Curvature for 30" sword in HT

Colin KC

Colin KC

<B><FONT color="red" size="6">Daniel Watson Is My
Joined
Dec 28, 2002
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279
Hi guys, I have a question:

What would the predicted (guesstimate) curvature of a 30" kite cross section, clay backed blade be?

I'm looking to make it straight & see hat sort of curve I get (I'd like a subtle curve)

It'd be a med carbon steel @ 3/16" thick.


Any eduated guesses would be cool.


TIA


Colin
 
Originally posted by ESpy
Variables, variables. What's the quenchant, Colin? Water?

Peter
Click to expand...

Peter, Peter, Peter.

I was trying to keep it a secret from you guys (silly me:rolleyes: )

It'll be water prolly, mebbe brine:eek:

Also, the blade will have a slight taper (mainly to add a reduction in width towards the tip) This might have some bearing on the movement of steel too.

Actual blade length will be @ 24" (30" o/all)
 
You can run, but... :)

I can only parrot what I've heard, I haven't actually tried this yet.

Peter
 
I did some reading about this on Don Fogg's site. He said that the amount of curve you get depends on the type of steel and type of quenchant used. I believe that he said 1080 done in water would curve about 3/4 of a inch in a blade the size of a katana. I will check and see if I can find the link to the post.
 
MS Wally Hayes has a VHS video that shows the interrupted water quenching of a straight-ground clay-coated katana. The first quench it looks like the tip bows downward about an inch as the edge cools and contracts. The second dip and the tip appears to traverse about 2" as the spine cools, and is more than an inch above centerline after cooled. Pretty awesome to watch just how much curvature occurred overall.

BTW, he said substantial warpage is inevitable, and can take up to a week to straighten in a vise-jig he has made up.

Neat thing about the video is that Wally/"Jimi" apparently plays the guitar sound-over and even gives us a little SRV-esque rock at the end showing him and his Strat with backup from his apprentices!
 
Thanks guys,

Mark, I'd heard from someone about the problems with slow quenching mediums, thanks for the link.

Mike, I may get the Wally Hayes Vid then, any ideas where I can find it?

I'm going to a hammer in next Easter time, hopefully some questions get answered there to;)

Thanks again guys

Colin
 
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