Bastard sword rebuild (XVIa)

[Keegan Ingrassia]

This is split off from my thread over in off-topic. If you'd like to catch up with me and my life in general, go here.

I'd like to share an actual metal project I've begun working on.

When we were moving out of our old house, we were frantically trying to get everything packed up and out before the new buyers moved in. The final weekend, we were actually overlapping. In that rush, my very first sword got broken.

Here's what it used to be: Actually found it on Amazon

It wasn't a great piece. It was very much a wall hanger. But it was my first sword...my brothers gave it to me for my birthday when I was 14, so it certainly held a great deal of sentimental value for me.

Rather than throw it away entirely, I wanted to try and repurpose what I could. The entire handle had only a tiny, rat-tail tang that had been haphazardly tack-welded onto the blade...this is what had broken in the move, destroying the handle. However, the blade itself is surprisingly good; it takes an edge well, and can deflect a full 45 degrees and come back to true.

So, after studying a bit, and taking some careful measurements, and watching Peter Johnsson's videos on sword geometry, I applied the same principles to the remaining blade. To my delight, the proportions would work perfectly for a hand-and-a-half in an XVIa style.



And so, I gave it a new tang.



From there, I began to work on the scales for the grip, first carving it out of a solid piece of hickory, then carefully splitting it through the center.



The handle is left long, until I've finished forging out the crossguard (good first project for that new forge, eh?).

From there, I turned my attention to getting the raw material for my pommel prepped.



Actual smiths will probably run me out of town on a rail for this, but here's my starting material: a raw steel, solid shank ball hitch. After chopping off the unnecessary length, I started hogging off excess material, and drilled a starting hole for the tang. From here, I'll get to utilize my forge again, flattening the hole to a more ovoid shape, then drifting it to a final rectangular hole.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

So, before I could get to anything project-related, I needed to focus on the mundane. I have a heat source, but I didn't have any tongs! Also didn't have any extra bar stock lying around...but I did have a bit of extra 1/2" rebar, so heated up the center and hot cut that, then juggled the two to get to here.




Took about 3 hours, all told...two hours the first day spent remembering how to actually use a hammer without ruining my hands and then another hour the second day to clean up the mess I made of the steel the day before, and drift the holes for the rivet. Still need to put in a few details; kick out the ends, put a lock ring on the longer arm, and finalize the shape of the jaws. But all in all, I'm glad to be making progress!

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Another day, another hour stolen during the kid's naptime. Got the tongs finished up. Tomorrow, I'll take ten minutes to align the jaws and the lower half of the arms, put a lock ring at the end of the arm, then it looks like it'll be time to start forging the crossguard for the sword.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Woodworking projects had my workspace tooled up in a different direction this past week. Tongs are all finished. Going to draw out a reference drawing to scale, then get going on this crossguard. Shouldn't take much to get this into a shape I can grind to finish.




As an aside...while the forge was still hot I tossed a poleyn from my scrap bucket in front of the mouth of the forge, to see how sheet work would go. Took less than a minue for a 3" section to get to orange heat from cold, and about 30-40 seconds to return to red heat after a quick raising pass. I'm willing to bet that if I fire the forge vertically and set the piece over the mouth, I can get that down to 20 seconds per heat. It'll be an interesting experiment.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Oh, and because I'm a nerd...here's a view of the pommel design in the round. It'll be interesting to see if I can pull these compound shapes off...

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Alright, made about an hour's progress on the crossguard, and then ran out of fuel. I'll have to refill before I can proceed, but here's the bag of marbles I've got so far.




Looking at where it's at currently, I need to move some mass from the arms towards the center, where I will then need to draw it down to form the point. I'll also need to upset the end of each arm to get that final flare I'm looking for. If I can't get enough mass moved into the center, I'll have to drift and spread the hole for the tang instead of drilling...that should get me the width I need to grind in that central ridge.

I'd also taken a few minutes to reprofile the handle on my heaviest sledge; out of all of my hammers, it had the least contoured handle. Probably how I got a handful of blisters the first day I got back into this...had to grip it too hard to maintain control. Thanks for the advice, Thomas!

[Keegan Ingrassia]

They say it's important to visualize your finished product, to make sure it's going the direction you want it to...



I'm rather pleased with the overall line and proportion of it all. At the moment the PoB is just 2" below the guard, but I know that will start to creep further out as I reduce the mass of the guard and pommel. If I can keep it under 4" from the guard, I'll be pleased...but I'll need to make sure overall weight is considered, too. Aiming for 2.5 lbs total.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Finally had enough uninterrupted time to fire up the forge and turn my attention back to this project tonight. Took a couple of heats to get back into the swing of things, but started to get the arms of the guard profiled, moved some of the mass out of the arms and to the extremities, and most importantly began drifting the slot for the tang. Another couple of heats to get the process of juggling the tongs, punch, and hammer down. Got about halfway through drifting...and the fuel line for my forge decided to spring a leak, catching fire in a very unsettling jet. SO, I've got to table this again until I've ordered a new hose and regulator. And build a heat shield for the new hose, I believe.




