Coke forge and sword!

Step 3 Forging a blade and making good

Take the (suggest hi carbon as lots will be lost in the heating) steel cut it into a workable size, but have the mass so that when it is drawn out it will be approximately 50 cm long.
Using tongs place the steel into the forge, put the tiles over the top still leaving gaps. If you have never done anything like this before you may now see in a new light why smithys are depicted with arms like cow legs, it takes some time and effort to draw out that steel and shape it. When it is heated red-white hot it can be shaped, drawn out and cut with a chisel and hammer.

Once the desired shape is accomplished with a semi edge to it quickly quench it in the water but and then take out the blade so not to much heat is lost, let it slowly cool down, this will hopefully give some hardness and flexibility to the blade.

The easiest way to fix a hand guard is to cut a rebate up the blade slightly and make a slot in the guard. No easy task with leaf spring steel so plate steel may be a better option, just drill holes along where the slot wants to be and grind and file a-way until it fits the rebate on the sword. Cut a section on the bottom so that it can be rounded and threaded. It is hard to explain hopefully the picture shows what I mean. Drill a hole in both ends of the steel rod and thread them one to fit the sword and one to fit the bolt. It can be easer to weld the guard and rod to the sword but I prefer threading it so that I can disassemble it.

In a vice use the angel grinder to put an edge on the blade, and then refine on a bench grinder or water stone.

Clamp the blade in a wood clad vice so that it wont bite the blade and with the drill sander bit take off the rusty looking surface, to reduce the time polishing use a finer sanding bit, once sanded polish with the drill polishing bit and abrasive wax.

Comments

[geodez]

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_]

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]

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_]

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

[geodez]

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_]

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

[geodez]

You're welcome, have fun!

[alienman]

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!

[Bisquick]

I've been forging knives for years, and had a few attempts at swords and machete's. From what I understand the really really good swords of this type are made with high carbon steel that is folded (damascus) a few hundred times, and then into an ingot, then split in half. Sandwiched between the two pieces of the ingot you place a softer steel or just iron and then draw out the blade. The reason being the back of the blade will dampen the blow when the sword is turned around to block, while the edge is high carbon razor sharp goodness. Also it will have a little give and bend slightly instead of being brittle and just breaking. After you draw the blade out and shape 90% of what it is going to look like finished, you touch the blade up with a grinder and some finer stones until the blade looks about to where yours is at. Thats where the next part comes in. The marks are spots where clay is placed, when you dip the sword in the water after being cherry red you drop the sword in water and all of the carbon releases to the surface except in the spots where the clay was. This is to dampen the sides, as well as often times embellishments. Once this process is finished, it is sanded with fine paper, then fine clay which has a very slight grit to it. Finally buffed, polished and engraved.

[vladj]

Bullshit. Yea I definitely gotta call bullshit on this sword. None of it makes sense. We go from chunk of metal to fully finished blade without any pictures, and man that is a long and complicated process. Rat-tail tang? On a hand forged sword? On a katana? That's absurd. All that work and you just decide to go with the weakest tang imaginable? Even the good Chinese knockoffs on ebay have full tangs. And if you really blacksmithed it, a full tang is easier to make! The hardening/tempering is also wrong. The blade has a slight curve and a hamon line, both of which are caused by differential hardening. Well that or lazer cutting a curved blade from sheet metal and etching a hamon line in a Chinese factory. You describe quenching for a short time then pulling it out before it is fully hardened. I've never heard any blacksmith recommend that nor have I found it in any books.....because it doesn't work. You quench till cold to get a hard but brittle blade, then temper(heat to about 500 degrees, 1/3 forging heat) to make it somewhat softer and less brittle. If it's a katana you coat the back of the blade in clay before you quench to slow the cooing there and get the curve and hamon line. That's that differential hardening I talked about earlier. Grinding: You grind before you quench. First you aneal(let it cool as slowly as possible) to get the swords as soft as possible. then you grind, then you quench then temper. If you grind after quenching you'll just waste your time and ruin sanding belts on a super hard blade. If you grind after tempering you'll also burn through belts and more importantly you'll probably ruin the temper and have to repeat the quench, temper, and polish steps. Oh and the thought of taking an angle grinder to a katana blade makes me cringe. Now I hope you're just faking the swords part and used it as a prop. If I'm wrong and you actually made it like you said you did then mad props on your initiative, really, that's darn impressive, but do yourself a favor and read a book on bladesmithing before you you do your next blade. What you have looks nice, but there are some simple and critically important things that differentiate a real sword from a chunk of metal that just looks like a sword. Wack it against a helmet, or even a tree and you'll see the difference.

[Moonrabbit]

I'm in agreement, spelling, grammer and misuse of terms aside (the Smithy is the place where the black smith works, not the smith them self. But that's a common misconception.) There seem to be a lot false statments and steps missing here. You say to use a finer grit sandpaper to reduce the time it takes to polish? There may be more steps involved in going from course to fine sandpaper, but it definitely saves you time and money you'll be going through a lot of fine sandpaper to remove large imperfections. The tang is obviousely welded on, but there's no mention of it in the steps, also that means as soon as you strike anything harder than a watermelon, you're going to bend and likely snap the tang off. You can take any piece of stock metal and an anglegrinder and make a blade. You outline reasons for using higher carbon steel, yet negate them with your methods.

[Brother_D]

I hate to break this angry tone you guys have, but you just complained about "spelling, grammer". lol

[vladj]

Me no rite gud, but me hamer hut metle gud! ;) Moonrabit: Yea good point about the tang being welded on. It's a bit hard to see in the pictures if it is welded but it just HAS to be arc welded on. Getting those sharp 90 degree angles is difficult and pointless with blacksmithing tools. likewise forge welding on a round tang or drawing out the tang and swaging it round are both difficult and pointless. Also the stub tang looks to be parallel with the line from point to hilt rather than with the curve of the blade as it approaches the hilt. That would be difficult and pointless to do on an anvil but really easy and natural to do on a computer when drawing the outline of a sword for a laser cutter.

[Kasaron]

Actually....making sharp angles just means you need a fuller and an anvil with a sharp angle. As for forge welding...with the proper materials and enough practice it's just another part of the work. Because you think it's difficult doesn't make it impractical, and that addition in quality is a massive plus. Besides, sharp 90 degree angles are weak links. Radii on the corners are less likely to chip, crack and/or snap completely. it only takes one minor structural failure to render a weapon/tool/structure/anything functionally useless, and potentially dangerous.