Cutlass build - Group WIP

[Ken H>]

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

That is going to take "super" glue to fix that! Bummer on the broken blade.

Ken H>

 

[kuraki]

Like JT said stuff happens, try to learn from it. I think I'm going to mill an I beam flat, drill and tap some holes in it for a straightening jig.

 

[JTknives]

Ok I did a little work on it tonight. Was not planning on it but it just called to me.
There I was standing at my material bench working on another knife and I looked up and a chunk of elk antler caught my eye. It was already cut and hallowed out for another project but did not get used because of the flare on the end. I did not want to remove the flare becaus I thought it would have a use one day. Well it caught my eye and bam it hit me, perfect for the cutlass. Yeah I know it's not on the original track but oh man do I love antler. So I started working up a plan on how it will be used. I figured a nice dark spacer between the elk and the guard would be a nice touch so I dug through my water buffalo horn and sliced off a ring that fit the contour nicely. Then marked it for location pins and drilled the buffalo horn and the elk antler. Did some rough shaping of the buffalo horn to the elk antler and looks good. I then started fitting the tang to the handle. I removed the botched threaded studd as it was going to go anyway and be replaced with a soldered or welded in place bolt. I reshape do the tang a little bit and cut the second set of shoulders into it. She is looked mighty fine now but I'm going to slip a copper sheet between the buffalo and elk and give it a slight scalloped edge. Oh well guess it's picture time. You can see the nice flare to the antler will really word well for retention.

 

[JTknives]

Am I the only one doing one of these lol. Oh well, picture time again.
Over the last few days I have been working on the guard and pommel. Well technically I shaped the pommel a few days ago and finished it tonight and also did the guard. The guard needs some tweaks as its off a tad but so far so good.

First up the pommel, I did not know where I was going with this when I started I just knew it was going to be wrought iron and had to fit the base of the antler shape. So I got out my 1" round stock wrought iron and upset the end. This stuff is so corse that it's hard to work it with out it splitting even at a butter yellow welding heat. When upsetting it I got a split, at first I was bummed but then I thought hum I bet I could work with this. My thought was aged pirate sword so give it some character. So I " induced" a few more splits around the border. Perfect I thought but now what, what shape do I want. My mind thought hum pirates, pirates, pirates vs the East India company, east India company in England, aaaaaaa haaaa Kings. Oh yeah we are making a crown pommel, and that's the kind of jump my mind can make when over thinking somthing simple lol. So here it is step by step.

First I roughed in a nice sweeping radius. Then I used a scribe to scratch a line all the way around the circumference so I could keep it even

Here it is ground to the line.

Next I needed to bring the sweeping grind out and off the end of the stub.

Now I needed a way to hold it in the vice without damaging. So I grabbed a small block of micarta and super glued it to the surface. Then got out the trusty hacksaw and cut out the cross down the length of the stub.

Time to heat it up so it needed a handle.

Got out my trusty large flat head screwdriver and gently started spreading the prongs.

Then using a block of wood and a hammer I start to shape the prongs.

Now it's shaped I need to even up the prongs and tuck them down flush with the edge.

To tuck the prongs in I use a steel rod and drive them down and back. I put the rod on the sharp corner of the prong so it would flatten it out so it was not sharp and cut your hand. So here it is all shaped, I worked the prongs a little cold so I could get some of the layers to split like I got on the side.

Next up I cut off a chunk of the same bar for the guard.

Man I love how wrought iron forges, like clay.

I forged it into a flat bar that tapers on each end

Then started working the shape into it. I did not get any pictures of this progress as it was a kinda go by eye thing with lots of back and forth from sword to forge so I could get a shape I was happy with. But the wife was more then happy to snap a pic of me holding the handle togather.

Here it is with my hands out of the way.

And laying on the floor with the blade. The blade in this pic looks small because the picture is at an angle.

That's it so far. My plan is to pickle the guard and pommel to remove the scale. I then will look them over and if I'm happy with the finish I will just etch in ferric chloride and leave the forged finish. I tried to keep everything nice so I could keep the forged finish.

 

[A.McPherson]

Looking good JT!!


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[wkfl]

I be liking that!

 

[Ghostman3]

Wow! That is awesome! No your not the only one, I just got some steel in for mine so I anticipate to rough grind it this weekend hopefully.


