Work in Progress - Camp Sword - BBQ!

Daniel Fairly Knives

Daniel Fairly Knives

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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Break out the lawn chairs and iced tea! I'm excited about the Camp Sword Virtual BBQ and have a project in the works.

Plan - to make a great looking and functional small sword (mine's more of a big knife) that would be fun to take camping.

Materials used - Aldo's 1075 Steel in .350" thick, 1.5" tall and 16" long. I'm not 100% sure on the exact handle materials yet but I have it set up for a cord wrap. I'll use paracord or flat cord soaked with West System epoxy. I'll decide on the sheath when everything is closer.

Tools - saw, drill press, grinder, sandpaper and a 5160 steel sanding block

I may go for a hamon on this one but I am not sure yet, I'll also decide on the cord wrap once the blade is closer to being finished. I have some green cord that looks somewhat traditional, it might go well with a dark or contrasting hamon. I'm in the middle of a 25 order run and thought it would be fun to work on this one after my regular workday is finished. I worked on this one from 6-10 last night and so far it has been a blast!

Comments, help, questions, and viewer engagement is encouraged!


I just used my saw to cut a 16" piece from a 48" bar after roughing out a design with a marker.
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I removed a bit of stock with my abrasive saw. That's a metal cutting blade installed in a carpenters saw, I still need a better saw.
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I drilled lots of 3/8" holes to lighten the tang for better balance. I just removed the clamps before the photo but I always use at least one clamp against the blade to stop it from spinning and one holding it down next to the bit.
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Holes chamfered...
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The profile is almost ground. I also rough ground the flats to 120 to remove any rust, scratches or pits.
032-5-1.jpg
 
Looking good Daniel, I can't wait to see this one progress! Are we gonna see a bevel on both sides of the blade.... ;)
 
Looks good so far. I've got one almost that exact shape/size laying around somewhere that I need to finish.
 
I love the idea of a camping sword! I'll be looking forward to watching this WIP
 
I was hoping you would make this a WIP. LookIng forward to seeing it.
 
Thanks everybody! :D

I got in a fair bit more work on the "Yushi" Camp Sword today, check it out!

I used my 2" wheel to cut a deep groove in the tang, this makes tapering the tang easier later.
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I then tapered the tang, it feels like it has potential to be very fast in the hand.
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I sanded it up to 400 grit and I'm ready for heat treat.
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In the kiln!
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Here is a photo of my heat treat area, I have my 11 second oil ready to go right next to the kiln. I like this setup and it is semi-outdoors for great ventilation.
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The quench went great and "Yushi" is in the temper oven as I write this!
 
This morning I did some checks for hardness and I don't think the 1075 fully hardened. I think it needs a super fast quench, faster than my 11 second oil and faster than most 1075 generally needs to be quenched at.. I have looked at a lot of heat treating information and I think the low manganese formula isn't covered.

Anybody have any thoughts on hardening Aldo's 1075? I'm probably going to try a brine quench because I don't have any Parks 50.

It all makes sense, it is going to be shallow hardening because of the low manganese content. I just didn't think it needed the fastest quench oil that I know of.
 
I'm thinking because the piece was so thick it had an effect on the quench. I think the 11 second oil should have worked but the section thickness was too much for it.
 
I was having troubles with 1074 a while back. Never really was sure I got it down. I have some blanks waiting to be ground of the stuff.

Good luck! And please post what you find.
 
Way cool Daniel! My vote is for HSM neoprene handle slabs with flaired tubing. Can't help you on the HT questions, that's outta my league!


-Xander
 
:D It has been an eventful day!

I decided to brine quench the blade which went very well. The blade got an incredible sori from the heat treat, about 1/4" of measurable bend! :cool:

The blade was a little warped so I tried to hot straighten it right after the quench wearing thick leather gloves. I thought the temperature was high enough but sure enough the blade snapped in the vise. I think the vise may have acted as a heat sink because I usually do this by hand with good luck.

The blade will still be used as a kwaiken and hopefully it will turn out great.

Honestly I was pretty shaken up from the snapped blade but I immediately went out and got back to work! I used the rest of my 48" bar to make two more blades!

My first camp sword was a little on the short side but the new one is around 19" long and is a real sword! I made a matching tanto to go with it. I'll work the three as a set, a Kwaiken, a Tanto and a Wakizashi!

I performed the heat treat and the hardening went great! The blades came out pretty straight and I have them shimmed up for maximum straightness in the temper oven as I write this.

