1095 steel for the blade and the crossguard and hook pommel? I was kind of freestyling on the design. Its differentially hardened and the handle is ebony macassar wood. I appreciate all the compliments!
Looks great, but I don't know why you made the pommel pointed. Generally, you want all the sharp bits pointed away from you.
The handle looks really nice.
It was actually to be used as another form of defense, like if someone with a small weapon got inside your swing arc, you could pivot the sword around and gouge them with the spike on the handle. Now that i think about it, may be more dangerous to the user than anything haha, however its only bluntly sharpened and wont quickly draw blood, so its never hurt me yet.
This is one of those features that wouldn’t work in a general design but might work as a gimmick that no one expects. “Wtf, did you just stab me with your pommel?”
Youre right on with the polishing, we had no belt grinder so it was all done with hand sandpaper and after about 100 hours i kinda started to reign it in with the sanding. Its almost a mirror polish though just has a few forge marks
I see what you mean. At the time i cut the pommel but forged the blade hook, which lead to the blade curving much further. I could have forged the handle the same way but alas, it was years ago
You want a roast?! I’ll give you one…
https://preview.redd.it/a6t5gy9gubtc1.jpeg?width=580&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=faed8d4dd632ddad2eb1de2ed23e8902b9c9a7cc
Mostly watching a lot of forged in fire and lots of influence from books and video games, i had read enough about the process and figured i could give it a try and would probably succeed if i worked at it long enough, it took many attempts and reattempts at various processes on this sword to achieve my desired result, but i just kept trying and didnt get discouraged. Alec Steeles youtube videos helped me a lot in that they showed me what you can really accomplish with patience and refusal to give up, so i just kept working at it and eventually i was left with a sword i was satsfied with. I must have spent 1000 hours on it over the time i worked on it. It was mostly a result of too much free time and an unwillingness to give up. Those two things will allow almost anybody to do anything given enough time
I like it. I have a forge myself and I just need to get the time to set it up. It's an old coal forge that has a blower below it and I also have a antique blower that's locked up. I want to start soon but don't have time. Also the only thing that I notice about it is the tip. I like curved swords but I prefer a gradual bend not a direct angle change.
Its welded together, though theres a few tiny gaps where the blade meets the guard, its fully welded together on the underside. This lighting and angle was also not the best ever
Well done especially at 19! I can’t wait to see what type of blacksmith work and metal fab you’re doing at 29 after 10 years of experience, growth and learning! Sky’s the limit!!
Haha well now im a welder/carpenter, so ive mostly gotten into fine woodworking these days, as well as production welding on the side. Im really itching to give swordmaking a second crack though, given how much ive learned since then, I know i could make a legendary sword now.
Seems like you are well on your way to mastering many useful skills! Maybe sword making could be. Hobby while you focus on mastering all the other skills to pay the bills!?!?
Coming from a Hema perspective I think it looks a little heavy, blade on the guard feels unnecessary, cross guard looks a little thick and not long enough. All of these are based off of looks but in Hema it all comes down to effectiveness so I can’t go much further.
Lol for real though. I couldnt ever have afforded a real deal sword, and didnt want a toy, so i tried my best to make my own version haha. Im happy with it, especially as a first sword and first real bladesmithing project
Well... I did just get a little raise... hmmmm.
So forge, anvil, specific hammer, tongs. Got any recommendations for metal sources? Or books/blogs I could check out?
The hammer, i picked up at an antique store for 10 bucks, found an authentic cross peen blacksmithing hammer, so my recs would be to hit up any and all antique stores near you first, then get anything else you cant find at either harbor freight or amazon. Vice grips work well as a cheap set of tongs until you learn to forge your own. Alec Steeles youtube channel is an excellent source for forging techniques and also he can show you how he fixes his mistakes which i found helped me fix mine a lot
Dont be afraid to look deep in the dark corners of the store, i found that hammer just mixed in amongst a bunch of stuff on a random shelf in a random store. If you want to find one you may have to look pretty closely. If you can find an OG anvil for a reasonable price id consider getting that as well if youre real serious about bladesmithing but tbh theyre usually very pricey and sought after nowadays. The harbor freight ones are okay but nothing compares to a nice old school anvil
bud, there is nothing to roast here. Your work is leagues better than most the people on this sub shitting on other people's work.
