Coke forge and sword!

Hello!
First I will show you the long-ish ground forge, what i used, how I put it together and lit it, then how I made the sword blade (note not full tang) and handle ect.

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Step 1: Materials

!!Important lots of heat and fumes given off so out side is a must for this type of forge, when the worked mettle is taken out it will be red-white hot, you will feel the heat from a distance so don’t let it get any where near your or any ones skin or body or it will hurt, a lot!!

Materials

The materials needed for constructing a non-permanent forge depends on the size and shape, this forge was made for the job of forging the blade of my sword, so I will list the materials as if u was replicating this exactly (or kind of).

Forge:
•Building bricks with 2-3 holes, x8
•Solid building bricks (sand stone bricks not as good due to the heat) aprox x40
•Roofing tiles x5
•Breeze block x1
•Slabs x2-3 (depending on size of slabs)
•Hair dryer x2 (similar powers)
•Soft clay about 1kg

Sword (if making)
•Steel to work, suggest part of a small car leaf spring because of the high carbon factor and easy to work size another easy option is a car coil spring cut up. But for testing any steel can be used, a good thing to play with is reinforcing rods as you can make tongs for later use with the forge
•Length of reinforcing rod or other steel rod, 1.5-2 cm diameter and about 23 cm long.
•Steel plate about 4cm x8cm for hand guard, can use a section of leaf spring as I did.
•Wood for handle, 26cm x20cm and 1.5cm in thickness, suggest a hard wood because it makes turning a smooth finish easier.
•Bolt aprox 2.5-4cm brass or steel depending on preference.
•Washer, fancy as it will be on the hilt or but plane is fine.

Tools needed

Forge
•Making the forge
oHammer
oBrick chisel

•Working the forge
oBucket of water incase something happens (note tern off power to the hear dryers first, sounds silly but funny things happen when you panic).
oWater but for quenching, if you need to make hard brittle items.
oHeat proof gloves that reach up the arm.
oTongs, I found mole grips very useful but longer reach tongs may be found safer for retrieving smaller items from the forge.
oA solid lump of flat cast steel or iron. I used the back part pf a vice sat on a wall, this is far from ideal (just look at picture..).
oSelection of hammers with different heads and weights, tack up to club.

Sword

•Bench vice, on a bench this time.
•Lathe for turning handle, not a must but quicker than trying to plan it.
•Rounded chisel.
•Angel grinder for first sharpening and fine tuning.
•Bench water-stone, not a must but gives a better edge.
•Drill with sander attachment and a buffer attachment.
•Hacksaw .
•Tap and die set.

MakeItWithJason says: Apr 7, 2013. 10:20 AM

AWESOME! Makes my sword look like a machete! I guess mine is more of a machete.

thebomb745 says: Aug 1, 2010. 10:18 AM

can i use aluminum instead of steel... i have a small fire pit and idont think it can get that hot

curvy77 says: Dec 19, 2011. 4:42 AM

you could although not the best idea. because steel is both stronger and easier to work with if broken. aluminum dosent break but shatters.

