Forging a Sword (Part 1): The Basic Shape

Right, we're having the important conversation that's got to be had, which is what sort of sword do I want? Now, as viewers of my channel will know, I'm putting together a 1450 period suit of armour, so it seems sensible to have a sword suitable to go with that suit of armour, because a knight must have a sword. And the recommended type in the oak shot typology is a Type 18. But that doesn't answer the question completely, because there are several types of 18. So what we've got is one of the bigger groups in the oak shot typology. The Type 18 plane is very different from, say, the Type 18D, but they all have similar characteristics that run through them. So apart from the 18A, none of them have got fullers, they're all of the flat and diamond cross section, and they all taper, they have a parallel taper towards a point which ends up like a fairly thick point, apart from Type 18D. Oh yes, that's a Type 18 as well. It's very pointy and needle-like. Now you see, to me that looks like ... I would give that a different type name, because that's got a very different point. But the other Type 18s have all got the same proportions of point, and the same general proportions of taper. Some are very clearly one-handed, that one is very clearly two-handed, and that one's possibly a bastard sword. Anyway, I'm thinking of going for a bastard sword, because it's sort of English. And it's a long sword, ... not a long sword, but a long sword, but it's wearable. It's not going to be dragging on the ground if you have it on the scabbards. You can have it by your side and it looks knightly. It might not be your principal fighting weapon anyway. Lance and mace and axe and so forth might be your principal fighting weapon. So it's more your badge of, I'm a knight, badge of honour. And I've had put into my hand this piece of metal, which has a fuller going the whole length of it, which is very pretty. Just like Excalibur from that film, Excalibur. But unfortunately, apparently, Type 18s never have a fuller all the way down the blade. But I can have a bit of a fuller, because I can have one going about a third of the way down. So I get a go at finding out just how flipping difficult, using traditional methods, putting a fuller on a blade is. And if I make a mess of it, well then, on my own head be it. A fuller, just in case you don't know, is what, in books being ... written 30 years ago, people would call a blood groove. Because all the books used to tell you that it was for letting the blood flow out of your enemies. Yeah, no one says that anymore. It's to lighten the blades, give it a bit of flexibility. And quite possibly also because they are quite pretty. They do look very pretty when done nicely. See, he even admits that they are very pretty. Anyway, this, I'm just holding it in my hand here, this is a really nice length and a nice feel. It's a length which would work nicely in two hands, and quite feasibly in one hand as well. So something about this length, and perhaps about this weight of blade as well, would suit me, I think, rather nicely. But a Type 18 version of this, so it's got a slightly different proportion of point. Wonderful. OK, so we've had the conversation then? There it is, we know what we want. OK, but we don't know exactly what twiddle we're going to have with the quillons, there's quite a bit of potential twiddle. We'll worry about that later. OK, first the blade, huh? First the blade. What is this piece of metal? This is a bar of EN45 spring steel. It's my favourite steel for making swords. The chemical composition of it is in such a way that when we heat treat it correctly, which we will, you get an incredibly tough sword that will also hold a really nice edge. Which are, for me, the two main criteria of a sword. Right. Will it break? No. Will it hold an edge? Yes. OK, but the drawback is it's incredibly difficult to forge? No, it's actually one of the easier spring steels to forge. It's very forgiving. Right. Which lends itself well to beginners. And the drawback is it rusts. It will rust on you. So you've got to take really good care of it. For instance, here we are, a sword that hasn't been taken care of very well, and it's been left in the workshop for a few months. Right. So that's just been left in a workshop in ordinary air, possibly even drier than normal air, considering you're out of fire. Oh, OK. But it hasn't been dredged up from a lake or anything. That's just an ordinary atmosphere has done that. So probably get some oil, might be an idea. OK, so we're going to start at the pointy end and work our way towards the handle end. And all going well, by the time we get to the handle end, we've lengthened it by so much and pushed so much metal that way that there'll be enough metal left over to make the tang. Correct. But you're still not tempted to just put a little bit on, because my instinct would be to stick enough on for a tang anyway, just in case. But I don't know, maybe this is extremely expensive stuff or... Not especially. So is it that actually physically it's just harder to handle a big bit of metal? No, I just don't like wasting steel. OK, and you're completely confident there'll be enough left over for a tang. Do you know what, Lloyd? For you, we'll put an extra few inches on. Right, so the very start of the sword. First, the tip. Tom started to make a similar sword, but longer, so that he could show me how it's done. So with a few depth strokes, he puts the point