Candy Ken double-edged titanium sword

Mecha

Mecha

Titanium Bladesmith
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
9,887
Here is a little custom blade, inspired by the Japanese ken double-edged sword. People say it looks kind of like a gladius or viking sword.

I call it the "candy ken" because of all the candy-coated colors on the titanium hilt parts.

Thin blade made of Russian BT23 titanium alloy, 23.25" in length, with a hilt of 6.25" for a total length of 29.5" and weighing in at 1 lb, 0.5 oz.

This is a really light, thin, fun little sword!

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WValtakis said:
What's the spine thickness on this, Sammy? Looks like a WICKED cutter:eek::cool:
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Just coming back to look at this one again, because I REALLY wanted to keep it. 😆

Just to further explain, the blade is less than 1/8" thick at the ridge at the thickest part near back third of the blade. It's gently tapered even thinner toward the distal end. The sweet spot is probably approaching 1/16" in thickness, and wide. Despite this, I would have no hesitation to cut fresh, hard green bamboo with it. A dangerous thing it is, and pushed the absolute limits in size of a blade I could make out of such thin ti.
 
hey - just thought you'd laugh / cringe / cry at this other guy making a 'ti' sword... he ended up using a steel core san mai... i guess, and i couldn't help thinking what you'd say about this build
Anyway, as always, you did an amazing job on this ken, love it!
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dirc said:
hey - just thought you'd laugh / cringe / cry at this other guy making a 'ti' sword... he ended up using a steel core san mai... i guess, and i couldn't help thinking what you'd say about this build
Anyway, as always, you did an amazing job on this ken, love it!
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I watched that entire video right when it came out. Every once in a while I do an internet search for "titanium sword" just to see what's out there. There's a lot more lately than there used to be, which was to say, zero.

I liked that guys sword, and it was cool to see his methods of making the piece, and the tools he used. Milling out the handguard and habaki from a solid piece of bronze was crazy!

It's always entertaining to see people's reaction to how quickly the abrasives are destroyed, and just to observe their ways of dealing with the material, which is invariably 6al4v ti alloy. And equally amazing to see new videos that are 20 minutes long having tens of thousands of views or more within a week, despite the content usually being so shallow. This guy's video was cooler than most of the titanium sword stuff that's arisen lately, I thought.
 
No prices on your site, is it one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" things?
I'm sure it violates some rules, but any ballpark price you can share?

The one thing I never see people do are broadheads in titanium, I have a set but they aren't solid Ti. Anyway, as a traditional archery hunter, broadheads are my only bit of kit in any of my gear that I have to be especially careful with as far as rust.
Seems like it would be child's play for you to make some. Ever try?
 
ElementalBreakdown said:
No prices on your site, is it one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" things?
I'm sure it violates some rules, but any ballpark price you can share?

The one thing I never see people do are broadheads in titanium, I have a set but they aren't solid Ti. Anyway, as a traditional archery hunter, broadheads are my only bit of kit in any of my gear that I have to be especially careful with as far as rust.
Seems like it would be child's play for you to make some. Ever try?
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I messed around many years ago with some strange custom arrowheads for a guy. I plan on making an entire archery set from ti, the bow, arrows, everything.

The website is mostly a gallery, basic info center, and collection of links to more stuff. There’s no prices because each piece is different, thus so are the prices. Many pieces are custom and require a lot of discussion, also.
 
Don't do that. Broadheads are cool, but trying to create limbs (nevermind a riser AND limbs) is a fool's errand unless you are considering some kind of compound or crossbow. Likewise arrows, they are basically designed to be disposable if not by design then by use.
For an art piece, I get it... but for a functional bow there are a dozen reasons metal is not popular for bow limbs beginning with inefficient transfer of energy and ending with metal fatigued limbs breaking or exploding.

