A highlight of Blade, a request and a story and Pics you will never see again

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here the billet will be heated and hammered until he can be make long enough to be a sword.

 

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Here Master Chen will hammer the blade straight and shape the tip and blade

he is sitting beside the oven and he will heat the blade a little then hammer it.

 

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In this photo Master Chen is shaping the blade. He has to use the high carbon steel to cover the tip that can expose the low carbon steel in the core.

So he will hammer the high carbon by hand around the tip so it is all high carbon and hard. The tip is important it will be used to pierce so it must be hard and strong.

 

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Here the steel has been hand hammered out into a sword shape. now it will be finished more.

 

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Now the first step from here is to use a water stone to grind it slow and refine the shape.

This machine in the picture is motor driven but it can be hand or foot powered. It turns about 180 rpm so it is slow and will not heat the steel. It was handmade by Master Chen

The next picture is what the sword looks like after this water stone process.

 

[ArchAngel]

Ren,
Thanks for posting this thread. That is an awesome knife you were given!
3_hard_boiled_eggs, you are giving a wonderful insight into the intensive process of making this steel. Thank You Sir!
I sure would love to see a nice large bowie with natural wood handle material.
That would be a dream knife to me.+1
Keep going guys, this thread is great.:thumbup:

 

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I will endeavor to produce said knife for your viewing.

But steel and time is a factor. i have to get a design that i like or make one that will appeal to someone. steel is not a medium that is easily changed after set to a pattern. as you can see the steel take lots of steps to produce.

then hand ground and hand polished takes more time.

thanks

if you have a generic pattern you would like please send it to me. we don't want to step on anyone toes with the same pattern. i will make a attempt at a knife for you.

since we do one offs its not difficult to do. provided the time is there.

enjoy the photos by way of ren the trail boss

 

[Ren the devils trailboss]

picking up for Bobby ( we are tag teaming this thread) more shaping of the blade..a painstaking process..

 

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in the previous photos master chen is Hammering the Sword straight. he wants it as straight as a laser. it takes time to do it and a lot of hammering.

 

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Me and Ren got out of sync here and missed a step.

Before the hammering you saw in the photos just before this post was the preparation for the heat treating and the heat treating its self.

I want to insert these photos here now. So these steps precede the hammering photos posted last.

In these photos master chen will start with his clay mixture. It will have sand, clay and charcoal powder for coating the blade to protect it during the heat treating process.

he will mix it with water and apply it to the blade to protect it.

master chen then applies the charcoal powder to blade. this will do a couple of things. one it will burn hotter in the heat treating process and it will make a different hardness in the area on the blade. this will cause the hamon to change

 

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this set of photos show the heat treating process

it is done with charcoal that is hand picked if it is too large it will burn too slow and will be not hot enough if it is too small it will burn to fast and be too hot. so the right size is important.

master chen does this at night. this way he can look into the steel when it is red hot and see the color. he uses no temperature gauges all is done my hand and eye.

this photo shows master chen ready to insert the sword. his son is raking the coals to make the heat more even. needless to say it is hot work.

master chen will weld a handle to the butt end of the sword so he can insert it into the fire completely.


PS: you can not see in these photos that i am a long way away with a long camera lens. I do not like the hot fire or the sparks that come off of it. as you can see master chen has a head scarf to protect his hair from the sparks.

 

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here master chen has decided the sword is ready and is removing it from the fire. the flash on the camera lights up the photo and we do not see what master chen sees. he looks into the steel and judges it ready. no photo can capture that

please notice the red lines still burning on the blade. that is the charcoal he applied to the blade.

master chen here will put the blade all at once into the water. sometimes he will hold it in for 2 seconds or 10 seconds before sticking it in the water. he wants to judge the right time by the color of the steel when it is hot. this is the right time to cool it. also you can still see the charcoal lines still burning on the blade even after it is removed from the fire.

here master chen holds the blade under the water. if you look close you can still see the charcoal lines are still red even under the water.

 

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Here master chen is looking at the sword. you can see the blade is bent.

go back and look at the photo before the quenching and you will see it was straight. the clay protected the spine and let the edge get hotter. the spine is also thicker and will not expand as the thin edge will.

master chen holds the blade for the photo. you can still see the clay and charcoal still on the blade

 

[Ren the devils trailboss]

Keep staying tuned...Bobby is on a trip and will return. I have the same pictures on file but at this stage in the sword making process Bobby will do a better job of explaining as he sees this almost every day.

 

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After the Sword is made straight begins the polishing.

all this is done by hand. there is 7 stones that each sword must go though.

all is Japanese water stones.

one stone will begin with the 90 degree polishing action to the direction of the stone. then the next one will be polished at a 45 degree angle so you can see where you have been and where you are polishing. the 45 degree marks on the blade will be polished off by the next stone at 90. each one changing 45 degrees.

this will progress to the 7th stone.

 

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The sword after the last stone

 

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Finger rubbing with cotton and a drop of oil

here the surface of the sword is rubbed with a cotton ball and a drop of oil for a few days.

after so long of rubbing the steel with nothing but a drop of oil and a cotton ball small particles of the steel will rub off and get into the cotton ball. this then is steel on steel rubbing.

master chen says that each square inch of the blade must be rubbed 10,000 times or he does not think the beauty of the steel will come out.

even in this photo you can begin to see the hamon come out. look below the hand where he is rubbing and you can see the circles in the steel.

 

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Now comes the 3000 grit sand and water.

master chen will begin with 3000 grit sand and water and then he will cut a small button sized stone.

he will touch the water with his thumb then touch the sword. with his thumb still wet he will touch the 3000 grit powder and touch the sword again.

then the small stone he has cut the size of a button he will touch it and the water still on his thumb will make the stone stick to his thumb. then he will rub the sword in very short movements.

later when the whole sword is polished with a 3000 grit he will change to a 6000 grit and do the same process over again.

in this photo you can see the hamon clearly now. he will polish each square inch of the sword searching for patterns in the steel. since the blade has 1.3 mil layers he can polish through each layer and expose things like clouds and dragons. mountains and rivers.

the more patterns he can find in the steel the higher the value of the sword will bring when sold.

so master chen will sit for days and polish a sword like this. he will work for 3 to 5 hours and rest some. then do it again. master chen works about 16 hours a day at this

 

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Polishing the Blade is finished. now master chen will use a tool to scratch the blade's top bevel and it will be like a mirror.

on this picture you can see the hamon easy.

 

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Master Chen marks all his blades this way. he chisels it in the handle and it will be covered by the wooden handle with ray skin.