It was a day of ups and downs. I was really bummed out from the second snapped camp sword blade but now I have three in progress and I think the set will turn out great!

Profiled and drilling...
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Ready to heat treat!
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Making my brine for quench
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Brine quenched and ready to temper
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Virtual BBQ! I have been running back and forth between the heat treat oven and the grill!
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Check out the heat treat!

This was really fun for me to do. All three of this batch got a natural upward curvature from the water quench. This curvature is called the sori.

If you look closely you can see that after the first quench the blade curves downward and after the second it curves dramatically upward! It looks like I also have a "natural" hamon, I did not clay coat but I am hoping the interrupted brine quench will give me the hamon. It sure looks like it did!

[video=youtube_share;uk4PJJppih0]http://youtu.be/uk4PJJppih0[/video]
 
That was great!

To bad about the breakage but it looks like you turned it around.

BTW how much urine did you put in the brine? Does raccoon urine work as well?
 
Carl_First_Timer said:
I was having troubles with 1074 a while back. Never really was sure I got it down. I have some blanks waiting to be ground of the stuff.

Good luck! And please post what you find.
Click to expand...

The brine hardened them and it makes sense, the steel was labeled "water hardening." I'm thinking Parks 50 would be the safe way to quench Aldo's 1075. (low manganese content) I'll have more information later after testing.

fast14riot said:
Way cool Daniel! My vote is for HSM neoprene handle slabs with flaired tubing. Can't help you on the HT questions, that's outta my league!


-Xander
Click to expand...
Cool, I'm still not too sure on the handle material. The kwaiken will be getting a cord wrap but I decided on scales for the other two due to customer feedback.

Mitchell Knives said:
11 second oil should work. Nothing wrong with trying brine though.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking my section thickness was too much for the oil but then again I still think the 11 second may be too slow. That's just a wild guess because it is a slightly different 1075 than you usually come across. It looks like with the interrupted quench I may have a bit of a natural hamon which I was really hoping for.

bladsmth said:
Low Mn 1070/1075 needs a fast oil or brine.
Click to expand...
Thanks for chiming in Stacy. That makes 100% sense and the brine worked great.

I have to mention that I noticed a brine quench is much less violent than a water quench. I had more noise when I water cooled my blades between temper cycles.

cbr900son said:
Very nice! Sori is so cool but Im scared to ruin a blade lol!
Click to expand...
Thanks! On one hand I really wanted to do the more traditional Japanese method of water quenching and on the other my oil was too slow anyways. I had no choice! (lol OK I could have ordered the right oil!)

I bought the piece of 1075 to make a Katana but decided I better work with some first. (lol more than one bar for sure!) I'm very glad that I did, I couldn't imagine setting up a tuyere and heat treating some steel I have never worked with in a 3' section.

AVigil said:
That was great!

To bad about the breakage but it looks like you turned it around.

BTW how much urine did you put in the brine? Does raccoon urine work as well?
Click to expand...

Thanks! I try to go with the flow.

OK... urine.

Raccoon will work but it isn't often fast enough. Try adding a little squirrel to the mix to speed it up. I usually quench in pure distilled mountain lion urine but I have had a hard time collecting the stuff lately so I have been mixing in some rare ermine urine, it makes the blades get a hamon because they have spots. (for those cool tactical stripes you need tiger)
 
BTW if you need someone to test that out... Id love a piece of chicken to test! How do you do your heat treat on the chicken?!?Please don't say anythign with urine... lol
 
cbr900son said:
BTW if you need someone to test that out... Id love a piece of chicken to test! How do you do your heat treat on the chicken?!?Please don't say anythign with urine... lol
Click to expand...

I crank the grill up to austenitizing temps, that's about 450 for chicken. Make sure your section thickness is around 1/2" for even heating. I prep my chicken stock removal style but some guys hammer it out. No jigs were used.

Before the chicken is pre-heated it is doused with blacken and lemon pepper seasonings, this will keep your grain at a fine size for the best chicken.

Some say it's not based on real science but I add mesquite chips to the gas forge... um grill. I'm also into neo-tribal cooking where I just build a fire to heat treat the chicken.

Air quench, don't let the temperature get too low.

If this is done correctly you will have the best quality, heirloom grade chicken that will last a lifetime.

Remember, don't start off with some junk chicken you see walking around near some old farm equipment, buy your chicken from a reputable supplier!
 
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