Introduction and sword sneak peek

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by jhelmes

Thanks Atlantia, I appreciate the great question.

For starters the blade is nearly 31 inches long. (i`ll post a beter description when the blade is finnished) around 4 mm thich at the guard tapering to over 2mm near the tip. The fullers were ground in and are wide and shallow and are slightly rounded over, as were many sword finds of this age.

The materials are very old buggy springs for the cutting edge and the core is wrought iron and some of the same spring. The edge is one piece wraped around the core. The spring , I believe is shear steel ,which is an old method of making steel that is basically carburised and highly refined wrought iron. Short of making the steel myself, this combonation is very similar to many blades found during this period.

I havent been able to properly see how it handles yet as it is still under construction but the center of ballance should be close to 5 inches from the guard which is also the norm for this period.

This particular sword is very light and quick is its preliminary test cuts and is very flexible. Making it serves to reinforce my belief in the sophistication construction methods involved in the creation of many of the swords of this period.

Cheers Jeff

Hi Jeff,
Wow! What can I say? You've clearly put a huge amount of thought into this amazing weapon. I thnk it looks, well... frankly amazing!
I have to admit that I know next to nothing about the processes and potential pitfalls of mixing these materials, so forgive the 'newbie' questions
I'm suprised that this combination produces a flexible blade, as I've always thought of wrought Iron especially as very brittle.
If the whole blade is to be flexible, how do you overcome the problems of the two materials different properties, and presumably quite different performance characteristics?
Are there in fact advantages that I havent realised in mixing them?
Excellent work, great thread, Very interested to learn more

Best
Gene