Viking sword fresh from the forge

ScottRoush

ScottRoush

Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
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This is one I just had to make and I had to make it right now. I just got back from a historical rendezvous and met a bunch of people starting a Viking era re-enactment group. Just the spark I needed to finally try a Viking blade so I forged one today. I don't normally do non-commissioned swords.. but I figure if it doesn't sell.. what the hell I finally have my own sword! I was going to wait until I had a pattern-welded blade for this... but I figured mono-steel would be a good opportunity to figure out the geometry and how to grind the wide fuller that will be on this one.

The Type G hilt and short blade combination were inspired each in their own way from an imaginative picture I saw in Ben Boo's 'Book of Swords' as well as a picture posted by Peter Johnsson on another forum. Short double-edged Viking swords are a rarity in the archaeological record.. as well as the Celtic looking Type G hilt. But both came together in the example shown by Peter.

So mine will be have a 25" blade that is 2 3/4" wide. It will have a very wide fuller and be a very thin, lively blade. It's Aldo 1075 and the type G hilt furniture will be wrought iron.. just as the actual specimen. I plan to do very little grinding on the guard and pommel and leave a hammered/etched finish. But I'm still not sure what I will do for the grip and pommel block.

http://www.bigrockforge.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_3128.jpg

More tomorrow!
 
Oops...

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I'm excited about this one too. Love the swords you've done so far, I'll be excited to follow this one.
 
Very cool Scott.. I've been wanting to try one but like you want to do a 5 bar construction.
I'm really looking forward to this progression.
 
Looking great Scott! I totally dig on your swords, man and really can't wait to see how this bad boy turns out
 
Thanks folks...

I have the fullers ground in.... pictures later today.

Stuart... another compelling thing about the shorter blades is that they were almost never pattern welded... always mono-steel. They seem to have been more for the 'poor warrior'. So... I felt okay about not doing a composite on this one. And like I said... much less of a loss if I screwed up the fullers!
 
Here is a picture showing (sort of) how I'm handling the fuller. I learned this method from Dave Stephens. I basically clamp the blade to an piece of angle iron and slide the blade with the apex of the wheel lined up with the center of the blade. The trick to this is having a MAP arm which attaches to a separate tool receiver on the side of my KMG... It's an articulated work rest that allows you to do the precise lines-ups required. It takes a lot of fiddling around to get it lined up.. but it is a pretty precise method.

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thanks folks...

Stuart.. If you start out with an even thickness of the blade from tang to tip... no forged distal taper.. then the fuller taper develops naturally as you grind in the blade's distal taper later. It works best if you forge the blade shape, use a thickness stop on the press for drawing out and then grind nice flats on each side before laying out the center line.
 
Thanks. I saw that was how Dave Stephens did it but I misunderstood your first post and thought you were forging close to shape including the distal taper.
 
Ahhh... Well I do sort of a hybrid between the two. My forged blades are not quite as perfect as Dave's and I did have to forge the bevels a bit to get the width I wanted which threw in some variation. I think he leaves a lot more thickness than I do and then grinds a machined-perfect blade blank. Which is better for this method. But works well enough if you have some variation in taper. You just have to fiddle with the wheel a bit in certain places.
 
Looking VERY good so far Scott. Hope to see it as it progresses.

Looking at the last picture, I too was wondering how the fullers are done to be symmetrical.

Peter
 
Thanks guys!

Some updates. I heat treated the blade with big ceramics kiln that I recently picked up and I got some warpage. It is a top loading kiln and I believe there is too much temperature stratification for long blades. So.. I've taken the whole dang thing apart and am using the bricks and the elements to extend an old smaller kiln into a digitally controlled sword heat treat kiln. Happy days are coming!

Anyway.. I spent most of today correcting the warp during tempering cycles. It's now straight. What a pain.

I also started the foundation polish after final grinding. But looks like I will have to play with the fuller geometry right up to the end. I also settled on grip material. I piece of 15,000 year old bison bone. I will cut the end off so it doesn't look like something from the Flintstones. Now.. spacers???

As you can see from the pictures this will be a very thin, wide blade for it's length. Can't wait to cut with it! 0.19 at the guard with very, very gentle distal taper to 0.17.

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