Hello guys. I am starting this topic to help both educate those of you who are interested in making a sword yourself, but also to get ideas and suggestions from you.

Rather then have to type it all over again, I am just going to copy and paste it from another thread:

For those of you who don't know what that is, the Katana is only one of a whole series of swords. The most common are the Katana (standard length) Uchigatana (shorter, faster, more maneuverable), Tachi (longer "reach out, touch me" sword) and the shirasaya (plain, guardless sword that looks like a long banana when sheethed)

These 3 swords ARE NOT the 3 swords that are usually found in Japanese sword display sets. Those 3 are USUALLY a Katana (largest), Wakazashi (medium) and Tanto (smallest)

Actually, it's fairly common to find Uchigatanas as the largest of the 3 swords in 3 sword sets of display swords, but most people wouldn't know the difference. The Uchigatana and Katana, to the untrained eyes, are pretty much the same (only different by 2-4 inches of blade length.

The Uchigatana was very popular among the Samurai because they could be drawn quickly, used single or double handed, and more mobile overall. You might say that the Uchigatana, in many ways, compared to the Katana the way the M-4 Carbine compares to the M-16.

In the media, the most well known example of Uchigatana usage I know of comes from the Playstation 3 video game: "Gengi: Days of the Blade", where the main character uses Uchigatanas (or Katanas the way Uchigatanas were used).

I went with an Uchigatana because, when I was in to martial arts a decade ago, my sword of choice was the Chinese Dao, but I still liked the Katana for it's defense-offense balance and techniques that revolved around actually making contact with your opponents sword with yours (most swords are not meant for that) and the Uchigatana seams to be the idea sword to achieve the best of both worlds. It's competitor was the German Messer sword. I originally started looking at just a simple Katana with a slightly shorter edge, and my friend eventually turned me on to the Uchigatana, which is consistent with the path I was already headed down.

I am using S-7 steel. The RC hardness is slightly less then homoginous, but it's wear resistance and ability to take a beating far surpasses even genuine Samurai swords. As I said, it was a great idea for the time, but obsolete today. I already had it heat treated and am in the final stages of construction. It is like a rock with gummy-like resistance to grinding but it's flexibility reminds me of an ugly stick. There's allot of supposedly cool new and fancy stuff coming out all the time, but ask around and you'll find that the most esteemed sword smiths tent to stick to S-7 due to it's tried and tested durability.

While it's a very bad idea to try heat treating it yourself, http://www.metalscience.com will heat treat it for around $100, though you better know what you're doing before you send it in as it can crack and split if prepared improperly. Their therma cycle is everything they say it is from my experience. I have handled Japanese swords from various eras (from the 1400s to the 1940s) and a variety of different qualities, including a couple real Samurai Swords (you'll know THEM when you see them) and so far, I have yet to see a historical Japanese sword that I have anywhere near the confidence in that I already have in the S-7 sword I am building. The one disadvantage that S-7 has to real Japanese samurai swords is that it's very flimsy and will flex on impact more then a Japanese sword will.

The Katana sword that Mythbusters used to try to cut a gun barrel and other swords (two different episodes) in half with was made out of S-7 and heat treated and therma cycled by the same company that I used to heat treat my sword.

Anyway, the sad thing is that I am starting this thread WAY late. This project was started LAST summer, so it's about a year and a half in. Normally, sword smithing won't take that long, but I have had ALLOT happen in that year and a half which has restricted me from being able to move along faster. So far, I have ROUGHLY about 120 hours invested and somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 ($100 for the sword, $92.50 for the heat treat +$25 S&H, $55 for cocobolo wood, $30 for various grinding belts, sharpening pads etc.) I still need to get more brass, hi-temp soldering materials, more belts, leather cord etc., so the costs of making this thing are not done increasing.

I am sort of a: "It's better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it" kind of guy, and as some of you know, I tend to become the victim of ugly circumstances that no one else on the face of the earth seams to have to worry about. Getting in to a real sword fight in my lifetime actually sounds like a reasonable possibility, not because I see it coming, but because things that bizarre happening are quite normal in my life, and people defending themselves with swords seams to be getting increasingly more common.

Likewise, I chose to go with a sword that isn't JUST sharp, but can also take a beating as well. Most people who make custom swords today are using straight (solid) bevels for maximum cutting power. While I have seen this bevel on some REALLY OLD (usually medieval) GI swords, I have never once seen this on an actual Samurai Sword. To put things in to perspective, when it comes to quality, comparing an old Japanese infantry sword to an actual Samurai sword is sort of like comparing a Llama 1911 handgun to a Kimber.

All of the real samurai swords that I have seen had one of these two bevels:





The first of the two seams to be the most common, but after discussing my concerns and interests with a friend who is a professional sword smith, I decided on the second one. Fortunately, if I decide I don't like it as much as the clam shell bevels that I have grown so fond of, I can easily convert it to one.

