Mr. Rodger's Sword
| "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." | |
| --Ephesians 6:17 |
Hello, Mr. Rodgers.
This is a special page I've developed just for you. It has, however, gained quite a following! I wanted to illustrate the work that is going into your sword, and to email you these pictures would eventually overload your mail program. This way, they're all together, and when I'm done, it will be quite a record of your piece.
1. I started by profiling out your blade. That's laying out the pattern, sawing out the steel to match the pattern, then grinding and dressing all the edges of the profile. (sorry, no pics of that)
| 2. Then, I hollow
ground the blade. First, the lead in bevels, then off-hand hollow
grinding all four edges. This pic is of another sword, but illustrates
the process. This is a very hard process. You can see that I hold the sword with both hands against a wheel that is spinning at over 60 miles an hour. This is done through 10 steps of grinding, and at this point, three of them are finished on your sword. → |
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| 3. Here is a pic of your sword after the master
grinds. It is finished to 180 grit, and the grind lines and profile are
well established. From the 36" rule, you can see how large it is. I'm
sure you notice the large, round gemstone cabochon on the ricasso. I
made it from a lace agate geode, and it is highly polished on both
sides. It rests temporarily on a brass base, which will be engraved, so
that you'll see the engraving underneath and through the stone! This
engraving will be of vines, the theme you picked. The gem represents the
full moon, also in your design criteria.
→ |
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| 4. Here is the wax modeling of the bezel mounts.
The process gets complicated here, so that's why I started taking a lot
of pics. Notice the agate (finished and polished) full moon in the lower
right center of the pic. It has leaves that have been wax-welded to a
shaped wax vine that wraps around the gemstone. You can see the little
wax leaves in the square plastic container. The white mold for the wax
leaves is handmade and sitting on the round glass plate. It has five
leaves in it, ready to be removed. I've made all of this. The vines that
go around the moon will be cast in bronze, perhaps antiqued, perhaps
plated, I'll know later. You see a wax rod going over the center of the
stone, that is only a sprue, to allow the bronze to flow, and will not
be in the final piece. The other wax bezel models are being attached to
the red wax sprue base laying on the round glass plate in the photo. → |
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| 5. Here you can see a closer view of the vinework
that will wrap around the bezel and hold the agate stone in place. All
the round rods are sprues, whose purpose is to allow the bronze to flow
into the cavity of the mold.
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| 6. Here is view of the completed wax model group
of four bezel vine parts. Careful attention must be given to build the
model to allow the molten bronze to flow freely into the form. All the
rods in the center are sprues. → |
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| 7. The wax model must be accurately weighed. This
allows a conversion that will give the right amount of bronze for the
crucible.
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| 8. After the calculations, the amount of bronze
can be determined by weight. Note the casting grain on the left side of
the balance scale. For this casting, the amount is just over five
ounces. That includes all the sprues and pouring gate former, and all
that will be cut off the finished bronze, so the actual weight of the
casting will be much less. → |
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| 9. The wax model is "debubbilized." That is,
dipped in a special solution several times, and allowed to dry. This
solution is designed to stop bubbles from forming on the model when the
investment is poured around the model. Investment is the silica-clay
based material that forms the final mold. Note the black rubber sprue
base (or pouring gate former) that is attached to the wax model. → |
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| 10. Here is the wax model of the vines with
sprues, gates, channels, and collectors attached, drying with a coating
of debubbilizer on it. Note the black rubber sprue base or pouring gate
former. This will form a funnel that allows the molten bronze to flow
into the mold.
→ |
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| 11. Here is the investment, calculated and
weighed, along with an exact amount of water ready to be mixed and
poured around the model. The stainless metal cylinder (flask) at the
right of the photo will be fitted to the sprue base, and around the wax
model. Then, the investment is mixed to form a thick slurry, and poured
into the flask. → |
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| 12. The investment is poured into the flask,
complete with rubber sprue base, and wax model inside.
By the way, you've got 9 minutes to mix the investment, evacuate the investment in the bowl, pour into the flask, and evacuate in the flask before the investment sets! → |
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| 13. The flask with sprue base attached and wax
model inside is set in a vacuum chamber, where the bubbles are evacuated
out of the investment. Any bubbles forming on the wax will lead to metal
"bubbles" forming on the final casting. →
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| 14. After setting, the invested flask with wax
model inside, and the sprue base removed (note the wax rod which is at
the base of the model). The pouring gate has formed, it's the funnel at
the mouth of the flask. → |
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| 15. The flask with wax mold and the crucible with
bronze is placed on the centrifugal caster, and the caster is balanced.
This will allow a good balance when the molten bronze is slung into the
mold by the centrifugal force of the machine. This will generate about
20 g's of force! The bronze will be 2000° F, and the flask will be 900° F. → |
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| 16. Here's the flask in the burnout oven. The
burnout is a long, drawn out process. First, the oven is heated to 300°
for several hours, to melt the wax out of the investment. The wax is
collected in the tray at the bottom. Then the tray is removed and the
flask is heated to: 600° for 2hrs, then 900° for 2 hrs, then 1350° for
four hours. This burns out any carbon remaining in the mold from the
wax. Then the temp is dropped to 900° for an hour to stabilize the mold
for pouring the molten bronze.
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| 17. Coming next: will the casting be successful?