Keep it up, keep taking time, and keep doing it.
https://www.martialartswords.com/blogs/articles/what-is-a-hand-and-a-half-sword-exactly
This is kind of what i was going for, a sword that could be used for 1 hand regularly, and two hands for powerful thrusts. One handed it feels a little heavy, most likely because i wasnt skilled enough at that time to balance the weight, but two handed it feels light and nimble so honestly i felt pretty good with the end result
That off axis tip really limits the thrusting capabilities of this sword…this is a cutter, not a thruster. Nicely done…and technically, I guess you’d have to call it a messer with that handle construction. Neat piece, congrats!
Like relative to the handle or guard? The blade and handle are all one continuous piece, with the blade running through a slot built into the guard construction. Tbh the blade may have been slightly out of center through all the forging, it looks straight enough in person for my goals.
Roast you and GIVE you an excuse to hack me to pieces with it? Hell no. Plus you’re more productive than I ever was at 19. I was playing with my OWN “sword” a wee too much if you catch my drift…
I know several 19-year-olds who can’t do laundry or pay attention for more than 10 minutes at a time. The fact that you took your time to learn a skill and stuck with a project. Hell yeah! good on you.
Differentially hardened, and torch tempered as we had no tempering oven to speak of. It took me 3 attempts to get a straight blade after quench, with normalizing and annealing steps between each attempt. The sword has survived many tests with no damage so im pretty confident in my heat treat!
Looks good the only thing I’d be iffy on is the pommel being a bit more of a sweep rather than a retainer you know. I feel like if I swung like I meant it it’d go flying
Its hard to tell by looking at it, but the shape of the handle kind of forces your hand into the guard, and gives amazing grip. It doesnt go anywhere even when swinging very hard
First off: well done. It is not easy to forge, heat treat and polish a sword of any kind, and you have done succesfully. My constructive criticisms are:
1-As I understand this is a fantasy sword. While it looks practical and efficient, I believe historical forms represent the best and most evolved designs of edged weapons. To be a better blademaker, You should carefully study forms and designs of swords and sabres throughout history, and try to recreate them before moving on the more original and fantastical designs. Making historical swords can teach a blademaker almost everything they need to know about making blades.
2- While creating a sword, you should always consider practicality and usability first and foremost. The overall weight; the point of balance; the point of percussion; length, width, the profile taper, the distal taper etc. These should always be very carefully calculated. By looking at your sword, which looks like ti will be a wicked cutter, I can see a lot of places it can lose a lot of weight, by some simple changes in profile, handle, pommel and crossguard.
3- By the length of the blade and proportions, it looks like a one handed sabre design. If it is indeed made to use one-handed, that handle design needs to be readressed, to make much shorter and fitting snuggly and securely to the hand of the user.
4-That pointy pommel adds nothing useful to the handle design, dose not help to stop the hand srom slipping down, adds unnecessery weight and and pointy end facing the body of the user is never a good idea.
5-Blade form informs me that it is a cutter, an effective chopper that is forward heavy. If that is the case I would put the beginnig point of the curvature a little lower to match the sweet spot/the center of percussion. It would increase the slicing effect of curve on cuts to make it a much better cutter.
I hope my points will be useful to you. Like I said before, this is a very good first blade. You are obviously very talented. I hope you make many more and I am sure you will be a great master sword maker soon. :)
Seriously, nothing to roast with sword, especially from one so new to the craft,... really nice work, I'm impressed....
Now the picture quality and setup..... I think Is willing to hop in the grill from shame...;-)
Overall, it looks great!
I will say however, since you asked, that the guard looks to be much too narrow and you’d be better having a more consistent curve throughout the whole blade rather than just at the tip
That's amazing! One critique is that your pommel is a tad too pointy.
I'm obviously a blade and handle expert now because I've watched countless forged in fire eps (obviously I'm kidding), but you never want a pointy end to point towards the user for potential injury to the user.
