Viking Sword Design - WIP - finished - COOP Photo added

[Richard338]

After having so much fun making a katana I have decided to attempt a viking style sword.

I found an amazing old thread by Phillip Patton that spanned about 2.5 years.
He made a beautiful pattern welded sword:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/pattern-welded-sword-wip.620581/

I dug up some info on various styles and parameters:
http://www.vikingage.org/wiki/wiki/Swords
I will try the "type three" blade (gentle taper, tapered fuller).
I'm looking at a Petersen type R guard and pommel.
As awesome as the pattern weld can be and look, apparently (especially the later ones) most were monosteel. As a stock removal guy I don't have a choice.
I'm starting with a bar of precision ground CPM 3V (36" x 2" x 0.25").
(what viking smith wouldn't use that if he could...)

The blade will be 30.5", 2" at its widest, with a broad fuller on both sides.

Fuller: The fuller is 0.9" wide near the guard and tapers to 0.56", 6" before the tip.
I am working on a jig to use a 4" wheel to make the fuller.
I plan to make the fuller initially 0.9" wide for its entire length.
The equations of a chord of a circle tell me that the deepest point of the fuller down the center line will be 0.051".
After doing both sides, this leaves a thickness at the center of the channel of 0.147".
Next, milling/grinding a linear distal taper, thinning each side starting from zero at the guard, to a reduction by 0.03" (each side) measured 6" from the tip, will gradually narrow the fuller width to 0.56" at that point as desired.

Inscription: As seen in my design image I will attempt an inscription.
Rather than forge welding iron, I will carve out the letters (about 0.03" deep using gravers I ordered) and fill them with 90-10 copper nickel (brake-line). 90-10 copper-nickel was chosen to not melt away at the 1950 degree F temp that Peters holds 3V at during heat treat.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/melting-temperature-metals-d_860.html
(yes I spoke with Brad about doing this)

I will use some of the techniques found here:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Viking-wire-inaly/
for carving the inscription (including undercutting the edges with a knife graver).
Then I will melt the copper-nickel into place instead of cold hammering.
Grinding and sanding after to clean up.
I plan to do some test pieces first...

I have all the parts to make the guard and pommel including a herringbone inlay in some combination of gold, silver and copper, but I'll leave that description for another day.

 

[Ken H>]

Photos photos!!! This sounds like a real interesting project - looking forward to following the build.

 

[Richard338]

Photos photos!!! This sounds like a real interesting project - looking forward to following the build.

Yes, I'll definitely post photos at each stage.
I sort of jumped the gun starting this thread since I'm still waiting for several packages to arrive, including the 4" wheel to do the fuller.
In contrast to my katana project, at least I feel like I understand all the parts and steps in advance.
The question as always will be if I can make each piece to a reasonable standard without any disasters.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Big project!

Have you done hand engraving inaly in steel before?
Pouring molten metal into a shallow cavity doesn't work as simple as it sounds. Before doing too much on the sword I would suggest you try it on some scrap. Cutting the letters to size in the inlay metal and hammering them in place is much more likely to succede.

 

[Richard338]

I'll definitely test the procedure in advance.
I would have been confident with bronze brazing rod, but the melting temp is too low to survive HT. If I have trouble during testing, then as you suggest I will switch to hammering it in...

 

[Richard338]

I'm still waiting for a 4" wheel to arrive to start the fuller grooves on the blade.
In the meantime I started the basic shaping of the guard.
I got a cheap (random length) rectangular piece of 1" x 1.5" 1018 mild steel.
A fresh 18 tpi hacksaw blade cut it to length.
A 36 grit belt and pressed it into my 8" wheel to curve the underside.

Eventually I want to fit it closely to the blade including the fuller, so I just put a 1/8" hole in the center for now while all the sides were still square.
Next, ground down the top side to match the curvature.

Next, did the rough shaping of the oval profile.

I will refine the shape and finish before trying the herringbone inlay around the side edge.

 

[JTknives]

Is that a pringle mold for shaping chips in the oven?

 

[Richard338]

Is that a pringle mold for shaping chips in the oven?

Ha, yes, the shape is a lot like a Pringle. I could have skipped messing with shapes in PowerPoint.

 

[Richard338]

It's funny that JT mentioned a Pringle. The herringbone inlay pattern I'm attempting was done by Jeff Pringle...
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking_sword_hilt_inlay.htm

I narrowed the guard a bit after looking at more examples.
You can also see my test piece to practice the inlay.
I hoped that the 50 lines per inch mentioned in the link above was a typo and did both 50 and 20 with checkering files.
Unfortunately it looks like the 50/in is correct.
I'm also putting on an optivisor and doing an undercut on each side of each groove with a 3/0 jewelers saw.
I hammered in some twists of 28 ga wire and they stick nicely thanks to the undercut.
I just hammered some twisted wire for a first test and will attempt the actual herringbone later.
It will be damn tedious going all the way around the guard which is hundreds of lines (maybe I'll wait for the in-laws to visit...).