If not, it's back to the wax modeling to start all over again! From
this, you can see why it takes so long. Meanwhile, I'm working on 43
other knives, many of them military combat grade weapons for our active
duty servicemen who are on their way to Operation Iraqi Freedom 3.
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| 19. Here I am, ready to pull the flask and mold
from the burnout oven (the lower one in the photo) and place it into the
centrifugal casting machine. → |
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| 20. The flask is hot, 900° F. It goes into the cradle of the centrifugal casting machine, which is powered by a large spring mounted in the base in the center of the machine. The flask (mold) is on a pivoting arm ("broken arm") of the machine, and will accept the molten bronze. |
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| 21. You thought the flask and mold were hot at 900° F, but the crucible with the melted bronze is at 2000°F! The radiant energy alone is enough to overexpose the photo. You want to work quickly here, before you combust! |
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| 22. Placing the hot crucible containing the molten bronze into the centrifugal caster. It's aligned with the pouring gate in the mold, to allow the bronze to be slung into the mold cavity. |
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| 23. Skimming the slag, or oxidized components, from the top of the bronze. This bronze is very clean, and very little slag has been created. The skimmer is 304 stainless steel. |
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| 24. Here, one handle is on the centrifugal handle release, the other on the splash guard cover. The handle will release the spring, and I'll close the lid so that if the hot mold with molten metal ruptures, most of the disaster will be contained in the safety shield. |
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| 25. Inside the safety shield, the centrifugal caster is now spinning very quickly, slinging the molten 5oz. of bronze into the hot mold cavity with a force twenty times the force of gravity! This makes a very dense casting, with minimal porosity and an even metallic structure. It spins for about ten minutes before it slows down. |
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| 26. Here is the poured casting inside the mold cavity. Notice the dark button at the center of the mold. Very nice, clean, just enough fill and sizing. The button provides additional metal for the casting, and lowers shrinkage. The mold at this point is still very hot, perhaps 600° to 800°F. |
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| 27. The mold and flask with the casting inside are quenched in water. This breaks away and dissolves the white investment. Lots of bubbling, boiling action and noise here. |
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| 28. Here is the completed casting, with a little investment still stuck to the bronze. Not real pretty here, but still a very nice job. Clean, complete, few bubbles, solid. What was wax is now bronze. |
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| 29. Here I am sandblasting the oxidation and left over investment from the bronze casting. |
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| 30. The completed casting. It looks good, but now it will have to be de-sprued (the excess sprues and gates cut off) and dressed, ground, and the metal finished. Still a long way to go before it's mounted! |
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| 31. Now the sprues are trimmed off. The easy cuts come first, with a pair of flush nippers. |
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| 32. The button and main flow tube must be cut off with a band saw. A lot of hard, thick bronze here. |
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| 33. The finer sprues are trimmed off with a fiberglass reinforced abrasive wheel. Also the shapes are cleaned up in this process. |
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| 34. Here are the separated bezel mounts, ready for further clean up and trimming. |
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| 35. Now the shaping starts. A lot of time here, getting all the shaping, trimming and clean up as fine as I can with this 5" wheel. Note safety gear for the fine abrasive and bronze dust. |
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| 36. Even finer work with a 1" emery wheel. The insides of the shapes are cut, trimmed, and cleaned up at this stage. |
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| 37. Now to sand the castings. A light touch and 120 grit flap wheel cleans up the castings nicely, rounds over the shapes for a softer look. |
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| 38. The castings must then be annealed, that is, brought up to 1250° F and soaked at this heat to assure maximum softness for the bending that will follow when mounting the stone in the finished bezel. A lot of heat and electricity here for a very small but vital step. |
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| 39. After annealing, the firescale (dark deposits of oxidation) must be removed. This is done with a special acidic compound for just this purpose. It's used hot, in a double boiler affair. Most of the black comes off here. This is called a pickle. After this, an additional dip in a nitric-sulfuric-hydrochloric acid mix cleans up any residue. It's called a bright dip. |
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| 40. After the castings are clean, here's what they look like with the agate "moons" that will be mounted on the ricasso of the sword shown on the left. |
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| 41. Here, the border of transparency of the geodic agate cabochon is measured with a divider. This will be the area of engraving on the brass plate beneath the cabochon that will be seen through the stone. |
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| 42. Now the border is scribed upon the brass plate. I will engrave vinework between this line and the outer edge of the brass plate. Incidentally, the countersunk screw holes are within the opaque area of the stone, so will not be seen. |
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| 43. Here I am, ready to start engraving. you can see plenty of light on the engraving block, and I use a binocular microscope to accomplish the engraving. |
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| 44. A closer view of the engraving process. Using a controlled impact device and a hammer handpiece, the engraver is guided all by hand. |
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| 45. Here is a view of the completed engraved brass bezel plates. Lots of detail here, even though most of it will be hard to see through the agate. The vine motif will occur inside and outside the agate "moons." |
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| 46. Here are the bezel pieces that have been cast in bronze ready to be hard-soldered to the engraved brass backing plates. Note the stainless steel clamps to hold the bezels in position, the green liquid flux to the left, and the small snippets of brass sheet solder ready for the job. |