Does anyone have a preference for a standard rubber hose versus the ones with the braided steel jacketing? I'll order the latter this week, unless someone comes screaming in to tell me that the jacketing will...I don't know, soak up the heat and melt the hose underneath, or something.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Alright, back in business! Took a week to restock and resupply the shop, one of which was getting the forge back up and running.




Constructed the heat baffle from some leftover steel siding from the home build; it certainly isn't pretty or elegant, but it does exactly what I need it to...keep the fire and heat away from the supply line.
Speaking of fire and heat, the forge is running much nicer, now. My new supply line uses a 0-30psi regulator, while my old one only ran 0-20. It was much easier to dial in the fire, get the fuel/air mix right, and it took less than two minutes to get the forge up to working temperature. I'm very happy with this unintended upgrade.

Also went ahead and ordered a set of tong blanks. My rebar tongs are...serviceable, but these should work much better. I'll spend the next firing or two getting a few of these put together, then get back to that crossguard.

[Armadillo]

There's nothing like a little Armour Archive encouragement. How's this project going? Funny how the need for additional tools can completely derail projects.

I really enjoy making sword furniture. Bladesmithing is a part of forge work that I will never get into, mainly because the hot work is such a small part of the process. Hilt bits on the other hand are quite sculptural and proper forging can save a lot of time at the vise!

-A.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Hey Armadillo! Thanks for the nudge.

This project has been languishing, unfortunately. I've been working remotely for my job the last year or so while helping watch our 4 year old son, and the only time I've had free this quarter has been late at night. My neighbors are understanding, but the roll-up door points directly toward their bedroom wall.

I do hope to get better opportunities this summer...my work schedule changes in June.

[Otto von Teich]

Looking good sir! Great salvage effort. I'm sure you'll get back to it soon.

[Armadillo]

It's important to have a few lingering projects around to draw you back to the shop. Thanks for sharing this one.
-A.

[Johann ColdIron]

Looks like you are headed in the right direction with the crossguard.

The pommel imaging is well done! I think you could achieve those concavities on the flanks with a carefully profiled grinding wheel I do wonder whether you will be happy with the sharp corners though.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Thanks guys!

Johann, I've been wondering the same thing about the shape of the pommel...I've a similarly shaped, hexagonal, scent-stopper pommel on my longsword waster, and the peaks can tear into my palm as I transition between guards. I love the look that I've come up with, but it might come down to a question of function vs. aesthetics.

I could soften the edges and flatten the pommel, and end up with something similar to this one by Christian Fletcher:




I was hoping to keep the width, however, just to keep the extra mass for counterbalance. The blade is a little wider than is typical for this type of sword, and I'm afraid of removing too much weight from the pommel. Perhaps I should just go with a simple scent-stopper, instead...I'll see how it goes together once I've got the crossguard roughed in, and the handle scales cut to length.

[Johann ColdIron]

Christian's is a bit more forgiving for sure. I agree that you will need a significant pommel weight to counter that thick blade.

We have been going through Meyer's fectbuch and his drawings seem to favor rounded symmetrical scent stopper pommels, I think to allow the pommel rotate and swivel in the palm of left hand kind of like a ball& socket. From the drills we have been doing it seems to work. Not sure how well one with facets would perform the movements.

But it would look cool!

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Been picking up this project and banging on it for half an hour every six months. Finally finished drifting open that slot in the crossguard today.




After I had the initial slot punched, I used a dummy tang to finalize the hole and get it to match. The hole shrank down after it cooled, of course, so I'm still doing the file-fit-file dance, but I'd much rather that than needing to shim a loose guard!




Really looking forward to getting the final profile of the crossguard done, but I'm waiting on that until I can get it to fit the tang. Don't want to take all the time to shape the profile, only to discover the hole is misaligned.

[Johann ColdIron]

Yes, fit the tang first. You can file away asymmetry in the guard after the hole is well aligned with the blade. If you end up with a wobble a few thin wedges can be hammered in from the bottom side against the taper to help firm it up. I've had to do that at least once... Usually a tightly fitted grip will take it from there.

Having a "stunt tang" is very helpful in fitting. I found a heavy Nicholson file was the same thickness as a Darkwood tang and made one from that.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

In this situation, I was able to reuse a portion of the blade that I'd cut away to make this new tang. That was a convenient bit of serendipity!

After about 15-20 minutes of file-fit-file, I've got the crossguard almost completely seated onto the shoulders. The last bit is going to be more fiddly, since I've got those radiused corners in the transition from tang to blade shoulders, as well as the clearance of the blade against the front profile of the guard. Probably going to be a bit of back and forth on both pieces, before they're finally married.




Still, I'm pleased that this step went so smoothly. Might get to work on the profile shape sooner than I thought! At the moment, there's about an inch of extra length on each arm of the crossguard...makes this piece look much less like a hand-and-a-half, and more of a true longsword. But I know I haven't got the blade length nor the tang for that to look proportional at the end of all this...so the extra metal is going to have to go.

[human]

looking good!