geodez says: Feb 14, 2011. 7:09 PM

Listen to these guys, they are all correct, (though each favor different methods,) I agree with Bisquick on this, though my method of choice is better suited for swords of English design, as I've always found swords of Japanese design to be very weak unless forged by a master. While it appears you have used a combination of forging and stock removal to make this edged piece of metal, you first (from what I can gather from this Instructable,) cut it to general shape and then heated it and appeared to draw it out into its semi-final shape before grinding off the excess and edging it. This will give you what you would call an "edge", because that is what it is, you may not know it, but this edge (unless you REALLY lucked out) will either snap with a light (by true sword standards) blow or hold an edge for about 2 connecting slashes on a soft surface (fruit, cardboard, etc.) The proper method (for most straight double edged swords,) consists of either folding the steel (assuming it is already refined) into a billet (if different metals are to be used for the core and edge, then they are to be combined into a "sandwich" during the forming of the billet.) After the billet is formed then it is heated above Recrystallization temperature before being drawn out into the general shape of the blade (including the grind, tang, and if integral, the hilt.) After the forging of the blade, the blade is quenched, which prevents low temperature phase changes, as well as giving the metal the ability to hold an edge, with the trade off of making the metal very brittle (Water will give a harder sword with the small chance of distortion or microfissures, while oil will give a softer, more flexible blade, though the oils often tend to oxidize and form a sludge, lowering cooling efficiency even further.) After Quenching the sword is VERY hard but VERY brittle, causing it to snap if struck against something that will not give (rock, tree, ground, somebody else's sword,) this is why a sword is annealed afterwards, annealing involves reheating the metal above its recrystallization temperature again but this time allowing it to cool in the air until the smith decides to quench it, the earlier it is quenched, the harder and more brittle it will be, this is how it will always be with metal, what you gain in hardness (and therefore edge durability,) you lose in flexibility (and therefore the metal's resistance to breaking under stress.) After annealing comes the process of finishing the sword, this involves giving it a grip, pommel (if the design incorporated it,) finishing the hilt (also only if the design required it,) and polishing the blade. To polish the blade you will go over it with progressively finer grains of sandpaper until the desired finish is achieved, while you can go all the way down to a mirror finish if you desire, it is not recommended if you want to use your sword for anything other than a wall hanging as the finish will quickly dull and become scratched and it will be very "noticeable" shall we say if you ever get into a real combat situation (highly improbable but just in case.) After the blade is finished it must be sharpened, sharpening is done by grinding away material from where the edge is going to be, using a material that is harder than the surface being sharpened. This is usually followed by processes to polish the sharp surface to increase smoothness and to correct small mechanical deformations without regrinding. This is the accepted method for forging a sword from start to finish, it takes time to master and your first few "projects" most likely will not result in a perfect blade, but if you persevere, in time your efforts will be rewarded. Hope this helps.

_Scratch_ says: Jul 9, 2011. 10:29 PM

If you are quenching the metal, can you use liquid nitrogen, or maybe dry ice in 90% alcohol to quench it faster, or do you not want it quenched that fast?

geodez says: Jul 10, 2011. 6:13 PM

The faster the metal is quenched, the harder it will be, but the chance of distortion and microfissures increases exponentially the faster the metal is cooled.

_Scratch_ says: Jul 11, 2011. 3:22 PM

So you would probably be better off quenching it in water, then quickly moving to one of the colder things?

geodez says: Jul 12, 2011. 5:38 PM

The quenching medium is what ensures the evenness of the temper (the more efficient the quenching medium the less even the temper will be and vice-versa.) The hardness is determined by how long the metal is left out before quenching. Transferring quenching mediums is generally not a good idea as the metal often turns out with a variety of different properties (E.G. hard and brittle in one spot [metallic crystal structure is linear dendritic,] soft and flexible in another [metallic crystal structure is uniform/laminar,] or both very soft and very brittle [metallic crystal structure is amorphous AKA "metallic glass.")

_Scratch_ says: Jul 12, 2011. 5:45 PM

Ok. Thanks for answering my questions. Was gonna try and make a forge this summer like this and make a couple things.

geodez says: Jul 13, 2011. 4:31 PM

You're welcome, have fun!

alienman says: Jan 17, 2011. 12:51 PM

It is a good first try but there are a lot of improvements that could be made. The first improvement I would suggest is starting off with a lower carbon steel so you can get used to the folding process. Higher carbon steels tend to crack, especially if you are new to forging. The second suggestion i have is to quench it in oil. Oil does not transfer heat as quickly as water does and reduces the chance of your blade cracking. There are multiple steps to the quenching process that will allow you to create a better sword. Also full tang is the safe and professional way to make a sword and I fully suggest it. Good luck with your forging adventure!

Neovenetar says: Aug 21, 2010. 12:04 PM

isn't that more of a wakazashi (shortsword)? than a katana (sword)

pokerstud001 says: Sep 25, 2010. 4:16 PM

The katana is also made very differently than he made his sword. You can't just call any thin curved sword a katana :P

Neovenetar says: Sep 26, 2010. 8:33 AM

true, but this sword was designed top imitate a katana. and also the word katana literally means sword, so any sword could be called a such ( though that would just be a stupid idea :P )

Neovenetar says: Aug 21, 2010. 12:06 PM

if you can't engrave easily, you can use a magnifying glass to burn whatever design into the wood of the handle.

cool2000 says: Aug 17, 2010. 5:38 AM

could you have it run on charcoal? cool sword!