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| 47. Here the bezels are being soldered. The flame is hot: oxy-acetylene, as the hard, tough solder flows at about 1500°F. The solder is being held with a tweezers. Careful attention here, or the entire piece will melt, ruining all the work done so far. The micro torch burns at nearly 6000° F! |
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| 48. After the soldering, the bezel prongs (vine leaves in this case) must be bent outward so the gemstone cabochon can be later inserted. This is why the annealing step (number 38) is so important now. If the bronze were not annealed, instead of bending, it would just break now. Note the blackened bronze, covered with firescale from the high temperature soldering. |
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| 49. Here are the bezels, with the retaining prongs (leaves) bent upward. Now the bezel mounts are physically able to accept the gemstone cabs. Note the heavy firescale. |
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| 50. Here are the bezels after pickling and bright dipping. This process is detailed in step 39. The bronze and brass are bright and clean, with no oxidation present. |
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| 51. Now the edges of the bezels are finished. Here a silicone rubber wheel impregnated with silicon carbide grit is used to rough down the edges, remove excess solder, and clean up the joints. |
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| 52. Back to the sword blade. Grinding the edges of the ricasso. These edges must be trued and finished to 40µ (360grit) before filework. This takes five grinding steps with a small contact wheel. |
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| 53. After the edges of the ricasso have been prepped, the filework pattern is laid out by scribing with marking dividers. Accuracy is key. |
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| 54. The first file cuts. Careful control, exact spacing and depth. |
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| 55. More filing cuts. |
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| 56. And more filing... |
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| 57. ...and still more. |
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| 58. Finished filework. There were five files used to cut this clean and deep pattern. |
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| 59. One more pass over the belt grinder. This pass is at 180 grit. Careful attention here, the sword is hard to hold accurately, and one mistake will ruin the blade. |
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| 60. Grinding the tip is a challenge. The camera compresses the photo somewhat, but remember, that right hand is very far out there, and the blade weight and gravity fight your attempt to hold it steady and true. Some artists use a jig to hold the blade, but it cannot compensate for the blade curvature, and also the hands need to feel what is going on with the grinder contact. |
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| 61. Tapering the tang. The parallel tang must be tapered on all four sides and rounded so the guard can slip over it to the ricasso. All major grinding, cutting, milling, drilling, and shaping must occur before heat treat, because after hardening and tempering, the steel is too hard to cut. |
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| 62. Here is the blade ready for heat treat. Note the length. The picture in step 60 does not really show how hard the blade is to hold against the grinder. You can get an idea by looking at the scale of the belt grinder to the left. This is why few if any other makers hollow grind sword blades. |
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| 63. Blade ready for heat treat. Here it is hanging in the quenching chamber of my sword oven. The oven is a sealed, vacuum purged inert nitrogen gas filled electric furnace, custom designed for knife work. The door to the oven chamber is on the right. This is a rapid ramp oven, gaining nearly 500°F a minute when empty. The whole heat treating process takes a little over an hour. After hardening temperature and soak times are achieved, the blade is quenched in cool air, then frozen to below 0°F for at least 8 hours. Then it is double tempered to convert some of the hard crystalline structure to a tougher structure, so the blade is hard and tough, but neither soft or brittle. |
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| 64. Hardness testing after hardening and tempering blade. Note darkened blade in Rockwell hardness testing apparatus. This device uses a diamond point and regulated pressure to imbed the diamond into the steel. The penetration pressure and depth is the exact indicator of the hardness of the steel. In this case, I've set the blade temper to Rockwell 56 on the "C" scale. That makes a blade that is springy and tough, but not too hard and brittle. You can see that the blade is darkened after hardening and tempering. |
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| 65. Edge profiling. Here some small contact wheel cuts are being made in the blade near the hilt to sculpt the shape of the blade. They create visual interest as well as serving as choils, the cuts that terminate the grind at the cutting edge. Note the blue layout dye used to indicate where the next finishing must take place on the blade grinds and flats. |
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| 66. Control grinds: Here I am back on the belt grinder, working on the control grinds, specifically at the tip of the blade. Control grinds do just that, control the grind geometry and the shape of the blade. They are an intermediate grit size, 220, 320, 400 and 500 grit, still aggressive enough to change the shape of the blade with one little slip-up! Great care here as this is done all offhand, and the belt grinder is moving at over 60 miles and hour. Each step takes at least two hours, as all four grinds have to be done. Every previous abrasive scratch must be removed by the finer abrasive. |
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| 67. Finish grinds: After all the control grinds are done, the finish grinds can take place. The finish grinds are 30µ, 15µ, 9µ, and 5µ. These are very very fine grits, ending at about 2000 grit (5µ). The real skill of making blades is no more demonstrated than right here. It takes a tremendous amount of control and concentration to hollow grind offhand, and in sword blades, it is even more demanding. That is why you see so little of high quality work like this done. It's taken me many years of practice to do this correctly. |
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| 68. Here is another view of the finish grinding process. you can see that the long blade must be held absolutely perpendicular to the belt grinder and perfectly in the hollow against the contact wheel. Since the blade is long, it's very easy to get tired or lose concentration and make a mistake. Many, many hours will go into this blade before it's finished. |
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| 69. Finish Grinds: You will see a lot of finish grinding here. Note the blue layout dye, to indicate exactly where the grinding must take place. |
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| 70. More finish grinding. See how the blade must be held, far out from the grinder. One slip here and the grind, thus the blade, is ruined. |
