Forging the Blade
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| The blade itself I bought from EBay for $20 (including shipping). I stripped off the crappy novelty tsuba and cheesy plastic handle, snapped off the tang, and grinded down the bottom curve of the blade. I chose to use this kind of blade because it was made of chrome-plated, low quality steel, and this is much easier to cut, grind and weld than the high-quality stainless steel. |
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| To make the tang (the piece of steel inside the handle) I bought a piece of flat steel from some friends at a local machine shop and traced out the pattern I made with the vectors. A few hours of cutting, welding and grinding later, the blade was formed. |
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| Here's a shot with the handle sandwiched onto it. |
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| The knuckle guard was cut from a piece of stainless steel and spot-welded into place. |
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| 3/4 view |
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| Side view |
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| Here's a shot of the buttcap. |  |
| It's made from two pieces of sheetmetal carefully hammered and stretched into shape, then welded together and welded to the center tang and knuckle guard |  |
| After a little more grinding, everything will be smooth and relatively shiny. Next comes the "bodywork" on the handle which will build out the handle slightly to be flush with the buttcap. |  |
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| Click here to see the creation of the HANDLE |
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| Click here to see the finish work and PAINT |  |
| Back to the main project page |  |
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Noncommercial users are welcome to copy my images provided they acknowledge the source. I am more than happy to help people design or create their own steampunk contraptions, but if you are a company looking to steal my work for mass-production, please know that I have design patents, trademarks, and copyrights pending or in place on most of my designs, my logo, and my name. They will be brutally enforced if necessary. |
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