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[Ken H>]

JT - you've really done GREAT work there. Someday, I hope to make something like that. My "big" project for this winter is a full size replica of the Joe Musso Bowie. I've got the rough shape profiled, not for the forging part. Cool weather for forging {g}

Ken H

 

[weo]

Looks like you're having fun, JT. Inspiring work, keep it up

 

[redeagle66]

Its turning out great. I love you went with wrought iron and a period look. Great design on the pommel. I can hardly wait to see it finished.

 

[JTknives]

Well I had a tiny amount of time after work befor bed time, I work grave yards. I have been etching the wrought iron in vinager for 2 days and it's looking good. So I thought it was time to drill and tap the pommel for the threaded tang. Here is a pic after vinager soak.

Here is the other end where I threaded the stub.

It was about this time it dawned on me that I have not heat treated the blade yet. So I have done all this work on a handle, guard and pommel for a sword that's not heat treated facepalm. So I fired up the oven and gave a short prayer that everything comes out ok. Well heat treating went fine. We had a bow which I removed most right out of the quench. But a twist showed up down the length of the blade. I always get these twists on twisted Damascus even though it gets normalized and gets a triple grain refinement. Has something to do with the heat treating and the different aloys pulling and pushing in the quench. Normally it's not to bad but on a sword it was about 1/4" of an inch.

So I got out my trusty bar of stainless and proceeded to clamp the blade to it and tighten the clamps so it forced the blade straight. I tighten the clamp over the tang area tight so it holds it square then use clamps to bring the edge back inline.

Then it went into the oven at 500° and I fell asleep. Good thing my wife got my back and turned off the oven at the 3hr mark. I got up and was welcomed with a nicely tempered blade. I removed the clamps praying and hot damp nailed it first try. She is stright and not twisted, I could not be happier.
This picture is looking edge on with the tang clamp still in place. This way I can see that the edge is the same distance away from the bar along the entire edge.

Here it is laying on the table looking edge on.

So over all I'm very happy it strightened out as well as it did.

 

[JTknives]

Ok guys I'm back.
This sword was going on the back burner till after I moved and got my new shop built. Then a customer who I am finishing a seax for wanted this sword for his birthday. So the project became a top priority and had a reasion to be focused on.

I finish ground the blade and then spent way to long hand sanding it.

Next it was time to etch my mark. Little tip, only tape one side down and that way you can lift it up and clean the etch and re etch if it needs to be deeper.

The mark came out nice and deep.

It was then cleaned with soap and water and is now in the etch tank. I will update when that is done.

 

[S.Alexander]

Mine is still on the bench. I started the rough grind on it but I have some blades and sheaths to finish for an upcoming show. If I have time, I would like to bring the cutlass to the show as well.

 

[JTknives]

Etching is done. Being a pirate sword it needs a nice dark patina as I'm guessing there swords where not all shiny and new. It's a nice deep etch, I love Damascus you can feal.

Ohooooo look at that depth.

 

[Augus7us]

Looking good JT! I like the handle, looks rustic, like what a pirate would use. Did you say what the OAL is?

Keep up the good work!

-Clint

 

[DEllis]

Dang......I just noticed this thread. I was planning a double edged sword that I could also use for trail chopping, but maybe a cutlass would be better?? With the added benefit of being great for ship boarding

Nice work JT!

Darcy

 

[shamu]

JT, will you adopt me? awesome work man.

 

[Dago Red]

That etch is amazing. And my buddy and I were looking at it and agree your makers mark is really cool. That's gonna be a hard birthday present to top!

Red

 

[JTknives]

Got some good quality time in on the cutlass today. I did not like the guard so I straightened it out thinned it out and stretched it longer. I also ditched the curl on the top of the guard as it did not jive with me. I also shaped the pommel base to fit the elk antler.

Sketch the basic shape on the anvil.

After shaping and tweaking

Next I cut some copper to go between the elk and water buffalo horn.

Here are the parts all together. Well just set next to each other.

Next I will slot the guard and finish the pommel.

 

[Ken H>]

JT: That looks GOOD!!! I like the way it all flows, and that butt ca just clicks for me. Looking forward to the final product.