The Ashokan Gladius Challenge......

[Mace]

Here is a little something to get the blood flowing.....so to speak.
Forged 1084
Mace

 

[Michael J. Spangler]

you call that forging to shape??? how about forgin to profile, and you said matt was cheating for grinding his out

hey matt i bet he just screws it up, cuts it in half and make two little knives with cord wrap handles

man i'm gonna get my a$$ kicked in two weeks

 

[Mace]

I think when I heat treat it I am going to quench it in some virgin blood.
Hey Mike, What are you doing this weekend?
Mace

 

[deker]

I think when I heat treat it I am going to quench it in some virgin blood.
Hey Mike, What are you doing this weekend?

Bring a knife Mike...Mace is too much of a wuss to cut himself for this...he needs you do it for him

-d

 

[Michael J. Spangler]

ohhhh yeah go deker:thumbup:

mace i'm not busy... why do you need me to drive to matts house and pick him up for you?

 

[Mace]

Deker!!!! What did I ever do to you????

Mike, You know Matt hasn't been a virgin since Ashokan last year!:barf:
(Was that over the line?)

Can't wait to test this blade on his little tin can of a car.
Macemus

 

[T Blade]

...i bet he just screws it up, cuts it in half and make two little knives with cord wrap handles

LMAO Mike keeping to the theme of the blade, "Roman Gladius" it'd be better to use a leather wrap instead "Japanese" theme, cord wrap..

...man i'm gonna get my a$$ kicked in two weeks

Don't worry Mike, you can outrun Mace, no problem.....just don't get caught while you're suffing your face with one of those fine Ashokan cafeteria meal, um, um, um, you know what I'm talking about

 

[Michael J. Spangler]

don't worry about it, i'm gonna bring a tennis ball with me.. if he starts getting out of hand i'll just throw it in the woods... keep him busy for hours

 

[Matthew Gregory]

These are some of the funniest posts I've read in ages, and just what I needed to lighten up a bit. It's way too easy to keep up the obvious gladiator/homosexual innuendoes, but it's time we lay off Mace for a while, Mikey... I know it's a lot of fun, (and easy, too!) but people like him - with limited thought capabilities - should be protected by us, and encouraged to participate with normal society.

...and with that, I'll refrain from mentioning the OBVIOUS phallic similarities demonstrated by Mace's rough-forged sword.:barf::barf:

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You guys need to back off mace. His only mistake was starting this post.
Breathing too much 1084 dust can have its effect on a person
At least Jacob McDonald won't ever have to worry about breathing too much metal dust.
Stacy

 

[rocketmann]

Stacy, don't hold anything back tell us how you really feel !!!

 

[Matthew Gregory]

You're right, Stacy... in case everyone here doesn't know this, Mace, Spangler and myself keep up this pointless ribbing and jabbing nonstop -- BUT IT IS ALL IN FUN!!!!!!

I've been mean to Mace only because he's my friend, and I want to make sure everyone understands this.

Back to the Gladius Challenge, I'm hoping to clean up the grinds tomorrow and possibly make an attempt at heat treating. I was thinking of bringing it to about 220 grit before HT, does that seem reasonable to everyone?

 

[Michael J. Spangler]

no seriously i do look up to mace, i wish i could make knives as good as him. he does kick ass. but we can't let him know that. ooops he might read this
damn, gotta throw him a curve

hey matt, i say by the shape of that gladius mace won't be able to hold back from hand rubbing it. just second nature i guess

 

[Sam Salvati]

hey matt, i say by the shape of that gladius mace won't be able to hold back from hand rubbing it. just second nature i guess

HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

 

[T Blade]

Started forging a Gladius Sword this morning and now it's out in the shop annealing.

This is the blade after the 3rd normalizing

I used my vertical for the the shaping operation and the horizontal for normalizing and annealing.

Here is the pic of the blade annealing. Unfortuately, I don't have the facilities to work sword length blades, so I am using some Kaowool to do the job. Typically I use vermiculite and will surround the blade with other hot pieces of steel.

The steel is 1 1/4" X1/4" (Admiral Steel) 1075 the blade at this point in time is 22" long and just about 1 3/4" wide.

Now all I gotta do is finish it. Tomorrow hopefully, I'll be able to get it rough ground and maybe even HT. I've got a vertical quench tank, but it's filled with a mixture of old motor oil and ATF, I believe I even threw in some K1 kerosene for the flame effect. Aren't all Bladesmiths pyromaniacs? Not to be saying that I'm a bladesmith, more like a wanna be

See you at Ashokan :thumbup:

 

[Sam Salvati]

Larry, LOOKIN' GOOD!

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Wow, Larry... that's going to turn out sweet! The kaowool is a pretty good idea, too.

...for the record, if anyone just wants to make a short sword, they should feel free. It doesn't have to be a gladius!

Mikey, it'll be just like Mace is used to --only he won't need the magnifying glass!

God, how I love razzing you, Mace!

 

[T Blade]

Thanks guy. Now comes the hard part, finishing it before Ashokan

I'm looking around for handle material, maybe a touch of damascus, some black linen micarta and elk antler :jerkit:

 

[PMLKnives]

Hey this is great. Just the other day I decided to make the biggest knife our ht oven would heat take(just cuz), about 13". Now if Mike hadn't ..uhmm well dislodged the elements... I could harden it. If we don't have to forge the billet we can use stainless right?
Paul

 

[T Blade]

,,, Now if Mike hadn't ..uhmm well dislodged the elements... Paul

That's not what Mike told me, Paul