Craughfurd's Last Stand - FINAL PICTURES

ScottRoush

ScottRoush

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Jan 10, 2010
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My sixth great grandfather was Colonel William Crawford of the Craughfurd Clan of the Scottish Highlands.. sister clan to the Wallace. And this friend of George Washington (and notorious cause of the Moravian Indian massacre) just so happened to also be a grandfather of the wife of the man who commissioned this sword. Small world eh? So.. we dedicate this sword to that man.

It's a 32" backsword forged from Aldo 1075. 1/4" at the hilt with distal taper to fillet knife dimensions. A supreme cutter with lighting quick handling. At least it will be when done. This munition grade basket hilt is my first attempt at such a thing and proved to be a challenge. These early style, low grade baskets were made from cut iron plate which seemed like something I could handle. I do believe I've done it... but it wasn't easy. It will retain it's forged character but the edges will be polished up. The grip will be English walnut with wire wrapping.. and the pommel will be discoidal.

I hope to complete in the next several days... so a few more pics down the line....

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It looks great so far Scott! I really enjoy seeing the swords you've created. (Makes me jealous of your skills though... ;))
 
Thanks!

I thought folks might like to see how I fine tune the distal taper on such a thin, long blade. I learned this technique from Peter Johnsson and it's basically like tillering a bow. You flex it and look for stiff spots that get gently ground down. When you go through this process, you get a naturally even distal taper from guard to tip.

It will also tell you if you've blown your heat treat. :-)

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Scott,

You're too much. I can see the grin on your face off-screen while you're bending that sword.

John
 
Oh man Scott. That's too cool. I can't wait to see this one finished. Good on ya for doing that basket. Looks like a bear to pull off but it looks like you've got it.
 
Sign me up for your first damascus Longbow. :D
Seriously that is looking great, can't wait to see the finished product!
 
Thanks guys..

Ben... you've been reading my mind. You should see the stack of papers I have on making a damascus 'prod' for an early medieval crossbow.
 
Very impressive flex you've got there. I will be following this to see the final product.
 
Very nice work, Scott! Not that it detracts from the sword or the maker, but a right hand basket hilt models better if held in the right hand:p
I tried a proto mortuary style basket once from sheet stock, it was a challenge and taught me a thing or 2 about moving metal, and gave me another item to hang on my "wall of relics".
 
Scott Looking forward to seeing this one done and thanks for the tip on tillering it that makes a lot of sense.
 
Thanks again folks..... lots of work yet ahead of me. Hope to get more work done today.

Justin.. sorry about the modeling job.. but taking the picture with my left hand was too clumsy of an endeavor. :-)

And David.... the light really turned on for me when I learned that. Peter is going to blow away the sword world when his work on geometry gets published.
 
Thanks folks... Had to take a break for some house work. But I did some work on a bronze fitting for between the basket and the blade. More pictures tomorrow....

Red... Yeah.. This will be the first of a brace ordered by a gentleman. The second will be another basket hilt.. but the blade will be a double edged broadsword.
 
I finally uploaded the museum pictures of the type of sword this is derived from. These proto-mortuary/early basket hilts aren't things you see a lot of in the museums as they were considered 'munition grade' and were of generally poor quality and minimal craftsmanship. The customer was wanting more of a cutting than a thrusting blade.. so the profile on mine has more curvature and some flowing lines.

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You can see in the second picture how the knuckle bow and clam guard were forge welded together. My first version of this was done that way.. but I deformed it to such an extent that I decided to NOT do it on this version. On the second sword in this commission I'm going to give it another shot. The other option would be to do the entire thing from a single piece of plate....
 
I promise I will get back to this. I've been doing little things but nothing worthy of pictures. Although I did finally correct the last of the warp on the final temper cycle.

Here is what I was occupied with today... just for the sake of putting some pictures in the post.

A Viking war axe, a Viking socketed spear made from low carbon iron that will be carburized in a historical fashion, and a rondel dagger with twisted wire prepared for grip

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Here is the spear going into a canister with charcoal, leather and bone shavings:

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And a preview of the axe as it comes close to the finish line:

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