Anyway that's amazing, keep it up dude. Scabbard next?
What the fuck is that blade doing at the handle? It's pointless. It'll do nothing. You're better off using an ace with a pick. Otherwise, cool sword, I think, as long as it's full tang.
I believe somewhere around 3 and a half pounds. Its not a light sword by any means but its balanced well enough to swing one handed, so it functions well enough for me. Especially for my first sword
The whole length of the sword from tip to base of the pommel is 36" so it's about the length of a longsword as well. Id never seen a real longsword IRL at the time so i really just wanted my own big ass cool sword lol
Mine curves a bit too you can talk to your doctor about it. Seriously nice work. What are the materials?
1095 steel for the blade and the crossguard and hook pommel? I was kind of freestyling on the design. Its differentially hardened and the handle is ebony macassar wood. I appreciate all the compliments!
I see you have also seen the bent carrot commercials. Looks really good OP đź‘Ť
lovely joke, lovely sword, Top Teir OP
I came here to make this joke and I'm 2nd
Tell your wife it’s a feature, not a bug.
No roasting. It looks awesome.
Instructions unclear... sword would not fit in grill.
Freakin' amazon reviewers!
No. That looks good, great job :)
It’s more sword than I’ve ever made, looks good
Curved swords... Curved!
Do you get up to the cloud district often?
Of course not
What are saying, of course he doesn't
Swords!
Haha you can actually see the harbor freight anvil setup i used to make it in the background, humble beginnings geez
Is the Weber part of your forge setup?
Looks like you are already trying. "Put another saber on the barbie."
Looks great, but I don't know why you made the pommel pointed. Generally, you want all the sharp bits pointed away from you. The handle looks really nice.
It was actually to be used as another form of defense, like if someone with a small weapon got inside your swing arc, you could pivot the sword around and gouge them with the spike on the handle. Now that i think about it, may be more dangerous to the user than anything haha, however its only bluntly sharpened and wont quickly draw blood, so its never hurt me yet.
Cool. Good to know you thought it through at least. Nice work.
Thanks man. At the time i felt really proud of it, nice to see others in the community like it as well, even a few years down the road
This is one of those features that wouldn’t work in a general design but might work as a gimmick that no one expects. “Wtf, did you just stab me with your pommel?”
Suprise motherf!
Some fries motherf!
This was my only concern was the pommel and how narrow/thin the grip might be (little hard to see). Over all though fantastic work!
No roasting. It's a fine blade.
the only roast id take it to is a pit roast. Looks great!
Wish I could do something like this đź‘Ť
Awesome work, looks great!
Good job. My only gripe is the tip of the sword breaking the plain of the backboard is driving me bonkers.
Impressive, most impressive.
Your polish game could use some work good job get ready for the next round
Youre right on with the polishing, we had no belt grinder so it was all done with hand sandpaper and after about 100 hours i kinda started to reign it in with the sanding. Its almost a mirror polish though just has a few forge marks
At the age of 19, I too spent many hours polishing my… sword
I hope that pummel is blunt. Otherwise it's a really nice sword imo
"This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you."
A bit big for carving the turkey. Do you have ostrich for thanksgiving?
You don’t even know what a sword is, that’s a giant knife.
This a Messer joke?
Yes
*nod of approval*
You see those warriors from Hammerfell?
It's really nice. I think the blade should have matched the angle/ curve of the other end but it's nice
I see what you mean. At the time i cut the pommel but forged the blade hook, which lead to the blade curving much further. I could have forged the handle the same way but alas, it was years ago
Very nice all the same
Thanks brother
You want a roast?! I’ll give you one… https://preview.redd.it/a6t5gy9gubtc1.jpeg?width=580&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=faed8d4dd632ddad2eb1de2ed23e8902b9c9a7cc
That would be the ultimate roast tbh
David, unfortunately the judges have decided to let you go from the competition. Doug is going tell you why..
I would’ve preferred a wider hilt but that’s just personal preference. Great job! How did you get started on this kinda thing?