Finally, on to the actual making part. I ordered some S-7 flat stock in a 5/32x1/4 configuration and I used a regular hammer and anvil to pound the lower half of the metal down. This has 3 effects. First, it gives the sword the curved shape you want. Secondly, it makes the metal it's self wider and lastly, by making it wider, it makes the area that will eventually be the bevel thinner, which means that you won't be stuck with as much metal to grind down later.

Unlike many other metals, S-7 is perfectly OK to cold forge, but keep in mind that un heat treated S-7 is extremely soft and will bend easily, so try to keep it straight.

Then you will be beveling the blade. You should probably start by just beveling the entire piece of flat stock (on one side) down to about 1mm thickness at the tip of the edge. DO NOT bevel it to a complete edge as it will crack during heat treat and even if i survives, you will be spending the rest of the smithing process at risk of getting cut. Again, the bevel should go all the way from end to end and this should be done BEFORE you cut the tang (handle area) for reasons I will later explain.

In order to make sure that everything is smooth and in line, look down the sword from the back at an angle to make sure that everything is fluent and not out of shape. Here is a view of the sword I am working on taken from that angle:



That photo is over a year old and reveals one serious problem which obviously no longer exists on that sword. Look closely and you will see that the bevel is taller on the blade then it is on the tang. This is because I decided to raise the bevel even further after I had already cut the tang. A correctly made tang is the reverse. The bevel should get taller and slimmer towards the back so that the Habaki (collar) Tsuba (guard) etc. can slip on to a perfectly tight fit. If any of those parts have to slip over any areas of the tang that are thicker in dimension then the seating area, it will result in a loose and therefor weak fit. So the Tang should continually get thinner as it goes back. Also, don't be crazy about making the tang full length. Though longer is better overall, anything past 2/3 to 3/4 tang is probably overkill.

Before having the sword heat treated, you should drill at least one hole in the handle. It's hard to explain where, but look at photos of stripped Katanas and you should get the right idea. One final thing to remember before sending the sword in for hear treat is that the machine marks on it should be no finer then 100 grit. Also, try and tape it to a flat board when you send it in. Remember, S-7 is very soft and bendy prior to heat treat and it can get bent in shipping.

When dealing with Metal Science, they can do a regular heat treat on demand, but their therma cycle only gets run once every month or two from my experience, so you might want to either time out your shipping or be ready to wait. Their therma cycle is a heat-cryo process that takes 3 days to complete and dramatically increases the wear resistance of the metal. You don't want to skip it. Metal Science is a branch of the Angel Sword Forge, so don't be at all concerned about whether or not they know how to deal with swords. Swords are their primary occupation and they understand them better then you or I ever will. They themselves also make swords out of S-7, so they are quite familiar with how to deal with heat treating it for maximum results.

When you get it back from heat treat, it's going to look uglier then it ever has yet. It will be a charred black color and probably covered in a mild rust that built up during shipping. Don't be alarmed by any of this. That's just part of the process.

Now that it's been heat treated, you can finally finish your blade, but there are some new things to watch out for. Therma cycled metal doesn't loose it's integrity from sharpening or grinding, but it can by overheating it. If it gets hot enough to change color, you will have stripped some of the integrity of the metal away, so it's extremely important to keep the temperature mild. I try to keep a sponge in a bowl of water nearby to cool it whenever I need to. It will pick up mild rust spots now and then, but they are nothing to worry about. Anything like that will be long gone and far out of the picture by the time we give it it's final polish and sharpening.

Well, I have more info to share at the moment, but it requires photos. I have them, but I have misplaced the cord I need to get them off my camera, so we'll just have to leave things here for now.

More updates soon!

This post has been edited by brigadier: October 20th 2009 12:05 AM

A little update on this project. I have been hand polishing the sword and it's currently in the stage where part of the sword looks ugly as can be while another part looks breathtaking.

After tons of contemplating, I decided to go with a shallow clam shell bevel and do it by hand as the Samurai did. I chose to do it by hand for novelty, but after seeing the results, I am glad I did. It is turning out absolutely beautiful while both extremely sharp AND durable in ways that you'd just have to see it (in person) to understand. more similar to real Samurai swords then any modern examples I have ever seen, but still a little different. Being that just about all historical Samurai swords have been re polished, I can guess that the shallow differences are probably as result of that. Though I haven't seen any modern made Samurai swords in person, I HAVE seen photos and video of them and the edge on my sword looks more like them then I can tell the difference from by looking at them. My video camera's USB cord is still missing, but I will try to get my parents to photograph it when I go see them on Christmas.

Anyway, I got some black died ray skin from a local store and am still working on getting the handle wrapping. I have been using a nylon dog leash to practice on the handle of a hammer and am getting pretty good at it. Handle wrapping may look simple, but doing it right is no walk in the park.

I have a big brass coin that I will probably end up making the guard out of, but to tell you the truth, I would rather use iron or steel.

Anyway, I am now over 200 hours and around another $100 in to the project, including as much as a full day's time just in hand polishing, which is surpprisingly expensive in addition to time consuming. I only do it an hour or 2 at a time, so even though it's taking forever, it's also not a huge commitment. I was originally thinking about parting with this sword once completed. I am having serious second thoughts now.

