Viking Sword Design - WIP - finished - COOP Photo added

I got the blade back from heat treat.
Before starting all the grinding and polishing I made a terotuf core for the handle. If the Vikings had used terotuf, their handles wouldn't have all rotted away by now...
It just needs a few shaping tweaks, but fits snug against the guard and pommel already.
Once the pommel is screwed on the balance comes to life. It is incredible how much easier it is to swing around in one hand and I haven't ground the bevels yet.
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I will put a 2 strand Turks-head knot around the middle of the core and some bands of square lace in a couple other spots, before covering with some Ostrich skin.
Probably the shin piece.
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I wrapped the core with the shin leather this weekend.
First I put some risers to locate and help the grip. The positioning of the risers and in particular the second band at the bottom was chosen because my handle grip is 4.5", which is about the longest seen historically.
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This was my first attempt at leather work of any kind (unless you count sending Paul Long a check...).
I measured and cut the piece, then thinned the leather along where the seam will be (they call this skiving).
I then soaked the leather for 15 minutes in lukewarm water, patted dry for a couple minutes in paper towel, and then wrapped it around the core, placing a layer of LeatherWeld glue underneath and especially snug against the risers.
I then wound string tightly around each section, trying to go tight against each riser.
I covered the whole thing in rubber bands.
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I had no idea if I had done a good job or if I had a bunched up mess underneath.
I also wasn't too sure about the moisture level, so I let it dry for two full days.
Unwrapping it today I was very happy to see tight definition around the risers and no strange wrinkles or poor seams.
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I trimmed it slightly at the ends and put it in place with the other handle parts.
Before the final assembly I will try to carefully trim and tuck the edges.
Still many steps left in the project, but some relief at not botching this one!
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I think my planishing hammer will arrive tomorrow and so I may start the decorative inlay on the guard.
(that or begin grinding the bevels)
 
I ground the bevels this weekend. So far they are flat ground to about 0.025", with a little more left at the tip.
(no major screw-ups)
I am part way through hand sanding the flats. I want to clean up a few more scratches and then refine the tip.
I don't know how far to push the hand sanding since I will convex it to sharp.
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weo said:
Sweet looking work! I can't wait to see the finished product.

I say go for it!
Click to expand...

Thanks!
Yes, as far as the decorative inlay goes, I'm too far down the rabbit hole to stop now.
A couple weeks ago I thought I should just admit that I simply couldn't do it.
Then I bought a draw plate to thin the wires consistently and I could start to see it as possible.
Now I just bought a really nice planishing hammer, so I'm too invested to quit.
One main worry is getting the grooves done nicely considering that my guard is curved...

Generally, I'm at the stage where I want to take my time and not settle for small imperfections that I will look at later and wonder why I didn't spend a few more hours sanding.
Grinding and sanding all the bevels on CPM 3V post heat treat at 60 hardness was pretty tiring.
 
Great work!! Handle is amazing!! But man .. I wanted to see how you ground that thing ! Lol
 
razor-edge-knives said:
Great work!! Handle is amazing!! But man .. I wanted to see how you ground that thing ! Lol
Click to expand...
Thanks!
For the main grinding I used 2 of the 3M 984F belts in 60 grit. I swapped out the belt after 2 of the 4 bevels.
I started with aggressive passes to get started and then seemed to luck into a pretty smooth lighter groove that was a lot more even than I feared.
I smoothed it a bit more with 120, 220, and 320 grits.
The danger of massive errors is over as I've switched to hand sanding, but boy is it tough going (my fingers and even arms are pretty sore).
I'm using a thick rectangular bar of 416 as a backing and it is getting it very flat and a good transition to the fuller.
I was cursing my grinding abilities as a couple little dings took a long time to get out.
On the plus side, it is really starting to look fantastic, and with only hand sanding I should be safe.
I'll post some more pics once I finish the hand sanding. I have finished 2 of the 4 bevels so far.
 
Richard338 said:
Thanks!
For the main grinding I used 2 of the 3M 984F belts in 60 grit. I swapped out the belt after 2 of the 4 bevels.
I started with aggressive passes to get started and then seemed to luck into a pretty smooth lighter groove that was a lot more even than I feared.
I smoothed it a bit more with 120, 220, and 320 grits.
The danger of massive errors is over as I've switched to hand sanding, but boy is it tough going (my fingers and even arms are pretty sore).
I'm using a thick rectangular bar of 416 as a backing and it is getting it very flat and a good transition to the fuller.
I was cursing my grinding abilities as a couple little dings took a long time to get out.
On the plus side, it is really starting to look fantastic, and with only hand sanding I should be safe.
I'll post some more pics once I finish the hand sanding. I have finished 2 of the 4 bevels so far.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the description! I have ground a few swords but find it tough keeping everything nice and even, esp. on long swords. You are doing great!
 
