3V bush dao WIP

crimsonfalcon07

crimsonfalcon07

Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
6,852
Got a start on a new short sword design. This one is influenced by the Chinese Dao. It will have a pinned guard (possibly damascus), and dyed maple burl handle scales. I'm still trying to decided if I want to do hidden tang, because I ground the handle a little thinner than I had intended. It's about right with the temp cord wrap. It's 24" OAL, 6" handle, 17" blade.

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I like the blade shape, and the fuller.

If it were for me, I would ask for the points on the guard to be softened. Looks like it should be a great cutter. Is it a single handed or two handed grip?
 
Designed for a single hand, but with enough space to do two if needed for a particular cut.

As usual, those fullers are done by hand with an angle grinder, hence the rough look.
 
On an unrelated note, here's one of the gladii I'm working on for a fellow forumite. I think I've gotten a bit better with my leatherworking. This one is dyed mahogany, and is water resistant.

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that gladius is sweet. I don't think i love the guard shape, but you did great with that blade. How heavy is it? The only thing i didn't love about the busse gladius is that it was too heavy to be fast.
 
Honestly, I have no way to weigh it. It's not a wakizashi, that's for sure. But it's still light enough to be fairly quick. Not as fast as the mini-dao is going to be, but it's fairly lively.
 
Crim, that Mini Dao turned out nice! The blade shape is great.
I would almost say grind down the guard and tang and make it a traditional tang and handle, it looks great as is though.
 
Time for another update. About done with one, which will go up in the Exchange after I make some pants for it and put on a convex edge. This one is Aldo's CPM 3V, heat treated using Dan Keffeler's method by Peters Heat Treat (thanks again to Dan for the help, advice, and permission to use his HT methods; Dan is one heck of a guy). It's 24" OAL, with a 16.75" blade, and is 3/16" thick stock. Scotchbrite finish (mirror polish on 3V would make me want to cry, I think). Handle scales are bocote, finished to 2500 grit, with brass lanyard tube and guard, and steel pins. Khukuri-inspired pommel, but more modern handle design to accompany it, which does a good job of locking the blade into one's hand, even covered in oil. POB is 1.125" up from the guard, and about 2.5" up from the pointer finger. I'm quite happy with the balance on this one. I'm trying to decide whether a little design on the guard would be advantageous. The brass and bocote makes me think of tigers...

Blade first:



Dead on:



The handle:



In hand:



What do you think? Design on guard or plain? I'm planning on a simple leather scabbard.
 
I don't have a good way to measure weight, but it's certainly under 2 pounds. Whether it's under 1, I'm not sure, but I kinda doubt it. It's a pretty big blade, all things considered. I need to find some way to weigh these things...
 
That's a ways off. I've got a katana-like blade planned, but I still have never made a hidden tang blade. I'm not sure how I'd go about making the handle for a more traditional katana, and don't have the skill set yet for that. For that matter, I haven't done guards katana style. I've tried, and my tooling didn't work as well as I'd have liked. Maybe in a year or two I'll have the skill set and tools to pull off a katana.
 
Hey CF, i'm thinking about doing a Youtube video about "Tactical swords" as practical survival tools. I'm looking for some good submissions to add to the few i have on hand. If you want to, I'd love to see a few of your blades on my video. I'm going to be doing some outdoor testing for chopping, cutting, and general survival skills with an eye to a "SHTF" type blade that doubles as a quality weapon.

I'll also be doing a detailed review of each blade... might be good advertising ;)
 
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