Buster Sword Interpretation

  

I have started a new sword building off the techniques I have already learned. I went to home depot and picked up a 36 inch piece of mild rolled steel 1/4 inch thick and 1 and 3/4 inches wide. Abe stenciled a sweet new logo for the Hot Metal Alliance on the side of the forge.

I started by forging out the tang. I could have bought a metal ingot and forged the entire blade, but it would have taken a lot of time to get a similar result as buying a piece for $8. And I am far too busy for that.

I actually didn’t have a plan for this sword right away. I just forged out the tang, cut the tip and then I started grinding the edges down. It took a long while but I finally got to test out my new grinder from Harbor Freight. I wore down most of my grinding wheel with this one sword and need to get a new one.

The next day I drew up a sketch of the sword I wanted to make then I redrew it in Illustrator. i even added some color and shadows for effect!

The Shop manager, Joe, helped me start my cross guard by TIG welding two pieces of sheet metal on the ends of some metal tubing. I did this so that it would not get any heavier, but would have a thick guard. I also found some scrap steel from a project he was working on that fit across the guard perfectly. That night Joe also showed me how to use the mill machine to remove a hole from the cross guard that the tang would fit into. More pics will follow.

 

If he didn’t help me enough, he let me use his 2″ pneumatic sander to polish the blade, it was freaking awesome and worked so well. Now I am looking into getting one for myself as it was such a pleasure to use.