Kind of hard going from a few acres and a 25 x 50 shop...to a 2 car garage in a subdivision. Hah...I guess I should be more careful with what I say to my wife before heading to the African Congo for a summer! Seems like I've been doing so many "tactical" blades this last year, I've forgotten how much I like the medieval stuff!

Anyway, here's the latest blade:

blade - 5160 steel, single edged, blade, 12.75" long, 1/4" thick at spine, differentially hardened. 400 grit satin finish

handle- stained bone (calf..deer..? I don't really remember)

Rondels - small hammer peened red brass spacer, coarse grained wrought iron off some 1860's wagon wheels. This stuff has an incredible pattern.

Through-tang construction. Peened over on pommel cap.

Scabbard is black walnut and will have burgundy latigo wrapped around the upper 3" to finish it out.

P.S. That's walnut sawdust on the blade in pic #6, not specs of rust.

I'll have four more done hopefully by the end of December, bladelengths will range from 12" - 16" with thicknesses around 1/4' - 3/8" at the base and more triangular cross sections. More closely resembling some of the ones I've been able to handle up close over the last several years.

These are just fun to make! Hope you like the pics.

[M. Eversberg II]

Impressive.

M.

[J. Pav]

Sweet.

What do you use to fill the hollow of the bone?

[Don Halter]

Thanks!

Two different ways....
I start by drilling an undersized hole/slot for the tang through the spongy bone. Then I ram the tang down through the hole for a nice snug fit. Tap the bone to get all the dust and crud out. I get the multipacks of superglue from the dollar store and squirt three or four onto the spongy bone. It gets wicked up pretty quick. Then the remainder is filled with epoxy when all the parts are put together.

For smaller bones, you can just clean out almost all the spongy bone and fill with epoxy. I'll often superglue the handle in place on the bottom of the upper guard so it doesn't come off and allow all the epoxy to run out. If you're doing a handle that will be peened over on the pommel, this can get very messy if it wasn't a snug fit. It's best to have a fairly tight fitting handle when peening since hammering/peening can knock things out of alignment. You can't just "tap" alloy steel to peen it!

In the past I've used a couple different natural rosins as well at the request of a client. These act like a hot-melt glue if prepared right and work best with a tight fitting handle/tang.

[Tim Lison]

Great rondel! I love the patterns in the iron. The bone is beautiful too.