I saw a video where your sword cuts through a 6" sapling? Did you record that? I haven't played with swords before but that was incredibly impressive. Is that a particularly soft wood, because that sword is basically vorpal. Like Excalibur absurdity. Even if it was staged it was beautiful, but I would love to hear if there's any more to what we see.
Either way, I am a fan of the unusual... So much appreciated.
 
ElementalBreakdown said:
Don't do that. Broadheads are cool, but trying to create limbs (nevermind a riser AND limbs) is a fool's errand unless you are considering some kind of compound or crossbow. Likewise arrows, they are basically designed to be disposable if not by design then by use.
For an art piece, I get it... but for a functional bow there are a dozen reasons metal is not popular for bow limbs beginning with inefficient transfer of energy and ending with metal fatigued limbs breaking or exploding.

I saw a video where your sword cuts through a 6" sapling? Did you record that? I haven't played with swords before but that was incredibly impressive. Is that a particularly soft wood, because that sword is basically vorpal. Like Excalibur absurdity. Even if it was staged it was beautiful, but I would love to hear if there's any more to what we see.
Either way, I am a fan of the unusual... So much appreciated.
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I can and will. The bow will be forged as one piece from stiff, springy titanium alloy, tuned through the shape and curvature of the limbs, with an infinite fatigue cycle and no chance of breaking or exploding. The arrows will be made specifically for the bow.

As for the swords, they work well. You’re probably referring to Dan Keffeler’s titanium sword, which was rather large. He made that sword, I just helped with the billet forging and heat treated it for him. One reason the sword could cut those trees, is because he’s so good at making super high performance big blades in general, and is also good at cutting.

The trees were not especially soft, and in fact some of that footage was in the icy freezing cold, yet he cut right through huge knots and limb sprouts.

If that blade was made out of 3V like his normal blades, it could have also cut the trees the same. The main advantage of the ti version is simply lighter weight.
 
Alright then, I'm rooting for you to succeed! You think you will post progress here? If not, what's the best way to keep up with the project?
I have been shooting traditional only archery gear over 40 years so I would love to help you any way I can.
I also experiment a lot with the gear, for example if you plan on doing any fletching on the arrows etc. I will share whatever data I have logged over the years about fletching size, twist, etc.... And spent more hours or more likely days noting differences in bow string materials strand count, twist, etc.
I have a really wacky old DVD called "doing the twist" if you plan on doing the string yourself. It describes how to do at least endless loop and Flemish strings, I think there are variations in there too.

Get in touch if I can help you in any way!
 
ElementalBreakdown said:
Alright then, I'm rooting for you to succeed! You think you will post progress here? If not, what's the best way to keep up with the project?
I have been shooting traditional only archery gear over 40 years so I would love to help you any way I can.
I also experiment a lot with the gear, for example if you plan on doing any fletching on the arrows etc. I will share whatever data I have logged over the years about fletching size, twist, etc.... And spent more hours or more likely days noting differences in bow string materials strand count, twist, etc.
I have a really wacky old DVD called "doing the twist" if you plan on doing the string yourself. It describes how to do at least endless loop and Flemish strings, I think there are variations in there too.

Get in touch if I can help you in any way!
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Nice! I’m sure I’ll have some questions for you. The fletching part is an area where I’ll need some guidance for sure.

For the string, the plan was to get a commercially available one from a sporting goods store.

One reason for wanting to do this project is that the way a bow’s arms are tapered and shaped is related to making a sword blade…It will be posted here when it happens.

I don’t think the bow will have super high performance, but expect it to work pretty well, we’ll see. Often these odd projects surprise. The boomerangs I made from titanium, the one I was throwing flew twice as far as anything else I’ve ever thrown!
 
We absolutely need videos of the boomerang, I don't know if I would poop my pants from fear or laughter at the sight of a spinning rainbow of death inbound.
The Sig P238 in rainbow Ti seems to create a love or hate reaction at the range. Or maybe that's because I only shoot it wearing skin tight pink neon Daisy Duke cutoff jeans shorts.
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