Shamshir sword in progress

David Stifle

David Stifle

Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
10,188
A Shamshir sword blade extends straight and then smoothly transitions into a fairly radical curve. Done properly, it's a beautiful blade. Here is my attempt to create one and as you can see, the curve of my blade is one curve surface rather than that sudden curvature I was seeking. Still, I was happy to get this fair, considering it is the first full size sword I have done (28" blade). But, my question to all who are interested is this. I forged the blade thin, it's 6mm at the guard, and in fact is the same, mostly, until the last ten inches when it gets much thinner until the point. In looking at the picture (and sorry for posting such a cluttered photo) do you think I am within the norms as thickness for a blade of this type.

Steel: A-2
length: 28"
Width: 1.25 at guard
bevel: 5/8" wide
Fuller: full length of blade



 
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Looking great, Chief!!
Btw, went through Las Cruces last week, will post a pic or two for ya. If you lived closer, I would give you some green chilies!
 
mitch4ging said:
Looking great, Chief!!
Btw, went through Las Cruces last week, will post a pic or two for ya. If you lived closer, I would give you some green chilies!
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Thanks Mitch, and no intentional insult to anyone, but I'm a Virginia boy now, through and through. I'd never go back to the desert.
 
Good to see you're taking on some smaller projects David.

Good to see you post, Fred
 
Wow,

Lets see some more of that thing
 
Now that's a knife! Seriously, super cool blade David.
 
Very nice, what caught my eye is that it's made from A2. How did you acquire that shape with A2, forge or stock removal? But non the less very nice.
 
Here's the only other picture I took, Adam. As you can see, I still need to sand the scale off, get all the scratches I can out of the blade, heat treat it, and put on a handle and guard. But since this is the first full size sword I've done, I'm just happy to get this far along.
 
Very nice, how was the A2 to forge. Never forged an air hardening steel befor so just wondering how it went. Do you have to stay under the hardening temp (1750°) or does it matter?
 
JTknives said:
Very nice, how was the A2 to forge. Never forged an air hardening steel befor so just wondering how it went. Do you have to stay under the hardening temp (1750°) or does it matter?
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Since I was using a coal forge I can't say if I was under or over hardening temp, but since I got it yellow I'd say I was close to it or even over. I didn't have too much trouble forging it, although I did have to move to a bigger hammer than I normally use. One tip for anyone who uses A2. Drill your holes first, the tang is screamingly hard. I need to bring it down with a torch so I can drill the thing. In choosing A2, I was influenced by Rob Criswell Katana's, but Howard Clark and other swordmakers also used L6, and I am thinking of going to that steel the next time. I'm sticking with air hardening steels at this time because I am not set up to heat treat large swords, while Peter's Heat Tream Co. can do full size HT's if the steel is air hardening. I do plan on setting myself up to do full length HT'ing of 1050, etc, steels.
 
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I annealed some D2 a few weeks ago and was shocked that it took like 18hrs to do it. So I don't know how well a torch will be. But I wish you luck.
 
JTknives said:
I annealed some D2 a few weeks ago and was shocked that it took like 18hrs to do it. So I don't know how well a torch will be. But I wish you luck.
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Wow! I had no idea it would take that long. Maybe I should forget the torch idea, lol.
 
I don't know how long it actually takes but according to crucible and other steel PDFs you can't cool faster then 20-40° per hour.

I did my batch of D2 like this. Heated to 1600deg and held till everything was at temp (1/2hr) then started cooling at 40° per hr down to 1000° then cooled to ambient temp at the rate of my oven cooling by just turning it off. Just going from 1600° to 1000° took 15hrs then all day to get to ambient. But it's possible to do a sub critical aneal on these steels that is much much faster. But it would be worth asking others more knowledgeable then I about it.
 
JTknives said:
I don't know how long it actually takes but according to crucible and other steel PDFs you can't cool faster then 20-40° per hour.

I did my batch of D2 like this. Heated to 1600deg and held till everything was at temp (1/2hr) then started cooling at 40° per hr down to 1000° then cooled to ambient temp at the rate of my oven cooling by just turning it off. Just going from 1600° to 1000° took 15hrs then all day to get to ambient. But it's possible to do a sub critical aneal on these steels that is much much faster. But it would be worth asking others more knowledgeable then I about it.
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Thanks, JT, good info. And after looking into L6 a bit, I'm going to forget all about it. Talk about a difficult heat treatment, wow!
 
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