 

[Hengelo_77]

that's an interesting article

 

[Richard338]

Quick update. I was traveling for a couple weeks.
My 4" (ali baba) wheel arrive to grind the fuller.
The bore on the wheel was 25mm and the shaft on my grinder is exactly 1", so I had to bore it out slightly to fit.
I managed to get a good fit and it runs smoothly.
It was running too slowly since my setup assumes an 8" drive wheel. I got a new pulley/belt and got started.
I managed to grind a reasonable fuller along the rectangular piece.
Tomorrow I will mill in the distal taper, before profiling.
For the inlay I carved a deep letter L into a test block and tried to melt copper-nickel (brake-line) into it.
The brake-line grudgingly melted, but wouldn't flow, just blobbed into a ball.
I have begun engraving the inlay anyway with a dremel.

I might cold hammer copper into it. I would need to carve out and undercut the letters (I got some graving tools).
Or I might just texture it a bit more with the dremel and possibly rub some copper or gold into it...
It kind of looks cool already.

 

[Richard338]

I finally got a bit more done after having to travel yet again.
Tons more work to do, but I'm posting a quick update as I haven't given up.
I milled and ground in the distal taper, so it goes from 0.25" near the "I" in the inscription to 0.15" at the tip.
This had the effect of tapering the fuller groove.
I profiled the blade except for the tip and handle areas.
It is interesting how the balance has evolved.
You can't easily swing around a piece of rectangular bar stock, but after the fuller, distal taper and then taper of the width, it is getting much easier (it will change dramatically more with the guard and heavy pommel).
The bevels will come after heat treat.

'

 

[Richard338]

I made a bit more progress, getting the guard fit and a rough pommel drilled and tapped onto the tang.
The pommel hasn't been shaped yet.
I think I'll send the blade for HT now and grind the bevels after.
I still need to decide if I will really attempt the herringbone wire inlay all around the edge of the guard and pommel...

 

[REK Knives]

Looking good! Can't wait to see how you are going to grind that thing lol... Its a 36" blade?

 

[fishface5]

Looks like it is coming along great! I wonder if there is an easy way to affix gold leaf into the lettering?

 

[Richard338]

Looking good! Can't wait to see how you are going to grind that thing lol... Its a 36" blade?

Thanks, should be easy, the blade is only about 31"!
Yes, it will be a challenge to get it as straight and even as possible.

 

[Richard338]

Looks like it is coming along great! I wonder if there is an easy way to affix gold leaf into the lettering?

Thanks. I'll have to do some tests with the leaf. My understanding is that they use a special adhesive and push it on with a brush.

 

[Richard338]

A bit more progress while the blade is out for heat treat.

I shaped the pommel and blued it.
If you look at the sharpie outline in the last photo above, from there I just used files to make the three lobe profile.
I then ground the oval shape.
I was about to round off the lobes in the other direction when I realized that left as is, it sort of looks like the outer two lobes were achieved by forging (splitting it open on each side).
I decided to leave it for now.

I can't believe I had the patience to shape it from a rectangular block mainly with files.

Now I need to do some more tests of the silver/copper herringbone inlay procedure.
I might only do the edge of the guard, or perhaps both the guard and lower rim of the pommel, or neither...
I have a piece of 6" x 6" Ostrich quill leather in cognac color and a shin/leg piece in green coming from Ostrichmarket, hopefully by Friday.
I'll decide which to use to cover the handle core once I see them.

 

[john april]

that pommel is a work of art !

 

[Richard338]

I expected the blade back from heat treat on Saturday, but it didn't arrive yet. Once it does, there are many steps to work on.

In the meantime I thought I would take one more stab at the silver/copper herringbone inlay technique and decide whether or not to attempt it around the guard.
I was struggling with it in my last test and couldn't get the twisted wires to lay into the checkering file grooves very well.
I read that you are supposed to draw the twisted wires down thinner and to the same gauge as the plain wires.
I got a draw plate and passed them through a sequence of carbide dies, reaching 0.475mm (just under 24 gauge). The twists were one copper and one silver, both 28 gauge.
The plain wires are 24 gauge copper and silver and I passed them through the same draw plate hole, so all four are the same size.
Using a 40 lines/inch checkering file I got the following test pattern.
I was focusing on hammering them into the channels and didn't carefully align the twists row by row.
It is tedious as hell even with an Optivisor, but they will go pretty securely into the channels.
I can tell that I should polish the hammer I'm using as I see some roughness passed onto the wires.
I can brighten it with fine sand paper and possibly seal with clear marine epoxy.

I might try some additional hammering to see if it looks better more blended together.

It is a tough call whether to try this all around the guard...