First Sword

I finally made a sword:

I started it a year ago in Sam Salvati's excellent western sword class at the New England School of Metalwork.

I'm the dork on the right wearing the white shirt.

We spent a week working our butts off to make a real but plain sword with a rough finish on the blade.

 I got mine home a decided I wanted to clean up the blade and maybe make a sheath.  It turned into a complete rebuild...
I cleaned up the profile of the blade and sanded it down to 400grit.  In the process of shaping and polishing the sword also got sharpened.  You have to carefully shape the edge so that it will be strong enough to take the impact force but sharp enough to cut well.
Once I had the blade finished I decided I couldn't put the rough fittings we'd made in class back on, and the handle needed to be replaced because I'd done such a shitty job on it (addict logic).

Fitting the wax parts to the sword

I carved a hilt and pommel and cast them in bronze.  The handle was once again a piece from my brother's firewood pile - maple burl this time.  I finished it just in time to take it to the Ashoken Bladesmithing conference, which this year was focused on swords :-)

The blade is made of 1084 carbon steel and is 31 inches long.  The sword is 40" overall and weighs 2 1/2 lbs.  It's not any particular type of sword.  If I had put the pommel where the little brass divider is in the handle then it clearly would be a one handed cut and thrust sword.  With the extra handle it's more like a little bastard sword.  The balance, nodes of vibration and rotation are all right for a basic one-handed cutting sword.  The sweetspot is about 2/3rds of the way down the blade so it should cut well.  It feels good in the hand - my friend Emilliano's comment was "I like how it kinda disappears in your hand."

The gems are jade, and the medallion set into the pommel is sterling silver. The medallion is a bit of a Rorschach test...

Up next is the sheath, which will probably take another year since it's a personal project and so I have to fit it in between the paying wok and the rest of life.