wrought iron blade WIP

Metalhead0483

Metalhead0483

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Jan 17, 2008
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I've been wanting to try making some period medieval knives for a while now, and in my research I found that knives made from a single piece of steel were quite uncommon due to the price of steel in medieval Europe. Most blades were made from wrought iron with a steel edge forge welded on.

So I went online and tried to find some wrought iron. A couple of stores on ebay sell scrap wrought iron, so I snapped up a flat rate box of 5/8" round salvaged from a mid 19th century building in Virginia and went to town.

First I drew out the iron into a rectangle about 1/4" by an inch (this is where I learned just how HOT you need to work wrought iron. Weird forging at temps where I'd normally be welding...) and wired on a quarter inch square by about an inch and a half length of 1075.


I really need to get a welder...



After several welding heats we have a solid piece!


Only nice thing I can say about using the wire is that pretty much all of it burns off during the heats, and what's left is easy to remove.

Once I was confident in the weld I countercut the point


And roughly forged it back


Forging the tip is actually one of the more challenging parts of the forging process for me. The wrought iron wants to bend way more than the steel does, so it's easy to bend the whole bar into a horseshoe shape just to move the tip a bit. Lots of straightening on the anvil ends up being needed.

After the tip is done I forged in the bevels, forged down the tang, and to the grinder we go! (Sorry, I failed miserably in the "remember to take pictures" part of that process, but it's no different from any other forged knife in that respect)

Ground the blade to .025" at the edge, and kept the spine at a bit over 0.125". Hardened and tempered it, then back to the grinder and brought it back down to 120grit. At this point I took it over to Mark Knapp's shop where he was nice enough to let me use his ferric chloride (which is surprisingly hard to get up here in Fairbanks with DOT's hazmat shipping regs being as they are)

here's where she stands right now. I really like how that wrought iron looks after etch...




Next step is I'll even up the tang shoulders, and finish sanding it down. Then I'll give it another etch before starting on handle and hardware.

Any comments, constructive criticism, or suggestions?

Thanks!
Nate W.
 
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i think it looks great. interesting idea, like an axehead with the hard edge. cant wait to see it finished !
 
That is an interesting approach. I have done it before with damascus but not to steel wrought. The blades I have seen done with a wrought backer were either the taco approach or more of a san mai. The old timers also used to forge the edge really thick then split it and insert to high carbon steel. The way this one is done, though cool, can be weaker. Also when you heat treat the high carbon steel will contract and the wrought will stay the same. This might cause the high carbon steel to pull away from the wrought. These are possibilities not certainties. Just something for you to think about on your next project.
 
Thanks for the replies all. It's been a fun project so far :)

Chuck, I fully realize a butt weld like this is going to be weaker than one of the other types of welds (taco or skarf welds come to mind) this was just the first one I did because a) I found several period blades using this construction, and b) it was easier to do as my first attempt ;)

I was concerned about the dissimilar metals during heat treat, but everything seemed to work out just fine. Came out of heat treat as you see it there. Straight and true with no hints of weakness in the weld line.

My goal is to make blades using all of the welding techniques I have found in extant originals. It's going to be a fun journey :)
 
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That blade is sweet. I scored some wrought from the exchange a while back...I am going to have to try it out when I get a chance. Great looking blade man.
 
mnavarro said:
That blade is sweet. I scored some wrought from the exchange a while back...I am going to have to try it out when I get a chance. Great looking blade man.
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It's a lot of fun to work with, just remember to forge it HOT. Seriously, if it's not at LEAST bright yellow when you hammer it you're asking for trouble. I had to essentially remake my forge to get the heat up high enough.
 
Finally got it finished. Hand handed the blade to 600. The iron doesn't want to really go any higher than that, and I think it looks great with a bit of a matte finish. Copper bolster with copper wire inlayed makers mark (the maker's mark is still experimental. I think it's heading in the right direction, but I'm going to keep playing with it)

I was going to go with a really dark wood (Ben Greenberg offered me some nice African blackwood) but someone made the point that the knife to this point had been made in the medieval European style, so why spoil that by going to an African or Asian wood? So dark walnut it is... ;)

iron%203.jpg


(still going to buy that blackwood Ben! Just not for this project :) )
 
Also you'll note that I didn't etch the blade as I showed it previously. Couple of reasons for that.

A) There is no record of blades being etched in period to display patterns. It's more or less strictly a modern practice, and so for this blade I decided to just let it speak for itself.

B) I like the subtle delineation between the steel and iron as it is now.
 
Love the look of the forged and etched wrought iron! I bet it would be really awesome looking as the jacket of some San Mai!
 
rcetroy said:
Love the look of the forged and etched wrought iron! I bet it would be really awesome looking as the jacket of some San Mai!
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There are a couple of guys who have been doing that recently actually. They look pretty awesome, either etched or not.
 
I love the concept and execution. I think a taco fold vs the butt weld would be the way to go. This would give a random transition from iron to steel, although I kind of like the straight line where the steel begins.
 
Very cool! It's funny, I hadn't seen it for a while so I decided to watch that youtube video by Niels Provos on forging a "kabab barg" knife where he uses the same welding and tip forging techniques as shown here the other day.

That really is a beautiful piece of wrought iron! All the lines in it along with the perfectly straight lamination line to the carbon steel edge makes this look a lot like Japanese Suminigashi steel.

Beautiful job, it turned out very nicely. :thumbup:

Thanks for sharing. :)

~Paul
My YT Channel Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)
 
redeagle66 said:
I love the concept and execution. I think a taco fold vs the butt weld would be the way to go. This would give a random transition from iron to steel, although I kind of like the straight line where the steel begins.
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Taco weld is on the list. There are I think 4 different welding techniques that were found in medieval period knives. The next one I'm going to do is a scarf weld. After that it's going to either be iron wrapped around a steel core, or edge steel wrapped around an iron core. My plan is to do all of them, but one thing at a time... ;)
 
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