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| 71. Note the gloved hand on the free end of the steel tang and blade. As the blade gets thinner, it starts to become sharp. I don't want to be distracted by the edge cutting into my hand, startled, and slip. Notice too the headphones. Some music helps the concentration here. |
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| 72. Here the grind is in the middle of the blade. Tired of seeing these finish grinding pictures? Imagine the hours it takes to do each step, slowly, carefully going over and over every linear inch of the hollow grind. |
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| 73. Grinding the tip of the blade is probably the hardest. My right hand here is far out away from my body, and as the grinder tries to pull the blade down into the tool rest, the left hand must rigidly support it, staying true in the hollow. Bored with the grinding pics yet? |
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| 74. A closer view of the fine grinding process. The contact wheel and belt are running at about 25 miles an hour, far slower than the initial grinds of 70 mph. You can see that the mirror finish is starting to come up, but is still a way off. More and more hours must be put into the blade before it is ready for polish. I can only do this for a pass or so a day, and you can see why now my hands are the size they are. I wear a size 13 wedding ring. |
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| 75. Tip grinding. Touchy stuff here. The wheel and belt are trying to grab the blade and push it down against my grip. So my grip must be solid. If I counter by pushing upwards, and a tiny bit of slip occurs, the blade will travel upward and the belt will grind into the center line of the blade spine, and that will ruin the grind line. Fine hollow grinding on big blades is a nerve-wracking experience, and that is why you see so little of it done well. It's also a long process, and I'll have easily more than 100, perhaps as much as 200 hours into the blade before it's finished! |
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| 76. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. If offhand hollow grinding of a sword blade was not hard enough, here's another issue. The blade gets quite hot, and it will burn your fingertips, or overheat the steel, affecting the temper. So, once you get the blade positioned just perfectly on the contact wheel, the steel gets hot, and you must stop, dip it in the quench tank to cool it, then dry it off with a clean paper towel, then reposition it exactly right against the spinning wheel. This goes on over and over and over and over and over and... you get it. |
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| 77. Are you tired of seeing the finish grinding pictures yet? See where the thumb of my left hand is? That's where it will get hot, and burn. Many guys have told me that they've tried to do this type of precision grinding, only to give up knife making all together, because they can't stand burned thumbs. There is no way to protect them, you must be able to feel what is going on between the blade and the belt. You've also got to be very careful not to allow any fingers or part of the hand to come in contact with the edge of the belt, as you'll get a nasty 20-70 mph paper cut! I've got dozens of these as a testament to my knife making. Okay, only three more grit sets to go through! |
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| 78. After all the finish grinding up to 5 micron, the equivalent of about 2000 grit, it would seem the blade is almost finished. Not so. Now comes the very difficult and most dangerous task of polishing the blade. Here, the blade will be held against a tightly stitched 10" muslin buff, running at 3600 rpm. This gives a surface speed of over 110 miles an hour. Great attention and concentration must reign here. You can't afford to offer the blade a bad position to the wheel. And the blade must be in constant motion against the wheel, so digging and over-polishing does not occur in any area of the blade. The pictures cannot illustrate how active and moving this process is. It is a dance with a dangerous, powerful machine with a piece of hardened and tempered sharp, pointed tool steel. |
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| 79. Held in different directions and angles (compare to photo 78), the blade is worked against the very fast spinning buff. The buffer has the reputation of being the most dangerous machine in the shop, and I know of several knifemakers who've been killed by this machine. The buffing wheel is essentially a tightly stitched rag, and the rag can catch easily on any edge placed against it. Just like most wheels, it should only be worked on the lower quarter as the wheel spins away from you, but beyond that, you can offer the wheel no edges, sharp corners, or rough texture, because it will grab the blade, rip it out of your hands, then propel it usually toward you at over a hundred miles an hour. That's how knifemakers get killed, as the blade is now a high speed projectile headed for your body. This is serious business. |
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| 80. Polishing the ricasso. This is a challenge, as the angle and tight areas near the buffing wheel and motor do not offer much room to maneuver, especially such a long blade. The buffing compound is very fine, and becomes airborne, so it is a very dirty job. Notice the respirator and gloves. The cotton gloves not only protect my hands, they protect the steel. Just like the fine finish grinding, the blade gets very hot, enough to smoke the buffing wheel and compound. So a quench bucket is nearby, and frequent quenching is necessary. Note the heavy leather apron. That is necessary to give me some extra protection, just in case I lose control of a blade, then maybe it won't pierce my heart. Like I said, I know of several knifemakers who've lost their lives on this machine. The buffer spins at 3600 rpm (most makers limit this to 1800 for safety) and the motor is a 3/4 horsepower unit, so you can not stop it with your hands. |
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| 81. You can see here how narrow the actual buffing wheel is. A narrow wheel allows intense pressure on a very small area, and that is what you want. The actual process of polishing is not just a very fine abrasive cutting across previous fine scratches. The contact area actually melts the microscopic surface of the steel and blends the surface into one continuous surface. Yep, it gets that hot on the surface. This does not affect the temper, because it is happening on such a microscopic surface depth. Note the angle of the blade to the angle of the wheel. You must position the blade always so that the buffer is pulling away from the steel, never towards it. Note also where I'm standing. It's good practice to never be in the radial axis of the wheel, so that if the blade does fly, chances of it hitting you are reduced. Note the compound stick very close by. Constant application of the compound to the wheel must continue. |
