Cutlass build - Group WIP

[Darrin Sanders]

I was afraid that 1.625" wouldn't feel right in the hand. I'm gonna do a mock, down and dirty handle out of some scrap pine to see how it feels and make adjustments if needed.

 

[JTknives]

Ok after fabing up a new bumper for my brother this morning (hit a deer) I was able to get some sword time. I ran the grain refining / stress relieving on it first so I would not run into any surprises when grinding. Here it is cooling down after coming out of the oven.

Then I went after the scale by setting up my belt grinder into a crude version of a surface grinder. Works really good for this kind of thing. I was shooting for around .250 but after removing all the scale and pits it is sitting at .200 now. So not exzacty what I wanted but should work. This always happens to me with forged blades. The scale is always thicker then I think and I hope one day I will learn. I then cleaned up the profile and called it a night.

I did not wory about taking it all the way down till the edge bevel cleaned up because that will be removed when I grind the edge bevel. But the pattern looks rather nice.

 

[Maelstrom78]

Nice! Can you show me your belt grinder / surface grinder setup?

 

[JTknives]

I was afraid that 1.625" wouldn't feel right in the hand. I'm gonna do a mock, down and dirty handle out of some scrap pine to see how it feels and make adjustments if needed.

We need pictures, let's see it.

 

[S.Alexander]

I got a little bit of forging time in yesterday. Forged the tip and started forging in the bevels. I still need to finish the bevels, forge the tang, and straighten that curve a bit. It's a little too extreme.

 

[TConlon]

cool thread, watching with interest

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Wow this is awesome

 

[Darrin Sanders]

Well I made the mock handle and 1.625" X 3/4" feels fine but I still think I wanna take it down another 1/8"-1/4". I'll post a pic soon.

 

[JTknives]

Had some time today and I rough ground the edge bevels in. I left the edge around .050 and will be finish ground and hand rubbed after heat treat.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Man JT that is gonna look sweet with the damascus and the pattern of the ironwood

 

[Ghostman3]

Been trying to find an old free leaf spring but haven't had luck. May have to break down and buy some 80crv2


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[Darrin Sanders]

Finally got around to posting a pic. Profiled in 1/4" 5160. Blade should be in the 16" range and OAL should be 21"-22". I know the profile is a tad bit on the "fantasy" side but when I think cutlass, I think Pirate and this is the profile that I see in my minds eye so thats what I'm gonna build. LOL
Its gonna be cool building something that I wanna build for a change. I got tired of taking and filling orders so I'm gonna enjoy this. Y'all let me know your thoughts good or bad, I can take it. Also, I'm still on the fence about fitting and handle materials so feel free to make suggestions.
I'm leaning towards a brass guard with NS accents and Bog Oak handle. Maybe even some jewels (probably Rubies) incorporated into the mix. Hey, its for a pirate right? LOL

 

[kuraki]

That is going to be a beast Darrin!

 

[JTknives]

Ok I had a little time today in the shop. Worked on the tang shoulder and refined the plunge cuts.

 

[Justin Presson]

Nice work guys, great thread.
Darrin I know what you are going to be for Halloween..lol

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[kuraki]

I'm playing along. I don't have a drawing of the blade, I just started cutting. I won't be forging because frankly i am not experienced enough at it yet to tackle something like this. So stock removal, 80CRV2. 3/16. Got it profiled and bevel roughed in.

I may heat it and beat it to get some curve, haven't decided. I'll forge the guard.

 

[Alfazulu]

What an awesome thread. I'm so happy to see several people getting in on it. I thought for sure it would be one or MAYBE two people max. If I can find a piece of steel big enough for cheap, I'll be in. JT, that damascus is awesome. I love that knife you made with it. Man, I have to build a forge.

 

[jdm61]

The mass was fairly high, and the force concentrated on the forward part of the blade........

I had meant to comment on this earlier,ut foot. Better late than never. Bill Moran said that he got the idea for putting a distal taper in his blades from handling a very well balanced and fast French boarding cutlass that had a fairly significant taper.

 

[kuraki]

And there's the end of my cutlass WIP. Warped in quench. Tried to straighten. Failed.

 

[JTknives]

That sucks for sure, did you forge that blade out? The big thing is what did you learn from this experance. Last time I trained to straighten a sword I snapped was very depressing but I moved on and found safe ways to cope with a warped blade. Sence then I have not snapped a knife and get amazing results. Trick is to clamp it to a straight thick bar of steel and then temper it. It's amazing what happens doing this and the amount of warp you can remove. You can also shim up the tang and the tip with a dime or somthing thicker or thinner. But be careful you can easly over compensate and it will be warped the other way.

This was my learning experance. Nice arming sword, 32" blade. All hand forged from a plot Spring.

Got it all rough ground and everything was looking good.

Then I heat treated and it came out with a good bend in it. So I went to the temper at 500° and tried strengthening it hot. And nothing kept pushing it further and Further and nothing. By this point I had it to allmost a 90° flex and bam snapped.

So keep your chin up and forge ahead knowing that you gave it your best shot. Now when you start over you will have learned from this experance and approach things a little different.