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Joshua Spencer
Location: Plano, TX Joined: 08 Aug 2012
Posts: 10
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 Posted: Wed 19 Sep, 2012 6:01 am Post subject: Overhauling my Deekpeeka Katzbalger |
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Last Saturday I went out to my forge masters shop to overhaul my Deepeeka Katzblager. The day started off rough when we sheared the pommel and threads right off the tang but improved greatly after that. The wooden grip is also trashed, don't care too much about that though, it was crap wood and I know a rather talented woodworker.
The first major change was removing eight inches of the blade. The blade was originally about 30" in length, I took 8" off reducing it to 22" which is far closer to its proper length and far more manageable. The blade was far easier to cut than it should have been, leaving me to really wonder about their heat treatment process. I found that after I heated the blade and let it cool that it picked up a bit of hardness. The research we did stated the blade was EN45 spring steel, I didn't believe it at first but after it was re-heated it started feeling like spring steel again.
Once the blade had cooled I proceeded to begin re-profiling the tip. That's where I really saw what it had come from, it was very resistant to shaping. It was a rather arduous process as the thickness of the blade was pretty random so I was constantly having to correct and adapt. I'm not exceptionally happy with the way it turned out, but given what I started with, I'm happy it worked at all.
The last thing I got accomplished for the day was putting an edge on the blade. Again was rather time consuming, but all in all went really well. Also straightened the blade out the last little bit. When I received the sword it had a slight twist in and developed a curve when I heated it. Quick easy fixes though.
I ended with a really unique pattern on the blade I am going to attempt to recreate improve upon. By not cleaning the blade off after heating it, I ended with an interesting organic pattern. Its not perfect, but with a little practice I think I can really get it the way I want it. I also think I am going to take that 8" of blade tip and make a Swiss style dagger out of it.
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William P
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| Posted: Thu 20 Sep, 2012 12:38 am Post subject: |
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ill be interested to see how the whole thing turns out.
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Joshua Spencer
Location: Plano, TX Joined: 08 Aug 2012
Posts: 10
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| Posted: Thu 20 Sep, 2012 5:57 am Post subject: |
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I'm kind of curious myself. Minus the actual forging of the blade I am fabricating everything myself. For me personally, this is my test to see if I am ready to start doing sword work. If the rest of it goes well there is only a few things left I need to learn before I can construct a sword from the ground up.
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Timo Nieminen
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| Posted: Thu 20 Sep, 2012 2:34 pm Post subject: Re: Overhauling my Deekpeeka Katzbalger |
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| Joshua Spencer wrote: | | The blade was far easier to cut than it should have been, leaving me to really wonder about their heat treatment process. |
It has been said in the past that Deepeeka only heat treats if requested by the vendor (i.e., wholesale buyer). I don't know the current truth of this, but Deepeeka blades do apparently vary from non-existent heat treatment to OK heat treatment.
"In addition to being efficient, all pole arms were quite nice to look at." - Cherney Berg, A hideous history of weapons, Collier 1963.
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Tom King
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| Posted: Thu 20 Sep, 2012 5:45 pm Post subject: Re: Overhauling my Deekpeeka Katzbalger |
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| Timo Nieminen wrote: | | It has been said in the past that Deepeeka only heat treats if requested by the vendor (i.e., wholesale buyer). I don't know the current truth of this, but Deepeeka blades do apparently vary from non-existent heat treatment to OK heat treatment. |
My reenactment group got a large pile of rusted Deepeeka cavalry sabers a while back. Temper on some was decent enough to hold up to BKS Swords while others you could cut through. One of my friends also bought a one of their cheap german longswords and it has held up well. seems to be more of a blade to blade thing.
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Joshua Spencer
Location: Plano, TX Joined: 08 Aug 2012
Posts: 10
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| Posted: Sun 23 Sep, 2012 3:15 pm Post subject: |
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No new work to report as of yet. Waiting to get paid on the first so I can start up again. Current plans in the works are to get started on the woodwork for the hilt and the sculpt to make the mold for the pommel. Wood choice as of right now is going to be a fire-hardened ebonized oak. The pommel design is still up in the air, but I have some good visual references I am working off of.
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This is a standard topic