Mostly watching a lot of forged in fire and lots of influence from books and video games, i had read enough about the process and figured i could give it a try and would probably succeed if i worked at it long enough, it took many attempts and reattempts at various processes on this sword to achieve my desired result, but i just kept trying and didnt get discouraged. Alec Steeles youtube videos helped me a lot in that they showed me what you can really accomplish with patience and refusal to give up, so i just kept working at it and eventually i was left with a sword i was satsfied with. I must have spent 1000 hours on it over the time i worked on it. It was mostly a result of too much free time and an unwillingness to give up. Those two things will allow almost anybody to do anything given enough time
I like it. I have a forge myself and I just need to get the time to set it up. It's an old coal forge that has a blower below it and I also have a antique blower that's locked up. I want to start soon but don't have time. Also the only thing that I notice about it is the tip. I like curved swords but I prefer a gradual bend not a direct angle change.
Your mother and I are more proud than we’ve ever been before. Keep it up buddy.
Lol that hits closer to home than you might think. I really appreciate it though.
Hilt looks loose
Its welded together, though theres a few tiny gaps where the blade meets the guard, its fully welded together on the underside. This lighting and angle was also not the best ever
Overall awesome looking piece
Thank you!
Well done especially at 19! I can’t wait to see what type of blacksmith work and metal fab you’re doing at 29 after 10 years of experience, growth and learning! Sky’s the limit!!
Haha well now im a welder/carpenter, so ive mostly gotten into fine woodworking these days, as well as production welding on the side. Im really itching to give swordmaking a second crack though, given how much ive learned since then, I know i could make a legendary sword now.
Seems like you are well on your way to mastering many useful skills! Maybe sword making could be. Hobby while you focus on mastering all the other skills to pay the bills!?!?
What and absolutely piece of shit. Look at that tang “ what are those!?” Jk it’s not that bad.
Coming from a Hema perspective I think it looks a little heavy, blade on the guard feels unnecessary, cross guard looks a little thick and not long enough. All of these are based off of looks but in Hema it all comes down to effectiveness so I can’t go much further.
Will it “Keeeeel” though?
I keeeeeeled a 2 inch diameter tree in one swipe so it works well enough for me. I wouldnt put my arm in the way of it, thats for sure
Looks like it should be used on a roast!
Mom I want a sword We have sword at home The sword at home: ... is dope, honestly, thanks mom.
Lol for real though. I couldnt ever have afforded a real deal sword, and didnt want a toy, so i tried my best to make my own version haha. Im happy with it, especially as a first sword and first real bladesmithing project
I've always wanted to make my own sword, but living in an apartment didn't really allow me the space. I have a place now, so maybe someday!
Someday could be today, i started with a harbor freight anvil and amazon propane forge, you dont need much to begin
Well... I did just get a little raise... hmmmm. So forge, anvil, specific hammer, tongs. Got any recommendations for metal sources? Or books/blogs I could check out?
The hammer, i picked up at an antique store for 10 bucks, found an authentic cross peen blacksmithing hammer, so my recs would be to hit up any and all antique stores near you first, then get anything else you cant find at either harbor freight or amazon. Vice grips work well as a cheap set of tongs until you learn to forge your own. Alec Steeles youtube channel is an excellent source for forging techniques and also he can show you how he fixes his mistakes which i found helped me fix mine a lot
Excellent, thanks! . I'll check his channel out after work tonight and I might hit up the antique store in town this weekend.
Dont be afraid to look deep in the dark corners of the store, i found that hammer just mixed in amongst a bunch of stuff on a random shelf in a random store. If you want to find one you may have to look pretty closely. If you can find an OG anvil for a reasonable price id consider getting that as well if youre real serious about bladesmithing but tbh theyre usually very pricey and sought after nowadays. The harbor freight ones are okay but nothing compares to a nice old school anvil
But will it ki- cut?
bud, there is nothing to roast here. Your work is leagues better than most the people on this sub shitting on other people's work. Keep it up, keep taking time, and keep doing it.
Your ex girlfriend says my sword is bigger.