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| 82. Here you can see the method to polish the blade at the point. The blade is long, but the photo compresses the image somewhat. This is a big blade, and it will take a long time to go over every square millimeter to bring the steel to it's finest finish. Because of the effort of control grinds, finish grinds, and polishing, most knifemakers do not mirror finish blades. They stop at about 220 grit and hand-sand along the length of the blade. Only the finest weapons are polished. Also key here is to not spend too much time on the buffer, as the grind lines will become rounded over and the blade will lose that crisp, clean look in the grinds. |
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| 83. Here is the blade, mirror finished. This is a beautiful piece of steel! |
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| 84. Inspecting the finish. I'm very happy with the hundreds of hours that have gone into this blade. I'll enjoy the appearance for a short while, then I'll tape it up to protect all my efforts in the grinding, finishing, and polishing while I work on the guard, hilt, handle, pommel, and overlay at the ricasso. I love the look of mirror polished hardened and tempered high chromium martensitic stainless tool steel, and this is a magnificent piece! |
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| 85. Time for some sculpting. I plan to do some casting for the crossguard, and in order for me to know just what I want to carve into the wax that will be the form for the guard, I need to be very familiar with the shape. The shape I will be casting (hopefully, if this all works!) will be a stylized werewolf's head. So, I need to model one in clay first. |
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| 86. I'm using a non-hardening artist's clay; you can see the green block with the knife in it sitting on the table. Just beyond is a tray with wax and clay carving tools. At the top of the picture is a temperature controlled iron, which is used to carve and melt wax. The coffee can houses a bunsen burner type wax melting apparatus. The clay is formed into a rough ball on the armature, which is a piece of oak clamped into a ball vise. Lots of finger work here, the clay is very stiff. |
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| 87. Here's the rough shape of a wolf's head. I referred to drawings of animals to get a general idea of the features of a canine. The nose shape, the hair collar around the ears and neck, the brow and ear placement. But this is just the beginning. Since this looks like a canine, I must correct some features to look more human, that is, add human features to the canine to achieve a blend of canine and human. |
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| 88. Here, I've added some more human traits. First, I added a human nose and ridge, then I brought a brow ridge over the eyes. The ears have been shortened and rounded, a human chin was added, and the overall length of the mouth was shortened, compressing the face. I also rounded the top of the head. It's starting to look much more interesting! |
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| 89. Here's the basic form. This will be a guide for me to carve the form in wax. No teeth, hair, or details, just the basic form. |
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| 89a. Here are some thumbnails of the form from different angles. I need to make sure I can follow the shape in the round. Click on the thumbnail photos for enlargements. |
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| 90. Now it's time to use the model as a guide to carve the wax. You can see the model on the rotating vise, and on the tray is a very rough form for an idea that I have for the actual knife guard, in sculptor's clay. At the very front of the tray, I've started carving the wax that will actually be the werewolf's head. The first roughing in is done with a high speed rotary tool in a handpiece of a flex shaft drive. |
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| 91. Here's a close up of the wax carving. Very rough here, and very small. The carving is about an inch long. The wax is a very hard microcrystalline wax, capable of holding high detail. I've got a long way to go to make this look like the model! |
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| 92. Boy, that 91 was pretty rough and ugly. Time to get more accurate, more fine sculpting in the wax. If you notice, the first thing is the entire carving bench. This consists of air driven turbine tools, which whisk away the wax at a high rate, like dental tools, only even more aggressive. The little turbine in my hand runs at 150,000 RPM! The heavier unit at the top of the picture runs at about 60,000 RPM. Notice the carving points in the plastic drawer. Right next to them is the alcohol lamp. The flame of the lamp heats up the small tools in the tray, and they are used to whittle away the wax. |
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| 93. Here you can see the tiny tools at work. This is a slow, tedious process, requiring many hours to get the form just right, following my clay sculpture nearby. |
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| 94. The tiny tools are custom shaped and sharpened, and gently used to dig and scrape the form into shape. |
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| 95. Here's a close-up of the wax form after carving and flaming, which gently rounds the surface. Neat, huh? |
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| 96. Another angle. You can see that he's pretty much toothless. Not very menacing! Next, the teeth. |
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| 97.Here's the wax with some teeth, and some hair texture. I used a small wire brush to apply the hair texture, and don't know how it will come out in bronze; we shall see. The teeth I left rough and rugged looking. The reason they are blue is because I made them out of a more pliable wax, which makes the job a bit easier. |
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| 98. Another view. I think it looks great. Especially when you consider that the whole head is less than 1.5 inches long! |
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| 99. Now it's time to create another head. I can use both the original clay model and the completed head as a model. Here's the rotary burr, removing bulk of the mouth insides in a microcrystalline wax rod. |
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| 100. The burr removing surface contour. Lots of flying wax. |
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| 101. Here's the form roughed in. Very rough! I don't want to remove too much material. The details have to be hand carved. I'm not trying to match the original wax carving exactly, I want a little difference in the models for the handmade appearance and some character. |
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| 102. Now for the hand carving. Here I'm using a stainless ring carving slicer. I position the original head for a model. Cuts are made slowly and carefully, the wax is very hard to cut. |
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| 103. Here's a close up of the process. the inside of the ring is very sharp, and it actually shaves the wax off. You can see the shavings. The areas tinted bluish in the photo are not actually blue, that's the light streaming in from the outside window. |
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| 104. Here's the second head during carving. The small tool at the side is for scraping the surface of the wax in detail. Lots of material removed from the wax bar to make the carving. |
