Forge for swords

Robert_Phelps

Robert_Phelps

Joined
Nov 29, 2005
Messages
475
Now, I've only just made some stock removal knives, so I don't plan of doing this anytime soon.. but I'd love to forge a decent sword some day. After a month or so, I'm going to try to learn to forge a knife. Eventually, I hope to forge a sword. When I get there, what's a good setup to use to forge/heat treat swords? Like, a clay coated katana, for instance? Also, can anyone recomend any good resources for sword making? (video, book, whichever) It doesn't necessarily have to emphasise making Japanese style swords, but that's what I'm aiming for. (Halbards are pretty cool though)

Thanks for any help:)
 
You will need a long forge for heat treat, but not for forging the blade. You will find that heating more than about 10 inches at a time will make the thing very difficult to handle, plus there's no reason to heat more than that because you want to work in a certain temperature range and that changes too rapidly to expect you can work a long piece all at once. This is especially true if pattern welding.
For a long heat-treat forge, among other things, you should check out the 'Craft of' section on Don Fogg's site.
For books, I think you'd enjoy The Craft of the Japanese Sword by Leon and Hrioko Kapp, Yohindo Yoshihara. You should have enough understanding after reading it to know where to go from there.
Good Luck.
 
A good two video set is ,Wally Hayes', "Katana". He shows how to make a trench forge for the HT,and how to make a temporary quench tank.Clay coating,grinding (stock removal) and all the rest are there. It is a good entry level course to learn about sword making. You may do well to make one by stock removal first. Forging a sword (especially a katana) is not an easy task,and takes a good bit of skill and experience.
A good video source is Technical Video.You rent videos for a week at a time for about $10 each.They have several sword making videos,and lots more on knifemaking.
Stacy
 
The Hayes video is a good one. It won't help you forge a sword much, but it will help you with the heat treating part, which as mentioned is the part you need the big forge for. Hayes has a one-off forge using BBQ charcoal.

You can also link through Tim Lively's site to a slightly more authentic approach using a Japanese box belows, again an easy backyard project.

I would hop over to Don Fogg's site. He has info on a sword forging school he carried out with some detailed write ups. There are also full length heat treating forge builds over there, and on the Forum lots of sword talk. Bladeforums is my go to place for most knife stuff but on forges for swords the Fogg site has a lot of stuff.
 
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