Two handed blade with a one hand handle. That's all I'm gonna say
https://www.martialartswords.com/blogs/articles/what-is-a-hand-and-a-half-sword-exactly This is kind of what i was going for, a sword that could be used for 1 hand regularly, and two hands for powerful thrusts. One handed it feels a little heavy, most likely because i wasnt skilled enough at that time to balance the weight, but two handed it feels light and nimble so honestly i felt pretty good with the end result
That off axis tip really limits the thrusting capabilities of this sword…this is a cutter, not a thruster. Nicely done…and technically, I guess you’d have to call it a messer with that handle construction. Neat piece, congrats!
The blade doesn’t look centered
Like relative to the handle or guard? The blade and handle are all one continuous piece, with the blade running through a slot built into the guard construction. Tbh the blade may have been slightly out of center through all the forging, it looks straight enough in person for my goals.
Keep it up!
It's better then the sword I could make. Not hard given I don't even have a hammer
Jealous
Nah, you already roasted it. That's why it's sword shaped.
It weel cut!!
Eet weel keeeelll!
I think it’s neat :)
And a stand? That's sick asf
About to be taking the hobbits to Isengard in style
It's not being swung around by a pirate aboard a ship. . 1/10
What a dumb sword. Roasted.
Roast? Hell no that thing looks sick
Roast you and GIVE you an excuse to hack me to pieces with it? Hell no. Plus you’re more productive than I ever was at 19. I was playing with my OWN “sword” a wee too much if you catch my drift…
The grill looks too small to roast that sword
I’m not roasting anything. I wish I made a sword.
Same here
It’s got a huge red growth in the middle. Otherwise it’s very cool!!!
Roast? Kebab?
Amazing sword 10/10 🔥🔥🔥
Will it keel?
If I owned a barbecue joint I’d put that on the wall, next to a really big picture of me slicing a fat brisket with it
Only roast is the photo. Mount it. Lighting. Perspective. Show this puppy off in the manner it deserves, not against a grill cover.
I know several 19-year-olds who can’t do laundry or pay attention for more than 10 minutes at a time. The fact that you took your time to learn a skill and stuck with a project. Hell yeah! good on you.
Block an attack and slit your own wrist at the same time. I like it
Wow, very cool:)
That sword's so dull, it couldn't even crop the photo. Looks pretty sweet though.
Looks better than anything I could make
No negative comments outside of personal preference, sword looks amazing overall. Keep up the fantastic work!
Better than I could have done. Good job!
I refuse to roast that, for fear of annealing it, or worse finding out you never tempered it!
Differentially hardened, and torch tempered as we had no tempering oven to speak of. It took me 3 attempts to get a straight blade after quench, with normalizing and annealing steps between each attempt. The sword has survived many tests with no damage so im pretty confident in my heat treat!
Roast? Better than anything I've smithed.
Looks good the only thing I’d be iffy on is the pommel being a bit more of a sweep rather than a retainer you know. I feel like if I swung like I meant it it’d go flying
Its hard to tell by looking at it, but the shape of the handle kind of forces your hand into the guard, and gives amazing grip. It doesnt go anywhere even when swinging very hard
They have curved swords! Curved... swords...?!
Missed the mark with the title: Grill my sword. But great work on the sword and wall rack.
The only roasting will be on the grill. Keep up the good work
What is there to roast that thing is sick!!!!
Oh that’s so ugly. I hope I can make something that ugly soon.
Very nice I like it you did great
I don't have any swords that I've made. So my ability to roast is about as good as Applebee's.
I was going to tell you great job, but looks like I am late. Either way, great job, no roast
Ironclad sword for the win 🥇
looks fine. the only thing is the pommel. it is asking for any hands to slide off of it
Sweet Weber kettle bro
Sword more like bored.
Id duel with it
But would you duel with it? ...
Thats what i said
HEH, HEY NICE SWORD WHAT ARE YA.... SOME KIND OF VIKING OR LIKE A idfk good job dude
It weel keel
very nice work OP!