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| 105. Now I've smoothed the second head by flaming. |
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| 106. I've decided that I didn't like the teeth in the first head, and the neat thing about wax is that it can be changed. So, I'm carving out the old blue teeth, opting for more detail in the green wax. A little dental work here, and without anesthesia! Goodby blue teeth! |
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| 107. You can see the bottom dentures gone. He's not such a tough guy now! The top teeth are being cut away. |
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| 108. To cut new teeth, I'm starting with a thin wax block, using a wax saw to cut a small strip. |
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| 109. I use a wax bur to carve the teeth into the bar, one tooth gap at a time. The burr is special, with wide, aggressive teeth that can deliver a nasty wound. |
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| 110. Leveling off the lower teeth so the canines stick out more. |
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| 111. Now that I've carved a row of teeth, I'll split that row in half using the jewelers saw frame and a wax saw blade. Careful work here. The green wax is stable and hard enough to do this, the blue wax wouldn't work as it's too soft. |
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| 112. Here are the wax teeth split. The canines protrude slightly more than the rest of the teeth. |
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| 113. Now the temperature controlled iron to set the teeth into the mouths. The wax melts easily, so destruction of all of my work can happen in an instant. |
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| 114. Now, careful heating of the wax allows me to bend the teeth to fit the mouth. Kind of like making dentures, right? |
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| 115. Now for some detail carving in the teeth, a little clean-up, and some shaping. Looks a lot better than the blue ones, so it's worth the extra time and effort. |
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| 116. Now that the heads are pretty much done except for the hollowing, it's time to start the guard center, or frame. I made a simple symmetrical paper pattern, and will glue it to the wax block. |
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| 117. You can barely see the paper pattern glued to the side of the wax block. since I've got a huge piece to carve out, I'm using the scroll saw with a coarse blade and slow speed. |
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| 118. Now you can see the pattern being blocked out. Note that the wax has to be cut with water based lubricant, or it will weld itself right back together behind the cut! |
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| 119. Now that the guard is blocked out, I've placed it on the sword body so you can see the general layout. Very cool. I can't wait to start fitting the pieces together in bronze! |
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| 120. Okay, here's the block ready for carving. I'll gently round and shape the surface, then blend it with the werewolf heads at the ends of the cross guard. |
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| 121. Now some file work to square up the cuts to he paper pattern. The file is a special wax file, with very large rasp-like teeth to cut wax. A metal file would just clog. |
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| 122. Rounding the quillions and sizing them down to match the werewolf's heads. |
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| 123. Now I need to hog off some wax at the sharp corners. I'll be using an air-driven rotary tool with a special wax bur. The bur is super-aggressive, and with the deep flutes, high rotational speed and sharp edges it's very dangerous. One slip could cause a nasty flesh wound! |
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| 124. Notice the gloves. They are a very special cut resistant Kevlar glove. I can cut with confidence, and the wax will fly! |
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| 125. Now that the heavy material is hogged away, time for some more controlled file work and sculpting. Making little wax from bit wax... |
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| 126. Before I get too far on the carving of the guard body, I'd better mill the slot for the sword tang. I'm measuring the width of the wax guard. |
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| 127. I've calculated the total width, subtracted the guard width, and divided by two. I'm marking the location of the milled slot with a custom edge marker. This will serve as a guide when I'm milling and carving, so I don't cut into the area where the tang is, and so I leave plenty of thickness in the guard for strength of the cast part. |
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| 128. Now I do the same with the tang width. I don't need to be too acurate here, I'm going to leave some metal, and also there will be shrinkage in the casting. Will the shrinkage make the hole larger or smaller? I guess we'll find out! |
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| 129. Now it's time for the big guns! The knee type Bridgeport milling machine! Quite a set up just to mill a little wax... |
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| 130. The wax guard is clamped in the machinists vise, supported by precision blocks so that the top of the guard is parallel to the bottom. On the cross-feed table is a spray lubricant tank, with special mixture of non-corrosive water-based coolant. If I didn't use this the wax would just melt. |
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| 131. Here's the setup a little closer. The mill is a long 3/16" mill, undersized for the project because of the clearances and shrinkage of the casting I talked about before. Aimed right where the mill will contact the wax is the spray nozzle. You can see the precision parallel sticking out of the vise, beneath the wax part. |
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| 132. With the spray turned on, here we go! |
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| 133. Of course, the wax cuts like butter. The wet spray also helps keep the wax from clogging the flutes in the mill. |
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| 134. And we're done. The slot is clean, true, square, and undersized. Just what I wanted. |
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| 135. Now that the slot is complete, I can get back to carving the guard. I want to choose a design that allows me to leave some flats on the sides of the guard, so that I can clamp the finished casting into the mill again later if I want to clean out and square up the milled slot to fit the blade tang. I could have cast it solid, but then that would just be more to mill out, and the casting needs to be as thin and light as possible. The more meat on the casting, the more possibilities of shrinkage and casting flaws. |
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| 136. Getting the quillions narrowed down to match the size of the wolves' necks. Shaping and rounding too. |
