Blade of Woe

Richard338

Richard338

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May 3, 2005
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My kids play a popular video game called Skyrim which features a powerful dagger called the "Blade of Woe".
Naturally they think I should try to make one.
It is pictured below.
Scaling up the picture until the handle would be a reasonable size makes it just fit on a piece of 3" x 18" stock. I'm considering approaching this as an integral starting with 0.75" thick A2 (which could patina like the image)
There are a few questionable design elements that might need tweaking while still trying to be recognizable. Assuming that I can adjust the handle for comfort and safety, I mainly wonder about two things: 1) should the blade droop so far below the handle?, 2) these decorative strips along the upper grind would require a lot of work and it would be difficult to achieve a good overall bevel underneath.
If I start with 0.75" thick stock, there will be a lot of material to remove, especially imagining a strong distal taper.
How far would you guys go before heat treat? If I put in the taper and bevels it wouldn't contact quench plates. Anyone know how Peters' does A2?
Maybe this is too impractical...

IMpypwf.jpg
 
Thanks, yes A2 is pretty easy to patina. Hopefully I could achieve a cool look with that. My concern is the ridges. If I grind the bevel to the depth of the top of the ridges and then use files from there, it will be a lot of work, and no doubt tricky to make it all come together nicely.
 
Those ridges could prove to be pretty serious stress riser hot spots. Another option is to electro etch them in for the same general visual appearance.

5160 might be a better choice for this with the thick .75" cross section coming in from the guard area - might make your quench a bit tricky in A2. You can get 5160 in very thick cross sections by reclaiming a leaf from a tractor trailer (for pretty much nothing).

And if you decide you don't really need it to be super functional, you could always slowly build up the ridges via mig after HT, then clean them up by hand. Be a lot less work than working everything else down.
 
Regarding the ridges, what about filing them in after HT. You could either just do the ridges, or if you want to go all out, you could file out the spaces and leave the ridges....
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys.
I'll have to give the ridges more thought.
I was thinking to file out all the gaps, leaving the ridges. Another possibility is to carve channels with undercut and then put strips of another metal like bronze in later.
I'm not too worried about the stress aspect as I don't imagine any hard use on this one.
I have just ordered a piece of A2, so that much is set.
 
A.McPherson said:
You could cut a belt down to the appropriate size, then make a platten sized to match, then grind them in...
Click to expand...
It depends a bit on how faithful I stay to the picture. In the picture, the spacings change quite a bit...
 
Richard338 said:
the spacings change quite a bit..
Click to expand...
true, but as long as the belt and platen is only as wide as the narrowest spacing, you'd be fine. This is no different than using a file, I think the motivation for suggesting this is that using a grinder would be faster than using a file.
 
weo said:
true, but as long as the belt and platen is only as wide as the narrowest spacing, you'd be fine. This is no different than using a file, I think the motivation for suggesting this is that using a grinder would be faster than using a file.
Click to expand...
Good point. I've also got some EDM stones in my arsenal.
 
Good luck.

I have seen them from resin and aluminum dust as well as mild steel.

You may be the first one to make a real knife
 
AVigil said:
Good luck.

I have seen them from resin and aluminum dust as well as mild steel.

You may be the first one to make a real knife
Click to expand...

Thanks, I hadn't thought to look. Quickly searching now, I just saw an especially crappy one on amazon. They reversed the ridges and just filed in some grooves.
 
Well, let the madness begin.
I got the block of A2 (3" x 18" x 0.75") from online metals and was pleasantly surprised to see it precision ground.
It weighs 11.5 pounds right now. I talked to Brad at Peters' and he said that they will have no trouble with the heat treat, but will add a stress relief step before hardening, cryo, and tempering.
I picked up 6 new hacksaw blades, so tomorrow is shoulders and triceps day (this could be the day I regret not buying a bandsaw...).
Wo9JIY9.jpg
 
Richard338 said:
Well, let the madness begin.
I got the block of A2 (3" x 18" x 0.75") from online metals and was pleasantly surprised to see it precision ground.
It weighs 11.5 pounds right now. I talked to Brad at Peters' and he said that they will have no trouble with the heat treat, but will add a stress relief step before hardening, cryo, and tempering.
I picked up 6 new hacksaw blades, so tomorrow is shoulders and triceps day (this could be the day I regret not buying a bandsaw...).
Wo9JIY9.jpg
Click to expand...

Holy crap, you are going to cut 3" A2 with a hacksaw?

See you in 3 months LOL
 
I once made a 3" cut in 1.5" thick mild steel for a sword pommel. That took 20 minutes.
This is only 0.75" thick, but much longer...
If it is too slow I'll bail and take it to the machine shop at work. I just don't know what they are doing right now due to the virus.
 
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