Here is the day's progress on the scabbard:

And here is the carving in progress:

Finished the falchion today (except for one more coat of linseed oil on the grip), still have a scabbard to do before this project is done.
Here is the hilt:

And the whole piece(the camera distorted it a little):

Had Some tool trouble today and didn't get as far as I wanted to.
I did finish the grip and pommel:

Happy Birthday Corrie!

It was Corries Birthday today so I took most of the day off to spend it with the most wonderful woman in the world. Back at it Monday.

Merry Christmas

May the Lord who came to earth and dwelt among us bless you and yours.
Merry Christmas from Ben and Corrie.

I knocked off early (7:00pm) today in favor of spending Christmas Eve with my wife (way better than working). Went to the midnight service at the church we grew up at.
Here is the Falchion hilt as it is tonight (and will be for a couple of days).

Finished the guard at 1:00 am this morning.

Polished and welded another branch today, two down one to go.

Polished the main branch and welded it on to the guard today.



I still need to do a bit of shaping on the welds, I'm hoping to have the guard finished by tomorrow night. We'll see.

After a lovely walk with my wife I worked on the falchion guard for the rest of the day(till after ten).
Here is the cross after grinding, inletting and polishing:


Here is the main cross with the other pieces after forging:


Day of rest tomorrow, Finally.

Here is the day's progress, the main cross bar for the hilt after de-scaling:

Finished the Falchion blade

Here is a video of testing the blade:



And here is a picture of the polished blade:



Now it is on to the hilt!

Heat treated the the falchion blade yesterday, came through it safetly (praise the Lord). Always pray when you're HTing a blade. Here is a video of part of the process:



And here is the blade after HT:

Enjoy.

Day of rest, finally made it to church again.Visited with some international friends who are in town. The weather broke so Lord willing I'll be heat treating tomorrow.

Rained off and on all day yesterday (worked late again) and kept me form working on the falchion. I love rain, but preferably when I have a lot of inside work to do. Spent the day working on my website, facebook, and twitter. I really would rather just do bladesmithing but I don't live in 900AD so I have to learn to use all the tools at my disposal( I must say this internet stuff can be a lot of fun and is sort of addictive).
Check out the twitter button on the right.

New Quench tank

Joined facebook this morning, see "faceboof badge at right.

The steel for the new quench tank came this afternoon so I fabricated that this evening.
Here is the finished tank, 41" tall, 4"x1 1/2 " with a 12"x12" base plate:

It rained on ad off tonight so I didn't get a chance to HT the falchion blade so that will be tomorrow. Pray it goes off well, HTing is the most difficult and stressful part of bladesmithing as you never know exactly what a given blade is going to do. I'm guessing (and hoping) that this blade will take a slight "nose dive" and straighten just a bit.

I polished the blade (to 120gt) for heat treating.
Here is the blade after 8hrs., 4 sanding belts, and -4oz. of steel later:

The steel for the new quench tank is supposed to arrive tomorrow.
Beautiful evening, I was listening the the rain outside the shop along with Enya's boadicea while I was filing the scalloped edges on the back of the blade.

The rain is falling softly down,
And watering the sod,
As along this toilsome way,
Steadily I plod.

Its not that I would trade my lot,
For any other man’s,
Nor that I will be ashamed,
Of my work torn hands.

For I have chosen the path I tred,
Knowing it would be steep,
And I will take the joys thereof,
And the consequences reap.

Rough ground the falchion blade, up to the second "clip" Lord willing I will have it ready to heat treat when the steel for the tank comes.


Now I'm off to help my wife with making Christmas cookies.
Life is good!

I forged the blade today(or rather yesterday)and normalized both it and the blade for the messer.
Here is the blade:

Here is a video of normalizing the blade:

Starting Die Fledermaus Falchion

It rained all yesterday so I was unable to do any forging. I spent the day updating my website, flickr, and youtube accounts, as well as ordering supplies for a new quench tank for oil quenching. I'm off to work on the Fledermaus (German for bat) falchion blade today. I will not be making a video of this piece so it should progress faster, my goal it to have it finished in under two weeks(okay my goal is to have it done in a fair bit less than that, but I always take too optimistic a view of these things). Pray I get it finished in under a week.

Ballock Knife, Finished

I finally got my DSL fixed (sorry for the long delay)
Here is a link to the gallery page:


And a Video of the process:

Enjoy.

It is raining here today so I won't make it to the forge, so I will be updating my website and other indoor tasks.

DSL trouble

I finished the Ballock knife late last night, and took the photos this morning, and my DSL crashed before I could get them uploaded, SO I will post the pictures and video as soon as my internet works again, Sorry for the delay.
Lord willing I'll get it back online tonight.

Finished Ballock knife

Yesterday, I got the scabbard lined and glued.
Here is a picture of the finished knife:

Some days just don't go the way you would like. I was on track for finishing the ballock knife today, until I ran into trouble with the casting for the sheath. After two attempts I ended up ruining the sheath and will have to make another tomorrow. That's what I get for switching casting alloys and not testing it first.

I finished the Ballock knife today (well technically yesterday) and Lord willing will have the sheath finished tomorrow(today, it is too late to keep it all straight). I'll post pictures when it is finished.

Sunday: Day of much needed rest.


Saturday: Worked on the Bollock knife, Polishing the blade and rough shaping the handle.

I forged the blade, rough ground, and heat treated the blade for a ballock knife. I am making a video of the process that I will be posting when it is finished.

Happy Thanksgiving.

No work today.
On Bladesmithing that is.

Count your blessings!

Vertical Heat Treating Forge

I finished the vertical heat treating forge yesterday.
Here is a video:

How goes it

Yesterday I worked on the body of the heat treat forge today I need to weld the body put in the insulation, and attach the burners. I'll post pictures and a video when it is finished. After this forge I still have a welding forge, vacuum caster, and a 2"x72" grinder to build before I'm finished with my shop upgrade, after that I hope to begin pattern-welding.

At the moment I have 4 projects that I'm hoping to finish by the end of the year.
1. Ballock knife, a commission.
2. Falchion (the one in the drawing), also a commission.
3. early 1700's Cutlass.
4. German Grosse Messer.

Pray I get it all done.

Dual burner

Yesterday I built a dual burner for the heat treating set up I'm building. My currant setup is a horizontal drum forge. The new one will be a vertical configuration to help with keeping blades straight. Here is a video of the test.

Falchion sketch

Here is one of the sketches I was working on Saturday, it is of a falchion. And a historical example of a similar blade type from a painting.

Spent the day catching up on some sketches for a couple of commissions I have.

First post

My name is Ben Potter,
I am a Bladesmith working in the Celto-Norse tradition,
this blog is the story of my day to day adventure.