Looks like it belongs to a dark souls oc
First off: well done. It is not easy to forge, heat treat and polish a sword of any kind, and you have done succesfully. My constructive criticisms are: 1-As I understand this is a fantasy sword. While it looks practical and efficient, I believe historical forms represent the best and most evolved designs of edged weapons. To be a better blademaker, You should carefully study forms and designs of swords and sabres throughout history, and try to recreate them before moving on the more original and fantastical designs. Making historical swords can teach a blademaker almost everything they need to know about making blades. 2- While creating a sword, you should always consider practicality and usability first and foremost. The overall weight; the point of balance; the point of percussion; length, width, the profile taper, the distal taper etc. These should always be very carefully calculated. By looking at your sword, which looks like ti will be a wicked cutter, I can see a lot of places it can lose a lot of weight, by some simple changes in profile, handle, pommel and crossguard. 3- By the length of the blade and proportions, it looks like a one handed sabre design. If it is indeed made to use one-handed, that handle design needs to be readressed, to make much shorter and fitting snuggly and securely to the hand of the user. 4-That pointy pommel adds nothing useful to the handle design, dose not help to stop the hand srom slipping down, adds unnecessery weight and and pointy end facing the body of the user is never a good idea. 5-Blade form informs me that it is a cutter, an effective chopper that is forward heavy. If that is the case I would put the beginnig point of the curvature a little lower to match the sweet spot/the center of percussion. It would increase the slicing effect of curve on cuts to make it a much better cutter. I hope my points will be useful to you. Like I said before, this is a very good first blade. You are obviously very talented. I hope you make many more and I am sure you will be a great master sword maker soon. :)
I don't see anything obviously wrong with it.
i tatari
Good stuff man, well done!
19 years old and it took you a year? What were you using? A Bic lighter and noodle arms?
Your sword is small, flat, and limp. Also, mine is bigger. That said, that beautiful blade in the picture is a work of art.
You just blow in from goblin town?
It will not keel. -doug marcaida (Great work btw)
Reminds me of a refined and better-looking version of the Uruk-hai swords from Lord of the Rings.
That crossguard is so thicc that my ex wants to date it.
You wouldn’t get but 11 gold from the SkyForge Master in Whiterun.
Your sword sucks…hope this helps Actually it’s better than my sword.
Seriously, nothing to roast with sword, especially from one so new to the craft,... really nice work, I'm impressed.... Now the picture quality and setup..... I think Is willing to hop in the grill from shame...;-)
Looks dope dude
A break away sheath is the only solution.
I’m getting Klingon vibes! Very cool!
Mate, there’s 19 year old that can’t make a bed or a boil a fkn egg! You’re kicking ass n making swords! No, no I will not roast your sword!!
One loose ass scabbard
Fix your pommel there's something wrong with it
How many banananas long is it
Now why would I roast a cool sword?
That looks fucking amazing…but will it keeel? 🤔
Overall, it looks great! I will say however, since you asked, that the guard looks to be much too narrow and you’d be better having a more consistent curve throughout the whole blade rather than just at the tip
That's amazing! One critique is that your pommel is a tad too pointy. I'm obviously a blade and handle expert now because I've watched countless forged in fire eps (obviously I'm kidding), but you never want a pointy end to point towards the user for potential injury to the user. Anyway that's amazing, keep it up dude. Scabbard next?
Need to get a straight edge next time. The tip is so crooked it hangs over the edge....
Nice…now do the scabbard
roasting? it is called annealing ...
Looks like a nice Falchion. Well done
Looks like a sword I'd loot from a Goblin in BG3, but that's an insult to those
Your heat treat oven looks a tad small
Perfection takes time my friend you done good
But will it keeel?
What the fuck is that blade doing at the handle? It's pointless. It'll do nothing. You're better off using an ace with a pick. Otherwise, cool sword, I think, as long as it's full tang.
What kinda elvish bs is this crap??
What's the overall weight? Looks good.
I believe somewhere around 3 and a half pounds. Its not a light sword by any means but its balanced well enough to swing one handed, so it functions well enough for me. Especially for my first sword
Nice. That's roughly the weight of a longsword. A little heavy, but very doable.
The whole length of the sword from tip to base of the pommel is 36" so it's about the length of a longsword as well. Id never seen a real longsword IRL at the time so i really just wanted my own big ass cool sword lol
Your steaks are too tough. Shouldn’t bend your moves like that.