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| 137. Using a special wax cutting file to round the necks. I hadn't paid much attention to them so far, but now is the time I'll match them to the guard quillion. |
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| 138. On one head, it was way too small and short. The nice thing about wax is if you don't have enough, just add more! The iron melts the existing form, softening it to take the wax. |
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| 139. Here's a tin full of green wax filings and I use the temperature controlled iron to melt the wax filings and reapply them to the neck to build it up in size. |
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| 140. Now I'm holding the crossguard, and smoothing the carving with a small torch flame. |
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| 141. To reduce the casting size and prevent shrinkage and distortion, the heads now need to be hollowed out. This is tricky, a slip or overcut here could lead to ruining all my work. I'm using a special milling bur for wax on a low speed air tool. |
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| 142. I've broken through to the inside of the mouth. Pretty straight! |
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| 143. I'll remove that web and carve the insides more to remove as much wax as is reasonable. |
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| 144. Next I need to carve out the crossguard interior. This is needed to reduce the excess weight, and to be able to created a clean casting. I start with a rotary tool and a wax bur, hollowing out the ends of the quillions. |
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| 145. I'll also work from the inside of my milled cut. I pierce completely through the quillion, then remove a bunch of meat from the inside. The casting will be plenty strong without all that unnecessary weight, and thickness that could lead to casting distortions. |
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| 146. Here's the crossguard after wax removal. You can see that I've left a bridge of material to support the tang toward the blade, and that will be milled accurately after casting. |
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| 147. Here you can see that I've pierced completely through the quillions. I've left about 1/4" or less thickness in the wax, and after cast in bronze, that will be plenty of material for strength. |
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| 148. Here's the crossguard on the pile of wax filings. Quite a bit removed! |
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| 149. Now I'm ready for some vines. I chose the softer blue wax in round rods for the base of the vinework on the croosguard. |
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| 150. See the pot sitting on the hot plate at the upper left of the photo? That's hot water, and I dip the blue wax rods into the hot water to soften them, allowing me to wrap the rod around the guard quillions. |
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| 151. Now I'm using the temp controlled iron to melt wax along the vine, into the crack between the vine and the guard. This will bond the two wax components together, and prevent an undercut which would hold the investment casting mold material. I want the bond to be complete. |
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| 152. I rotate the guard around to all the vine work. The wax rod in my fingers is melted into the joint. |
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| 153. Now I'm scraping the union between the two waxes. I want the bond to be even and smooth, not drippy. Note the wax carving tools and brush to brush away debris. |
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| 154. I'm adding additional vines, to fill out the guard. The wax has been heated in the water bath, then bonded with the hot iron. |
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| 155. Now to scrape out the additional vines. I'm liking the way this looks so far! |
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| 156. Now to get some special wax going. I need a
wax that has some stiffness, but a lower melting point than the hard
green. Not as low as the blue. So it helps to have a history of
beekeeping, because being an apiculturist (bee keeper) and having a
family history of apiculture allows me access to plenty of ... beeswax!
(I'll bet most of you readers had no idea of this part of my past. My
father taught beekeeping, and we had 15 hives going at any given time
when I was a kid. Anyway, I'll cut off a hunk of beeswax, to add to my green hard wax and melt it together. The rig for this is the two coffee cans sitting on the green marble plate in the upper center of the photo. |
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| 157. Here's the melting rig. The flame is a bunsen burner, being fed by propane from a cannister mounted on the side of the bench. The flame is very hot, so I can adjust the temperature by raising the adjustable stand. The wax pot is a stainless steel cream dispenser. Lots of heating and stirring gives a good mix and consistency. |
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| 158. Here's the old mold and previous leaves from back in step four. I didn't go into much detail there, so I'll go over this a bit more clearly. The mold is made of two laminated pieces of acrylic, custom designed and milled on my CNC engraving machine. |
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| 159. The acrylic mold is placed on a very heavy and thick piece of glass, and the molten wax is poured over, filling all the voids. |
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| 160. After the pour. |
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| 161. Now I take a flat piece of acrylic (another mold edge) and scrape off the overburdened wax excess while it's still molten, leaving just the wax in the leaves. |
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| 162. You can see the scraped-off wax and the cooled wax in the mold. The scraped-off wax will go back in the melting pot. The leaves will be popped out of the mold as soon as they cool. |
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| 163. Here you can see the molded leaves in the container in the background. Time to mount them to the vines on the guard. I'm using a special wax called sticky wax. It is very sticky, and has a very low melting point. I'm placing a dot where I'm going to mount a leaf. |
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| 164. Now the very tricky part. The sticky wax has to be melted into the green wax, and while it's molten, the leaf is held close to the temperature controlled iron too, and warmed to accept the sticky wax. Then, the leaf is placed in the melted puddle, and bonded to the green wax carving of the guard. A little too much heat here, or a slip, and lots of repair work will have to take place. |
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| 165. Okay, once a bunch of leaves are mounted, I can take some time to clean out the excess sticky wax from the form. A lot of clean up, and a lot more leaves to mount. |
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| 166. Here's the guard with the leaves and vines mounted. You can see quite a bit of squished out wax, and I'll need to carve away those droplets for a more solid and even look. |