that was at one edge, he puts it into the middle. Right, so all I've got to do is that. So the other thing that we need to introduce you to now, is your new best friend. I have a new best friend? The wire brush. Ah, for descaling. For descaling. So if you don't wire brush, you end up with a piece covered in little pits. Because as you're hammering, you'll be hammering in the hammer scale. All the little fluffy stuff that's coming off, this stuff gets hammered in and makes pits. So a new addition to the routine. Steel comes out, brushy, brushy, brush, lovely job, over to the anvil. Right, so you didn't do that on the first heat, but thereafter. So all this scale that's forming and turning dark and flaking off is iron oxide. Yes, this is where the iron reacts with the oxygen. What percentage of the weight of the bar are we going to lose through scaling? Maybe two or three percent. Oh, okay, not very much at all. No. So start hitting this side. Get over it more. Wow, it's not moving anything like as fast as when you did it. Okay, starting to twist, don't like that. I'm having to get rid of the twist now. Okay, it didn't get very far, never mind. Starting to look like a sword. It's pointy. Well, this is quite efficient, this doing alternating. Yeah. Now, what did you forget to do? We did the brush of shame because I was always wearing it. Oh, okay. Once you're happy with your point. Right. You start working this much further back. Wow, okay. What we're going through is a much more tapered tip than that, isn't it? And also what we're going to do later is forge the bevels, which will actually make the whole thing wider. Right. So you want to switch this down a fair old bit if you want a kind of narrow pointy point. So you can switch to a lighter hammer. I was just about to say, I think this... I think I can feel when I've hit it well because my left hand doesn't feel any vibration going down the blade because the thing I'm hitting is in perfect contact with the anvil. Like there and not quite there. There though, it also sounds different. Now it was time to have a practice with the next tool I would be using. The power hammer on a piece of spare steel rod. There is a bar that I push down on with one foot that alters how alarming it is each time the thing smashes down on the hot metal. I quickly mastered too alarming and not alarming enough but the ideal middle line eluded me for some while. Then our two blades heated together in a gas furnace and it was time to apply power hammer to thing that mattered. Now you may feel that this is cheating a bit. That this isn't authentic medieval technique to use an electrically powered hammer. But as far as the metal is concerned the effect is much the same. In the early days instead of a power hammer you'd have two apprentices with big hammers bashing alternately. And by the period of the swords that we're making medieval blacksmiths were using water-powered trip hammers. So not very different in effect from this machine. Right, now we're at such a stage where we're heating the blade somewhere in the middle now whereas before we were working on the tip. And now on pulling it out of this heater it's possible for the sword to bend under its own weight because of the soft bit in the middle of it. So I've been told to turn it sideways so its width weighs on and take it out that way. And now this is easier because we're using, you know, a fairly broad bladed sword. But imagine if you're trying to do this with a rapier how much more difficult it is. Fortunately I'm not trying to make a rapier. Oh and after having just said that did I remember? No. As well as the profile tapering I was putting in what is called distal taper. A gradual reduction in thickness from hilt to tip. If I made a part of the blade thinner than a bit that was nearer the tip I would ruin the sword. You can't hammer it thicker again. Now to put on the tang which means there's no going back. Once I've done this I've decided how long the blade is going to be and I've put two little marks that are really difficult to see. So it's in the up position. Whoops! You're not supposed to clash the jaws of this together with nothing in between. Shall I start you up? There they are. No mistaking it now. As before Tom would do something first so that I could watch and copy. Squidge down the width. Even out the thickness. Squidge the width a bit more. Repeat. Thing's slightly too narrow now but it's also quite thick so we should be able to give it a couple of whacks and it'll be perfect. Jolly good. So a handy key for judging the sizes of various bits of a sword. And the tool is called the key for judging various bits of a sword. And now the cutting off of the excess metal. A stage that would have been unnecessary had I not been such a coward when we were measuring out the steel in the first place. Stop sliding around. You can see that the hammering has lengthened the blade by at least the length of the tang. Then I neatened up the end of the tang and on the anvil gave it a bit of a profile taper. Noisy! We wanted the bit of the tang right at the base of the blade to be the thickest point so that required getting back on the power hammer and thinning out and tapering the rest of the tang a bit. Quick straighten. Fine tuning on the anvil. So that's. Stick a point on it. Start the profile near the end of the blade. Extend the profile taper with the power hammer. Add the distal taper down the whole blade. Crudely shape the tang. Draw out and taper the tang.