A little blade help needed

[Avatar]

Any ideas on how to make a saxon/germanic/celtic blade? All ideas and comments welcome.

Thanks.

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Salve,Avatar.
If you mean the seax (sax) there is a fairly recent thread on this that is very nice.
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... light=seax

[Matthew Amt]

Well, Saxon and Germanic blades are different from "Celtic", for one thing! You can find pictures in any number of books--Peter Connolly's "Greece and Rome at War" has a good basic lineup of Celtic weaponry through time. There are a couple Ospreys that have illustrations of Germanic weapons, too (with the usual warning that Ospreys don't get everything right!). Not sure if anyone has posted good illustrations in the Enemies and Allies section of this board or not, but take a look.

Do you just need information on what these weapons looked like, or actual instructions on how to make them? Grinding blades out of barstock is one thing (and can be pretty convincing!), but actually forging blades is not really a "beginner's" project.

A few good books can tell you a lot more than we can tell you here, but it still doesn't hurt to ask!

Matthew

[Avatar]

Well, Saxon and Germanic blades are different from "Celtic", for one thing! You can find pictures in any number of books--Peter Connolly's "Greece and Rome at War" has a good basic lineup of Celtic weaponry through time. There are a couple Ospreys that have illustrations of Germanic weapons, too (with the usual warning that Ospreys don't get everything right!). Not sure if anyone has posted good illustrations in the Enemies and Allies section of this board or not, but take a look.

Do you just need information on what these weapons looked like, or actual instructions on how to make them? Grinding blades out of barstock is one thing (and can be pretty convincing!), but actually forging blades is not really a "beginner's" project.

A few good books can tell you a lot more than we can tell you here, but it still doesn't hurt to ask!

Matthew

Well, the idea was to get some instruction on grinding one out of barstock. Maybe I should be clearer in the future. :?

[Matthew Amt]

Oh, okay! (Yeah, specifics are always good, but whatever!) The theory of grinding a blade is straightforward: find good pictures and drawings of what you want (cross-sections are always helpful!), get a piece of metal, and start grinding. I've only done a couple little knives this way, and converted a few bad blades to slightly better ones. You'll want full protection for eyes, lungs, ears, and hands, of course! And tons of patience, which is what I usually lack. It takes time. Once you get the basic shape, it takes more time to get all the grinder marks off. It's loud and messy, and a mistake can ruin the piece or put you in the hospital with shocking immediacy. (Usually it's just "Darn, that's hot!")

I use a regular bench grinder, and start by working the metal back and forth along the coarse wheel, brutally grinding off whatever isn't needed. Other folks swear by angle grinders, with which you clamp the workpiece down and hold the tool to it. You may have to stop periodically to let the metal cool. Either way, at some point you have to start being more careful, and/or switch to a finer stone. Then maybe use a belt and/or disc sander, files, buffer, etc.

I've seen ground mild-steel blades that look fabulous and handle well, but might fold up if you tried spearing a piece of cheese. One of the guys in Legio XX has ground out a couple German sax knives which look fine and are quite sturdy, though they would hardly be seen as "good" by any professional bladesmith. Better steels make better blades but will take longer to grind, of course. And a lot of period blades were not very good steel, anyway. So, many choices! It all depends on what you have and what you want, so I'm not sure what else to tell you. But does that help?

Vale,

Matthew

[Avatar]

That help alot! Many thanks!