Oh yes, that's probably #3 or 4 on the project list. As it stands the plan is:
-Straighten the tang on an old scythe blade and forge weld a longer bit of steel to make a much longer tang (mounting that on a ~3' haft makes for a great brush/small tree clearing tool)
-Not entirely shitty knife
-Ballpeen hammer to Tomahawk conversion
-Actually decent knife
-Leaf spear head
-Kukri/falx style chopper
I don't know which will prove easier, a spearhead or knife... practically they seem like the same thing? It might be a matter of how well I can figure out a double edged blade geometry vs single edge.
I need to get a nicer belt sander/grinder set up before I do a longer blade since I don't want to be tearing all that material off by hand. I found some interesting "treadmill to grinder" conversion plans, and people around here give away exercise equipment a lot, so that might be a future project!
Rest assured, however, there will be swords in the future, unless I turn out to really suck at this, or mangle myself somehow. I've got three kids to arm, after all.
This is actually a really weird thing for someone else to be into. I've never really been able to actually do any forging/casting, but I spend an enormous amount of time thinking about inswool and cupola furnaces.
Hah, well yea, a little weird, but I suspect there is a bit of a connection between having weird "let's make things!" hobbies and being kind of a weird contrarian in general. I think the same impulse that tells you "I could do that, looks like of fun" also tells you "Nah, I don't think that's right, I can figure out a better answer." People with a do it yourself sort of spirit tend to do lots of things for themselves :)
If a sword is out of the question, I expect to see a spearhead at some point.
Oh yes, that's probably #3 or 4 on the project list. As it stands the plan is:
-Straighten the tang on an old scythe blade and forge weld a longer bit of steel to make a much longer tang (mounting that on a ~3' haft makes for a great brush/small tree clearing tool)
-Not entirely shitty knife
-Ballpeen hammer to Tomahawk conversion
-Actually decent knife
-Leaf spear head
-Kukri/falx style chopper
I don't know which will prove easier, a spearhead or knife... practically they seem like the same thing? It might be a matter of how well I can figure out a double edged blade geometry vs single edge.
I need to get a nicer belt sander/grinder set up before I do a longer blade since I don't want to be tearing all that material off by hand. I found some interesting "treadmill to grinder" conversion plans, and people around here give away exercise equipment a lot, so that might be a future project!
Rest assured, however, there will be swords in the future, unless I turn out to really suck at this, or mangle myself somehow. I've got three kids to arm, after all.
This is actually a really weird thing for someone else to be into. I've never really been able to actually do any forging/casting, but I spend an enormous amount of time thinking about inswool and cupola furnaces.
Hah, well yea, a little weird, but I suspect there is a bit of a connection between having weird "let's make things!" hobbies and being kind of a weird contrarian in general. I think the same impulse that tells you "I could do that, looks like of fun" also tells you "Nah, I don't think that's right, I can figure out a better answer." People with a do it yourself sort of spirit tend to do lots of things for themselves :)