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My Most Complex Pattern-Welded Sword
A Day at the Forge documents a single day at the shop. This time, I am working on a complex pattern-welded sword that contains a core of 8 pattern-welded bars. Watch me forge-weld the core and then assemble the cutting edges to create the pre-form of what will become a majestic Viking-age inspired sword.
Turning Wagon Wheels into a Crucible Steel Knife
In this episode, we take wrought iron wagon wheels and turn them into steel by carburizing the iron via the crucible process. Watch me forge the resulting steel into a beautiful knife.
A reconstruction of the Wolf's Tooth Spear
Here is the first successful experiment in recreating the famous Finnish lance. The core of the spear consists of wrought iron which have been forge-welded to the spear socket. Twisted pattern-welded bar has then been attached to the core in another forge-welding pass. Finally, the outer higher-carbon steel has been prepared with a wolf's tooth pattern and then also attached via forge welding. Expect a video documenting the whole process.
Salvaging a Broken Wolf's Tooth Spear into a Beautiful Knife
Sometimes things break and sometimes they can be rescued. Watch me to turn a broken spear into a beautiful knife:
Wolf's Tooth Spear Update
It's been a while since I have updated the blog on my quest to construct a wolf's tooth spear. Here is the latest series of experiments. The basic approach is to take a bar of high-carbon tool steel and split it in the middle either with a bandsaw or by using a hot chisel. The drawback of the hot chisel is that it creates cuts that are not square. It requires the steel to be squared up afterwards with a file.
To create teeth in the high-carbon steel, I am using a double up chisel in which the cutting edge of the chisel points is about 1/8in apart. I do one pass in which each pair of teeth gets a couple hammer blows and then do another pass to square the teeth back up. Adjacent teeth tend to move a little bit when the next set of teeth is being created. The result looks as follows:
Afterwards, I forge wrought iron in a 3/8in square bar that is hot forged into the teeth. This can either happen with a hammer and a helper or by using a hydraulic press. The wrought iron needs to be hot and squishy. This creates matching impressions in the wrought iron. After cleaning up with a wire brush, the pieces are fit into each other and forge welded. This process needs to be done carefully since I don't want to draw out the steel. Here is one side after forge welding:
The resulting pattern looks very similar to original finds. Although the mono steel does not show any forging lines, the grain in the wrought iron, clearly shows the process:
Now, it's time to forge the spear for real.
To create teeth in the high-carbon steel, I am using a double up chisel in which the cutting edge of the chisel points is about 1/8in apart. I do one pass in which each pair of teeth gets a couple hammer blows and then do another pass to square the teeth back up. Adjacent teeth tend to move a little bit when the next set of teeth is being created. The result looks as follows:
Afterwards, I forge wrought iron in a 3/8in square bar that is hot forged into the teeth. This can either happen with a hammer and a helper or by using a hydraulic press. The wrought iron needs to be hot and squishy. This creates matching impressions in the wrought iron. After cleaning up with a wire brush, the pieces are fit into each other and forge welded. This process needs to be done carefully since I don't want to draw out the steel. Here is one side after forge welding:
The resulting pattern looks very similar to original finds. Although the mono steel does not show any forging lines, the grain in the wrought iron, clearly shows the process:
Now, it's time to forge the spear for real.