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| 167. Here's a top view of how I handled the milled slot. I didn't mount any leaves inside of the vines there, as the ricasso of the sword blade must have a good, flat finished area to snug up into the guard slot. I'm about to find out if it will work! |
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| 168. First, I'll clean up those areas with a fine carving tool, and get off all the excess wax. |
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| 169. After carving, I flamed the piece for a glossy, wet look that blends the leaves to the background form. I think it will look great in the bronze, like the leaves are clutching the guard and are wet. |
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| 170. Now for a little tuning. Once I've got the exterior how I like it, I've got to tune up the inside milled cut of the guard to actually fit the sword tang. some careful filing with the wax file here. |
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| 171. You can see that the sword tang is tapered, both in thickness and in width. I'll have to fit the guard by sliding it up the tang, checking the size often. |
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| 172. Almost there. Still a little tight. I'll have to take out some more wax. |
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| 173. There it is. The guard fits tightly against the ricasso stops. When I cast the guard in bronze, it will have some shrinkage, so I'll have to hand file the bronze guard to fit, but it shouldn't be too much. A nice, snug union. |
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| 174. I don't want to take any material off the tang, as that would weaken the sword to handle junction. So for the transition, I need to know how big the tang is at the base of the guard. |
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| 175. Once I have the size, I've enlarged it a bit and selected a circular pattern for the ferrule. The ferrule is an important part; it is the transition between the irregularly shaped guard to a rounded handle. It also mechanically supports the handle and transfers the energy and force between the handle and guard. Here I use a circular template and scribe to mark a piece of .250" thick purple wax. |
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| 176. I'll use a fine scroll saw blade to rough out the ferrule base. |
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| 177. The ferrule is often called a washer, spacer, or bottle cap for its appearance. Fine trimming here. |
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| 178. Dressing the outside of the ferrule base with a small wax file. Note the jar lid anvil that lifts the work off the table so I can get to the edge. |
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| 179. Here's a handy little gadget borrowed from the wood turning trades. It's a center finder for circular stock. Scribing the center. |
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| 180. Once the center is marked, I drill with a slightly undersized drill at a high speed. Note the masking tape to protect the relatively soft wax from the hard vise jaws that serve as my rest. |
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| 181. Back to the scroll saw to shape the hole for the tang. Saw blade is moving at high speed here; you can't even see it! I'll saw from the inside hole to the outside of the rectangle. |
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| 182. You can see the blade in this shot. Lots of care here; it's easy to ruin the wax. |
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| 183. Now some clean-up with a small wax file, to make sure the ferrule base fits the tang. |
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| 184. What? What is Jay doing here!?!
Okay, I can do much better on the guard. I looked at it for a week and I just didn't like it. The leaves weren't clearly defined, the base wasn't big enough to make a smooth transition from to the ferrule, and the blue wax vines were getting scarred badly, because the blue wax was just too soft. The neat thing about wax is, if you don't like it, you can change it. So, now that I've had some practice, I know I can do a much better job. Your sword deserves it. So, off with the old pattern on the face, and a high speed metal burr makes a short job of it. |
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| 185. Wow, will there be anything left of the guard? Here, the temperature controlled iron is melting off the face of the wax. A sad ending to an inferior piece. Artist's prerogative. Go away ugly wax. |
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| 186. Now for the re-shape. I'm melting wax, literally welding it, bit by bit from a block into the original guard. I'll build up this area a bunch, to make a smoother transition between the ferrule and the guard. |
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| 187. Tilting and building. The process is slow, because in order to be thoroughly bonded, the wax welds must be deep. Any irregularities will fracture, or the added wax will simply detach. I can take my time here, I want to get this one right. |
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| 188. Here you can see how I changed the shape. More bell shaped at the base, but this led to a thicker interior. I don't want to cast any part of the guard thicker than .250" because it could crack. The bronze will be a shell casting, and that means I need to hollow or carve out the interior of the guard. The wax bur and a lot of hand scraping with a wax carving tool will do the trick. This is going to be soooo much better! |
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189. Okay, here it is, after a bunch of build up and carve off, you can see a lot of filed debris in the little pic above. To the right, I've smoothed it as much as possible with hand files, and then flamed the surface to polish it. Now we're ready to move on. |
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| 190. Here, I'm using the temperature controlled iron to start building up the vines in wax. Unlike the soft blue stuff, I'm building these out of hard green microcrystalline wax, the same as was used to build the guard frame. Melting it on should give great adhesion and durability to the form. |
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| 191. The wax can't simply lay on top of the substrate, it has to be melted into it, to become part of the entire wax form. Otherwise, it could chip or pop off at the most inopportune time, as in the wet investment just before casting! |
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| 192. The fine lines are trailed on top; I get the wax from the swarf I've carved off in the last filing step. Plenty of that around. |
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| 193. Now some touch-up bonding with the spoon. The wax is melted into the tiny spoon above the alcohol lamp, and poured, melted, and worked into those pesky voids. |
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| 194. Now I'm detailing the background with the hot point. I want a bit of texture here, kind of like bark, some irregular spaces to break up the smooth ground and make the vines and leaves stand out. |
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| 195. Starting to look good. Now, in order to blend the |