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- Jan 10, 2010
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I thought some of you may be interested in the process involved with making shear steel and the blades I'm forging from it. I just attended Ric Furrer's 'Shear Madness' workshop in Sturgeon Bay, WI (www.doorcountyforgeworks.com) to learn to make this stuff. Shear steel is a method of making high carbon tool steel from wrought iron (pure iron). It was the primary method of making steel in Western society from the Middle Ages up into the mid 19th Century when the Bessemer process became the norm.
The method basically consists of cutting wrought iron plate into manageable sizes.. in this case we had 6-7" long plates each about 1/4". You stack the plates in a square can made of mild steel with what is basically charcoal. You weld the can shut and then soak it in a forge at a good welding heat for... quite a long time... a couple of hours in our case. You place a 'test strip' of wrought iron into the can through a hole so that you spark test it after a while to see if it is carburized. This carburizing process basically gives you a very high carbon steel called blister steel. This blister steel is too high in carbon for tool making as well as being very high in silaceous slag so it has to be further refined. These plates are stacked, tack welded together to make a very thick billet 4-5" thick. Not something you want to manage by hand. This billet is then subjected to multiple forge weldings and pressing until you have about 1" thick rectangular billet. This is then cut up, stacked, tack welded and put through the same process. And then you do it one more time! These multiple foldings and stackings refine the steel, evenly distribute the carbon and promote nice patterning similar to wrought iron. These natural patterns in the steel are the reason why I'm interested in this.. beyond the idea of making historically correct swords and knives.
Once you've refined three times (as described above), you then forge it out into whatever you want. The final product is a very shallow hardening, beautifully patterned steel. I'm not yet sure what Rockwell is attainable... I will make a test knife and harden it before doing anything else.
My first project with this will be a 14" blade Viking/Saxon short sword/longknife... or seax (sax). This is the kind of steel that was used for these.. although they were usually pattern welded or laminated with wrought iron. This will be my largest blade yet.. and hopefully a hopeful stepping stone into some swordsmithing.
So here are some pictures of the process:
Here is the can after doing the initial carburizing soak. There is a piece of wrought iron in the picture to show what it looked like before carburizing:
This is a close up of the wrought iron that has now become 'blister steel':
Here are the pieces of blister steel getting forge welded together and pressed:
Once pressed and welded then they get cut up stacked, forge welded and pressed three more times.. this refines the steel, getting rid of slag and evenly distributes the carbon.
Here is Ric at his enourmous Nazel hammer drawing out for cutting:
I took home about 5 pounds of bars that needed further process and drawing out and then I started forging the seax. A huge thank you to Raymond and Tai for introducing me to this incredible tool.. Godzilla!
Here is the forged blade (note brand new Brent Bailey flatter hammer):
Here it is after some grinding and etching to see the steel's patterns:
This is my first conceptualization.. based on some limited historical research and some of my own ideas. This is already changing.. mostly in the scabbard. There are both Saxon and Viking elements to the design.
Forging wrought iron wraps for the scabbard:
Some home smelted 'bloomery' steel given to me by Randy Skidmore.... I will used this for the pommel cap.
Here it is after quenching and fitting wrought iron guard:
And... drum roll... Lady's and Gentleman let me introduce you to my first sword!
You now how these things go. You start grinding, you make some mistakes and a 14" blade turns into a 2.5" utility knife. Oh well. Nice patterns on the blade eh?
The method basically consists of cutting wrought iron plate into manageable sizes.. in this case we had 6-7" long plates each about 1/4". You stack the plates in a square can made of mild steel with what is basically charcoal. You weld the can shut and then soak it in a forge at a good welding heat for... quite a long time... a couple of hours in our case. You place a 'test strip' of wrought iron into the can through a hole so that you spark test it after a while to see if it is carburized. This carburizing process basically gives you a very high carbon steel called blister steel. This blister steel is too high in carbon for tool making as well as being very high in silaceous slag so it has to be further refined. These plates are stacked, tack welded together to make a very thick billet 4-5" thick. Not something you want to manage by hand. This billet is then subjected to multiple forge weldings and pressing until you have about 1" thick rectangular billet. This is then cut up, stacked, tack welded and put through the same process. And then you do it one more time! These multiple foldings and stackings refine the steel, evenly distribute the carbon and promote nice patterning similar to wrought iron. These natural patterns in the steel are the reason why I'm interested in this.. beyond the idea of making historically correct swords and knives.
Once you've refined three times (as described above), you then forge it out into whatever you want. The final product is a very shallow hardening, beautifully patterned steel. I'm not yet sure what Rockwell is attainable... I will make a test knife and harden it before doing anything else.
My first project with this will be a 14" blade Viking/Saxon short sword/longknife... or seax (sax). This is the kind of steel that was used for these.. although they were usually pattern welded or laminated with wrought iron. This will be my largest blade yet.. and hopefully a hopeful stepping stone into some swordsmithing.
So here are some pictures of the process:
Here is the can after doing the initial carburizing soak. There is a piece of wrought iron in the picture to show what it looked like before carburizing:
This is a close up of the wrought iron that has now become 'blister steel':
Here are the pieces of blister steel getting forge welded together and pressed:
Once pressed and welded then they get cut up stacked, forge welded and pressed three more times.. this refines the steel, getting rid of slag and evenly distributes the carbon.
Here is Ric at his enourmous Nazel hammer drawing out for cutting:
I took home about 5 pounds of bars that needed further process and drawing out and then I started forging the seax. A huge thank you to Raymond and Tai for introducing me to this incredible tool.. Godzilla!
Here is the forged blade (note brand new Brent Bailey flatter hammer):
Here it is after some grinding and etching to see the steel's patterns:
This is my first conceptualization.. based on some limited historical research and some of my own ideas. This is already changing.. mostly in the scabbard. There are both Saxon and Viking elements to the design.
Forging wrought iron wraps for the scabbard:
Some home smelted 'bloomery' steel given to me by Randy Skidmore.... I will used this for the pommel cap.
Here it is after quenching and fitting wrought iron guard:
And... drum roll... Lady's and Gentleman let me introduce you to my first sword!
You now how these things go. You start grinding, you make some mistakes and a 14" blade turns into a 2.5" utility knife. Oh well. Nice patterns on the blade eh?
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, the Canon 5d markII is the way to go. My wife shots one and I shoot 30D, I was hoping to have upgraded by now but the last part of the year has been lean.