Tiodhlac (Sword DONE, Poem NOT)

ScottRoush

ScottRoush

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Jan 10, 2010
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Forged from a star,
Quenched in sap of the Birch,
Was Tiodhlac - The Gift of the Ghillie Dhu

:-) I felt like making a sword with no historical restrictions as well as any pre-fabricated mythological conceptions. So... I'm making up me own. There will be more to that story later...

I wanted to use my favorite materials for the blade.. wrought iron, pure nickel and a modern steel (1095) and I wanted the pattern to look like the grain of wood.

So the first part of the billet was wrought iron and sheets of pure nickel. This got wrapped in a packet of heat treat foil, forged and folded twice.

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Then to this was added layers of 1095 and folded twice:

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The blade was then forged out to 29" and a uniform thickness of 1/4" using spacers on my press, profile cleaned up and the hollow ground free-hand with 8" contact wheel:

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The pictures above are a test etch after grinding to 220. As the blade is not yet heat treated, I'm still fiddling with the over-all profile. I suspect that I will narrow it down more towards the tip.

I'm also still sketching ideas of the cross-guard but the grip will be birch. It will be a very long gripped two-hander. I like the idea of a relatively short, fast blade with a two-handed grip.

I will be slowly working on this in the upcoming weeks...
 
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This promises to be interesting, subscribed! I've thought about swordmaking for a while now and eventually decided that if I ever did make a sword it would have a pretty similar profile to this, maybe with a hand and a half grip. I too like the idea of a smaller fast sword.
 
I always enjoy your sword WIP's, I can't wait to see where you take this one!
 
Quenched in a snowbank?..... please say that you quenched it in a snowbank!

ugh.... I just read that it was quenched in birch sap.... okay... please tell me that the sap was still IN the birch when you quenched it?
 
Thanks Folks...

Rick.. sorry to disappoint you but it has not yet even been quenched. If it wasn't for fear of slight warpage due to uneven distribution of sap (it's winter.. sap may be down) then I would gladly attempt the quench IN the tree. There might also be some warpage due to the resistance and friction of the wood as the blade enters the tree at 1500 degrees. So... I'm left with finding enough birch sap to do this quench and, as I mentioned above, being winter the sap is down and not capable of being tapped. I guess the only viable alternative would be to quench in maple syrup heated to 200F.
 
Also... a little background here. The Ghillie Dhu: Think of the bowhunter in his leafy ghillie suit and you are on the right track. Most probably don't know that the ghillie suit was inspired by Scottish folklore. The Ghillie Dhu is among the sidhe (faery folk) of the Scottish Highlands and likes to live in birch groves. He is adorned in leaf and bark, fears Man, but is friendly to children. So this is a story of how a Ghillie Dhu came to make a sword. :-) (bear with me.. I'm having fun)
 
Super interested and I could not agree more I really like longish handles 13 to 15 inches with 26 to 27 ish blades

I'll be watching this one
 
ScottRoush said:
I guess the only viable alternative would be to quench in maple syrup heated to 200F.
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Canada is renown for its maple syrup, Scott... lemme know if I can help the cause, eh?

Love the story, by the way.... very inspiring. Any history of mine would include short squatty French voyageurs... It would take some serious imagination to find bladelore in that.
 
Does it smell like birch beer? I love birch beer...


Nice work, man. Ignore Marchand. He knows naught of the significance of birch. Maple... What a dumbass.

Joey's thoughts on handle length sound right to me, but what the heck do I know. Regardless, already looks fun to swing around!!!
 
:-) Thanks guys.

Rick I practically live in Canada myself and right smack in the middle of Voyageur rendezvous country on Lake Superior. There is romance to be found in the French trade knife not to mention the hawk! And last year I built THE gun of the fur trade.. the Northwest trade gun flintlock. One of these days I will get around to making a French trade knife and hawk set from shear steel....

Got some good ideas tonight on the hilt design... green patinated copper leaf shaped 'rain guard'.... I will post some sketches soon.
 
Well I took a second from cleaning up the profile and preparing for heat treat to work on the hilt design. It's going to be a bit before I can heat treat as I'm right smack in the middle of making the digital control for my new sword heat treat kiln. I will show some pics of that later as well.

I'm basically shooting for a scaled version of a Scottish claymore. But with copper birch leaf 'clam guard' as well... this piece will be forged and then given a powdery green patina. But here is the first in a series of paper mock ups that I will do to nail down proportions and angles. You can also see the copper that I'm laying out to prepare for forging the leaf design.

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I don't know, Scott... I think the paper is going to fall apart pretty quick in use. I would definitely go with plan B and make it out of copper n stuff. HEY! You could use that piece that's just laying just below it in the picture. If you need any other advice, let me know.:p
 
Well.... when the Elmer's glue holding the graph paper to the cardboard backing dried.. the whole thing curled up making it useless as handle material. The only thing I can come up with is that I overheated it when cutting it out.
 
ScottRoush said:
The only thing I can come up with is that I overheated it when cutting it out.
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Likely. You probably weren't blowing on it while you were cutting, were you? You're welcome... that little bit of advice was a freebie.

Joking aside, I am really looking forward to this build, Scott. You know I like your style.:thumbup:
 
Rick.. I found a fact relevant to you my research into the Ghillie Dhu!

"The Ghillie Dhu or Ghillie Dubh are solitary faeries believed to reside within Scottish forests, especially near Gairloch in Ross-shire, though one account claims many emigrated to forests in Northern America after following Scottish fur trappers to French Canada in the late 1700's."

It's high time for a Wilder Tool Ghillie Dhu bush-crafter tool eh?

Also.. an update to the opening lines:

Forged from star-dolven iron,
Quenched in sap of the Beithe,
Was Tiodhlac: Gift of the Ghillie Dhu
 
ScottRoush said:
Rick.. I found a fact relevant to you my research into the Ghillie Dhu!.... /snip/... It's high time for a Wilder Tool Ghillie Dhu bush-crafter tool eh?
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Now you gone an dunned it... as if I needed to be more encouraged than beyond simply following your thread... productivity will suffer over the holidays, me thinks.:thumbup:

ETA: Oh man, it's only been an hour and I just got a major dose of inspiration... my stomach dropped. completely different but mostly the same... lol. Thanks, bud.
 
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