fuller/blood groove question

You just need to go back in time to understand the reason for the fuller.
Back not long after the bronze age when steel showed up, you just didn't go down to the steel store and buy your next chunk of steel for your ax or sword! Steel was VALUABLE! Hard to come by! So, you had to streeeeeetch your steel dollar!
Think of it this way: where that fuller is is now a void. There actually used to be steel there! The maker could forge in that fuller and use the steel that WAS there somewhere else! Push it down the blade and have more cutting area.
Simple as that.
It was just a place to get steel from and move it somewhere else.
 
well said kbaknife.

miden - not my work....that's a hand-forged khukuri straight from Nepal. I am working on one of my own and I can tell you that the fullers are a PAIN..!!!



Bruce - I know a swordsmith that "scrapes" his fullers in. Makes his own scrapers and just has at it. Like everything, it's slow at first until you get a groove going...then he just peels away at it.
 
Bruce,
how do you scrape tool steel like that?
I know that the older, more superior (too expensive for regular joes today) milling machine tables and lathe beds had scraped surfaces done by craftsmen with a lot of patience and love for what they were doing (and time) but that is cast iron, how the heck do you scrape a fuller into steel?

Kbaknife,
thanks for the info, I guess the old guys would go beserk if they were to see me milling out the fuller and casually tossing the shavings into the garbage can.:eek: Times have changed, we clearly have it easier than they did.:D Thanks for the insight.

Daniel,
are you making your fullers by hand too?

What tools do you guys use?

I am very happy to have started this thread, my education continues!!:thumbup: Thanks to everyone that contributed.

Mike
 
to make the wide fullers:

I forged them in with a spring fuller.
Clean up done with a 3" angle grinding wheel
Grind smooth with a 3" contact wheel (belts)


Haven't quite finished mine...still a work in progress...
 
Weight is extremely important in the speed of a large blade. Balance is another important factor. When cutting organic targets in nature the target often is flexible or moves at impact. A blade with all the mass at the back will follow the mass not necessarily the target. A fuller moves the rotational balance of the blade forward toward the edge and is much more likely to follow the edge and finish the cut. A large triangular bowie knife blade will often lay flat at impact with a less than perfect swing. When you are laboring cutting brush or limbs off trees you get tired and not every swing is perfect. A "tactical" knife has the same needs at a higher level of duress.

This information is easily valided by choosing two good example knives and experimenting by cutting alot. This is intuitive information...Ed
 
Sounds like you've studied the mechanics of cutting a bit, Ed! :D ;) ;)
 
I am going to make my scrapers out of old worn out files,and scrape while the steel is soft:D Know it will take a while to get them in this way but at least I will get them in the blade.If i had a press I would try pressing them in while forging the blade,but alas no press yet...

Bruce
 
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