I finished a bunch of hand sanding and am posting a couple of progress pics.

Since this assembly was just a mock-up, I didn't tighten the pommel (it goes another full turn, but the handle core wants to scuff it, so I will do a final polish on the pommel and then fully tighten when I glue it up).
The remaining steps are:
1) Apply gold leaf to inscription (my heavy gold foil arrived today from Rio Grande)
2) Perform herringbone gold/silver twisted wire inlay all around guard (this will be a huge tedious step!).
3) carefully convex the edges to final sharpness
4) Final assembly/glue-up.

This thing looks crazy in person! While I was hand sanding I kept going between "why polish too much? this is CPM 3V with Peters' HT, you want to hack stuff" and "wow, if I don't mess up I might actually send this to Coop for photos...".
Anyway, lots more work to go, but reached a pretty solid point today after hours of sanding spread over the evening of last week.

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In short my process was crap.

I don't have much milling experience (I can get into a machine shop at work) and what seemed like a very simple plan almost messed it up.
I had already done the fuller groove at a constant width and depth and was relying on the distal taper to gradually narrow and shallow the fuller.
I marked 5 locations along the length where I expected a linear taper going from 0.00" of removed material to 0.05" removed on each side (taking my 0.25" thickness down to 0.15" near the tip).
I got the piece level and supported on a thick piece of stock, then shimmed up one end. The passes with the cutter left a pretty rough finish and worse than that, my support must have been bowing since the taper wasn't coming out linear.
I could clearly see that the expected gradual taper in the fuller was coming in uneven. I stopped milling while I still had plenty of material to go.
Ultimately, I achieved the taper amazingly precisely by running the blade under the contact wheel of my grinder with a 36 grit belt. I stopped frequently to mic at all the index points.
I got it within a thou or two of the goal at each index point. Then I clamped the piece to a table and smoothed it further with a large file.
 
Finally a bit more progress after being stuck traveling.
I applied the gold foil to the inscription.
I also made a wooden core for the scabbard.
It is lined with felt and I got lucky with the fit. It is perfectly snug, just holding the blade securely (I can hold it upside down without it falling out).
I guess it's better to be lucky than good...
I used a compass to match the curvature at the top of the scabbard to the guard and that is also a perfect fit.
The wooden sides are only 1/8" thick, so I just finished wrapping it in West Systems biaxial glass fabric and soaking it in resin.
Hopefully that will add plenty of strength without much thickness. I plan to pay someone to do a leather covering.
I still need to tackle the last and most tedious step of putting the herringbone inlay into the guard.
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I put a band of herringbone wire inlay on each side of the guard.
This was very tedious, but you do get the hang of it and get in a rhythm of rotating through the four different wires (gold, gold:silver left twist, silver, gold:silver right twist...and repeat...) all done under an Optivisor.
My lines were made with a 40 lines per inch checkering file, cleaned up with a jewelers saw and then undercut on each side with a knife graver.
I could only do a band of inlay, since the curvature of the guard makes the rows take on an increasing angle the further out you go. To go all the way around, I would have needed a simple flat guard which I didn't like the idea as much.
The inlay seems very secure after hammering it all in.
Claude Scott has my scabbard core to cover with leather and I'm looking forward to getting back something awesome to complete the package. I also made a wooden bridge structure (bog oak) that will go on top of the scabbard.
The final glue up of the handle is done and it is sharpened.
I might even send it to Coop for photos once I have the scabbard. That would be a dream for a hobby maker. In prep for that, while I wait for the scabbard, I will try to find the energy to carefully polish every inch of this thing.
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Thanks Ken. With such a long project and the limited time I get to spend on it I always feel like I'm playing catch up on trying to improve my abilities in the shop. I just got offered a nice job opportunity for the next two years, but would have to spend 3 weeks per month in DC and travel back and forth constantly. I won't tell the wife I want to turn it down on the basis of knife making. If I take it I guess I will have to stick to making 4" drop point hunters for a while...
 
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