This post has been edited by brigadier: December 11th 2009 10:48 AM

you better find that usb cord pretty quick. i wanna see!

indeed.

When my uncle was still around, he used to use car bumpers from the sixties to make knives and swords. It was a fun hobby, so I'm interested in your project.

Sounds awesome...ly time consuming. Seriously, I love the craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes in to making quality blades. Sounds like youve got a metric assload of effort into it already. Cant wait to see the finished product. That said...

OK guys. Sure enough, I got those pictures taken over Christmas, though I must say that getting them off of their camera was easier said then done due to some computer issues they themselves were having and were to busy with Christmas to worry about until literally the last minute.

Anyway, here you go. Keep in mind that you are looking at a sword that's at least 100 hours from complete. There are some things that look messy and they look messy because I am not done with them yet. Hardly even started in some cases.


Here's a picture of the side that's been getting most of the polishing and shaping. The picture came out very dark and I had to lighten it up allot. The picture below it may look like the unedited picture, but it's actually a whole other photo that I decided not to clean up the color on. These photos, shown in full size, should appear pretty close to actual size. The sword has a very bright steel color. VERY similar to hard chrome.





This picture is a more up close image of the sword and you get a bit of indication what the bevel is really like. The fuller looks a little more uniform in the picture then it does in person, though I expect the finished product will have fullers that look something like that in person. I have been using "bullet" shaped stone Dremel bits to shape the fuller. Sort of like using a ground down pencil, running them back and fourth across it. When you are doing it by hand, it starts out sloppy but straightens out over time.



This is a picture of the other side of the sword. It hasn't seen allot of hand polishing. I took this picture to show you guys the difference but the camera failed to capture it. As you can tell, it's kinda fuzzy. That's because I turned off the flash to keep it from making the sword look black and it made the picture fuzzy in stead. I actually took a picture of the other side without a flash but it was so fuzzy that you couldn't see any detail at all.



I thought it'd be interesting to you guys if I showed you the material that the handle will be made of. Black died sting ray skin.



This post has been edited by brigadier: December 26th 2009 11:36 PM

That's great. Keep us posted. Very cool.

Maybe you'll get a chance to hack an intruder to death with it. Oh, sorry. Did I say that out loud? Dang - I did, didn't I. Well, of course in self-defense because you were in fear for your life.

I'd rather use my Beretta 10mm, for less mess to clean up if nothing else. Killing someone with a sword is very messy business, even compared to a 10mm hollow point.

I actually don't like fighting. I won't get violent without a seriously good reason.

This post has been edited by brigadier: December 27th 2009 4:50 AM

Here's a video of it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6LwDpRV5Do

If you've been following the handgun section, then you might know that I recently found the cord to my camera. That means I was able to get those pictures of the sword off. Here they are. They are older then the last pictures I posted, showing the sword in earlier stage of development, but the visibility is much better:









This post has been edited by brigadier: January 22nd 2010 8:24 AM

New pictures taken this morning. The side that got the most attention is now down to 400 grit.





I put a piece of blue tape around the blade for this photo so you can see the true shape of the bevel.



This post has been edited by brigadier: January 22nd 2010 5:08 PM

You're making me want to do this now, but there's no way I could do this type of stuff. Excellent work, can't wait to see the finished product.

Military channel had an episode of "Weapons Masters" that went into some depth into the making of a Katana, and trying to duplicate performance with modern materials.

They got pretty close with some 1086 carbon steel. alot of theperformance difference seemed to come down to the rea attention to detail in sharpening and polishing. The true Japanese Katana of hand forged steel performed better against armor and the 8" straw matt test, due largely to the edge and polish. Highspeed film of both blades being shot n the cutting edge with a .45 showed that the Japanese sword had far less blade oscillation because of the reduced drag of the bullet on the blade, while the 1086 blade had more drag and vibration. The 1086 did retain it's edge better aginst chipping when striking hard objects.

I found the Japanese methods of maintaining a soft core, while hardening the edge to be some of the real genious of the design.

Very interesting project you have going. Looks like a weapon to be truely proud of.

Yep. I have machine beveled and blade shaped for years. This is my first one to be done entirely by hand. I totally see why the Japanese stuck with machining by hand even in the days of grinding wheels. It has a very unique structure to it that seams perfect in every way. Even the texture it's self seams perfect.

It is allot of painstaking work though. I am almost 300 hours in to the project. Allot of work on just one little piece of metal. If I were to ever sell it, I'd never get back even half of what I put in. Therefor I have no intention of even considering it. This is the sort of thing that belongs in the family for generations. Why the Japanese were so serious about that now makes perfect sense to me too.

Thanks for sharing, that looks like it will be very nice. so...how much will you sell it for?

As I said. I have no intention of selling it. I'm not even entertaining the idea.

That thing is awesome. Kudos for the effort, sounds like that thing'll be around for a while.

Can't wait to see it done!

Amazing. Thank you for posting this thread and pics of your project. Can't wait to see the finished masterpiece.

That awesome!!! I’m looking forward to the finished product..

Nice work