A Few Pictures of my Short Sword

David Stifle

David Stifle

Joined
Nov 20, 2008
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A while back, I emailed Jimmy Fikes and got his ok to do a cloud cutter; it seems, however, I just can't bring myself to copy someone else's work. First, I decided to go with 5160, so no hamon. Second, while I kept the short blade, long handle design, my blade does not resemble Jimmy's blade.

The blade is 16.5" long, the handle is 16 inches. The tang has a temporary leather wrap, I intend to install wooden, probably ebony, slabs. Oh, and one last thing, I was determined the sword would have no straight lines. All in all, I'm quite pleased how it turned out, and it's an truely great cutter. All comments welcomed.
 

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Rolf, it takes a 2" dried hardwood branch in one swing, cuts one inch rope like thread; I'm amazed how much velocity and force I can get in a swing. It's like swinging a baseball bat, full force. I really like the short blade, long handle design.
 
Nice cutter David, I imagine tip speed is ferocious with arms extended.

Heck of a grind, I know.

Fred
 
Thanks Fred,

It is the first swept grind I've done. I'm amazed I didn't figure it out sooner. My equipement does not allow me to temper a blade, plus tang, of more than 20", so with a full 32 or so inches I was in a bind. I heated the long tang to red hot, bent the tang towards the end, and tempered in my kitchen oven with the bent tang. I then took the tempered blade out, re-heated the tang and staightened it. Sine I bent the tang towards the end, the blade didn't get hot at all. As a hobbyest with limited equipement, it's a nice solution to make a one heck of a cutter.
 
David, I like the blade lines and upswept tip. The "Zombie Slayer" handle isn't my thing ( just kidding about the name), but it seems to match the blade style. I would consider a soft wood core with a leather wrap over it. The grip will be much better than ebony.
 
Thanks Stacy,

Surely the short blade long handle design must have some historical counterpart? It's too efficient a design to simply be created to deal with those darned Canadian zombies we all know are going to sweep over our unprotected border soon.
 
Love it David! I have a similar length knife planned but with a regular length handle. Won't look half as bad ass as this one though. But I'll make sure to leave a few of those zombies across the border for you. ;)
 
Hi Patrice, glad you like it. I'm thinking of doing a two hand sword with a longer blade, as well as a standard handle blade with a 15 inch or so blade. Sorta the katana, waki, tanto theme, only along the lines of the sword I posted. As for the Zombies, I was just joking around, I think an old John Candy movie was faintly in my mind.
 
David Stifle said:
Thanks Stacy,

Surely the short blade long handle design must have some historical counterpart? It's too efficient a design to simply be created to deal with those darned Canadian zombies we all know are going to sweep over our unprotected border soon.
Click to expand...

Hi David,

Very nice work and, I’m sure, a fine cutter.

After I designed the jungle honey I was surprised that I was not able to find much at all, back at that time, in the way of historical counterparts for the short blade / long handle design. But that was back before all the information about everything that ever existed in the whole universe was available on the internet.:) If anyone does come up with historical counterparts I’d love to see them since i think they'd be neat. My personal feeling is that there is “little new under the sun” and I wouldn’t be surprised if this design concept has been “used, lost and rediscovered” countless times.

The design stemmed from my feeling that a lot of the blade on a sword sized weapon was wasted. Who cuts or whittles (by preference) with the area of a sword blade nearest the hand? Not me. So I decided to make that part of the blade into a handle so that the piece could be gripped at the balance point, or toward the butt end of the handle (with one hand or both) to get some reach. When gripped at the balance point, the blade user not only gets the weight (inertia) of the blade working for him, but the inertia of the handle as well. Blade goes down into a cut, handle goes up = inertial cutting power doubled. Simple concept but one that had eluded me.

I’ve always liked some of the shamshir blades with a widened tip, so used that design as a starting point for the jungle honey design.

Here’s a link to an example of the kind of blade I’m talking about:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14027

Jimmy
 
Hi Jimmy,

Thanks for the compliment. It is indeed a very good cutter, and I really like the design a lot. One of the things I struggled with was blade verus handle lenghts. I've looked and looked at the pictures of the Cloud Cutter and Dragonfly, and still intend to do my best to do one as perfectly as I can. I have no problem doing one, it's that blasted hamon! So beautiful, and so elusive. What was the blade verus handle lenghts of the Jungle Honeys?

Put me down as an admirer of your work, and glad you posted here.
 
I bet small trees are actually uprooting and taking off in the presence of this one!

Nice work!
 
David Stifle said:
Thanks Stacy,

Surely the short blade long handle design must have some historical counterpart? It's too efficient a design to simply be created to deal with those darned Canadian zombies we all know are going to sweep over our unprotected border soon.
Click to expand...

2 historic counterparts come to mind, the Dacian falx and the classic langsax and breitsax... here's a nice broadsax with a tang as long as the blade... compare with the swords on the far left...
Cool knife/sword...:)
 
GHEzell said:
2 historic counterparts come to mind, the Dacian falx and the classic langsax and breitsax... here's a nice broadsax with a tang as long as the blade... compare with the swords on the far left...
Cool knife/sword...:)
Click to expand...

I googled the Dacan falz, it is certainly a good historical counterpart to the jungle honey design. Thanks for the reference.

Maddog, a kukri with a long handle? Sure, sounds cool. I am thinking just the opposite though, an upswept persian blade with a long handle, which would make a fantasic slashing weapon.
 
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