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.