FrankFurt3r says: Jul 1, 2007. 10:24 AM

i have a few questions . 1, have u done any courses in this topic? (forging metal) 2, how would u put a bohi on the blade? 3, and how would the wavy edge on the sword be obtained(sory about the noob ness about this question) and could u posible do a instructable on how to make the Saya and maby how to wrap the Silk ito on blade handle and saya?

R.D.Fisher says: Mar 12, 2010. 4:44 AM

The "wavy" edge is made by a certain sharpening technique

davidcarr3 says: May 13, 2010. 3:57 PM

It was my understanding that the wavy edge comes from the layers of metal produced by folding, and sharpening/polishing made these layers visible.

I may be wrong

mannyboy2680 says: Jul 22, 2010. 12:50 AM

Actually, the "wavy edge" is called the hamon, and is achieved by coating the back part of the blade with clay, so that when it is cooled after the forging process, the uncovered (edge) part will cool more rapidly, thus expanding and becoming harder (more brittle, easier to sharpen, maintains edge better), while the covered (back) part will cool more slowly, thus staying more flexible.

UndeadElemental says: Mar 11, 2010. 10:15 AM

woodwalker is mostly right but even the cutting edge is lightly coated in clay usually with a brush and "slip"(clay mixed with water till liquidy and applicable with a small brush) but other than that woodwalker is dead on

buzzbe25 says: Oct 7, 2007. 11:41 AM

to make the pattern on the blade(the little triangles on the edge) you would have to grind it sharp.

woodwalker says: Aug 25, 2007. 8:01 PM

that wavy edge is a temper line. the way the japanese heat-tread their swords is by taking clay and packing it on the blade where they want it to be soft(er), and form the edge of the clay into a wave. for more information search Katana Construction on wikipedia.com

DIYerr says: Jun 9, 2008. 11:44 PM

yeah, called hamon, looks nice. woodwalker's description is pretty much dead on correct.

egadsman says: Jul 8, 2007. 10:10 PM

what kind of silk wrap do you want coz ive had some practice wrapping handles because i have some bokens(training swords) in my garrage and i wanted to give them a cool handle so i wrapped them ninja style so you had the diamonds running down the middle of the handle. hope i can help.

8039180 says: Jul 30, 2007. 12:47 AM

ok, 1st of all, the bolt method is crappy. the blade can twist and turn as u swing it. a better method [for ur future swords] is to flatten out the "rod" that u put into the hilt. once flattend to just under the length of your hilt, cut ur block of wood in 2. once done, put the three peices together and put rubber bands, or more prefferably string, tied around them to temporarily bind them. then get a dowel rod form your local store equivelent to that of one of your drill bits. then drill through the block and steel in 2 places [one by the tsuba (hand guard) and one by the end of the hilt]. Next you take the wooden dowen and push it through till the hilt is centered on the dowel. then cut off the ends. do this for both holes. this will provide a stable hold for the blade and it is the method for a full tang blade. u can then take something to use as some faux ray skin, [plastic bag, or lenolium, if its available] then wrap a rope around it or any sort of cotton or silk. for the better type swords, leather is used.

leighton_co says: Feb 11, 2010. 6:39 PM

rods that are welded on to the blade, are what the chinese crapshackers do to make a cheap but smelly looking blade. although its a good wallhanging peice, i would SO not use this in the heat of battle OR with anything but saying chek out my sweet wallhanger essay!

davidcarr3 says: Mar 10, 2010. 3:43 PM

lol @ "smelly looking blade"

Landon Sullivan says: Aug 4, 2009. 8:46 PM

Wow, it appears that MS Paint is actually good for something, because the instructions made sense once I looked at the diagram. I can imagine that it was hard to explain, because it was a little hard to understand. I might have to try this eventually. I wish I could do it right now, but A) I live in a suburb, B) I don't have any steel to work with, C) I don't think the women of the house would be very appreciative of me utilizing their hairdryers in this way, and D) I am only 14. I really do wish I could, though. I could use a couple of katanas in preparation for a Solanum outbreak. Guess I'll just ave to stick with my crowbars for now.