[Craig Johnson]

Hello Peter

Excellent stuff. I often think the largest lose from that period is the simple way of getting a job done. It is hard for us modern types to divorce the use of power tools from our mind as the first option.

Scrappers were an important tool that many smiths over look. It can achieve an excellent surface when done correctly. Not saying I can :-)

Did you replicate the files Peter? If so did you upset the teeth with a chisel then harden the file? Was the file surface coated for heat treat? I tried some files a couple of years ago and found I scale on the teeth in some cases. I talked to an old smith once who used to coat his hand made files to avoid the scaling on them when heat treating.

It does give a nice finish when using a fine single cut file. How fine a tooth were you able to get?

Best
Craig

PS For all reading along on this thread I wanted to point out another aspect that comes to my mind when looking at these tools. That the practical elements incorporated in them, such as off set handles and release elements on the saw blade, are as good if not better than most modern tools in the local hardware store. If you are new to the study of these things it is something vital to remember as you learn, never forget that they were as smart as you or I, they were just working with a different data base. Their tools are truly amazing for effectiveness and practicality, and as Peter mentioned their artistic design has us beat almost every time.

[Peter Johnsson]

The files we made were of the larger type with the offset handle.
We did not cut the teeth, but filed them. This might have been cheating, but I am not sure those files with bigger teeth were not filed originally. Hard to tell. The ones with fine teeth were obviously cut.
I have never tried to make a fine toothed file like those in the picture. Would be interesting to try some rainy day
Our files were made from 1075 steel and hardened completely. They did take a set bending away from the teeth, but it was possible to press them back straight when tempering.

To do it absolutely authentic, I guess a composite steel/iron billet would be used, or using good quality iron and carburise the business side.

The rather course teeth catually helped in acheiving a smooth surface as they did not clog up so easily. I would not use such a file for fine shaping, but for establishing flat surfaces it worked very well.

Instead of a vice we used a U-shaped strip of iron that was hammered down into the stump that was our "work table". By locking the tang down with wooden wedges it was possible to do some effective fileworking of the protruding blade.
One summer Silas (another fellow blacksmith) managed to make some simple silver inlays in a knife blade with this method of filing to establish a flat surface. After this cutting groves with a chisel and then hammering down silver wire was done surpricingly quick. The simple "vice" and the files worked well for this.

[Jon H.]

Hi, I'm new to this site. Doing a search concerning the bluing process only brought up a handful of threads, and all of them seemed to discuss blued hilt components to varying degrees. I admit, I didn't do a very thorough search, and I apologise if my question has been discussed before. But here it is: Have any swordsmiths toyed with the idea of bluing the entire blade? I've seen plenty lower-end reproductions use paint or chemical treatments to give the blade a blackened look, but I've not seen many using heat methods to do this.

I was also curious to see what effects, were this to be done, the bluing process would have on the hardness of the blade or its handling characteristics. Would it create a blade that is more brittle, more prone to chipping during cutting exercises and the like?

Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

[Jared Smith]

I wonder about the fire gilding with mercury. This was done (12th century and later in Europe, earlier elsewhere if I remember right) in jewelry and other items which really should not have been exposed to heats as high as what I consider good spring steel tempering range. Pure mercury can vaporize and off gas at temperatures (357 C) near the upper end of an acceptable tempering range if the alloy were really good. I don't know how making a gold mixture with it would behave, but depression of the boiling point is not impossible. Have any current artisans experimented with it (hopefully under ventilation hood with gloves and respirator!)?

[Jared Smith]

I would like to know of the basic and economical route to making a scraper for working an annealed condition sword. Their usefulness is mentioned on several web sites. I am guessing you could make some curved ones for fullers, and others for diamond profile blades. Craig, would you consider posting examples and a little how to?

[Bernhard Rohrer]

hmm, there goes my plan for a black or blue sword ;-)

[Einar Drønnesund]

[Bernhard Rohrer]

yes, sadly it doesn't quite work that way. and since bluing would kill the temper, i think that is a persuasive argument against

[Richard Hare]

Just want to say thank you for this thread.
I found it all very interesting.

I am sure you are quite correct about the original craftsmen being at least as smart as we are!....and modern tools are now often of inferior quality, simply because hand tools are largly out of fashion, and the casual user may be unaware that better was once the norm.

Thanks again.

Richard.

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Aleksei Sosnovski]

My 2 cents. Several years ago I made a couple of blades for training blunts. The steel was 1080. I tempered the blades to bright blue color. And I would say that the hardness was satisfactory even for a modern sword. So one can easily quench a blade, temper it, clean and then temper again to achieve the required color. It is also possible to apply oil to the blade surface and get a glossy black finish at the same temperatures.

[Jean Thibodeau]