I'm Matt. I'm Kerry. We are the Stagmer Brothers of Baltimore Knife and Sword.
We're gonna be building some of your favorite weapons and some weapons that you've never seen before.
This is MAN AT ARMS: REFORGED
Sometimes when we're reading through the comments sections it feels like you guys are trolling us.
In this case, we're gonna take your request to heart.
We're gonna be making the weapon from "Shovel Knight."
It's an old-school style side-scroller, but it's definitely a lot of fun.
We'll be using the plasma key treating trying to make all the cartoon look of this entire piece fit an actual physical object
It's actually something that Matt's been interested in building the entire time
we've been doing the series. Matt has always loved the sound of a shovel striking somebody in the back.
So we're all gonna be watching out as we go through this build.
The first step we're gonna do on Shovel Knight's awesome
shovel sword is to basically just draw a spade in CAD,
get it cut out on the plasma cutter, and then start all the complex forging that has to go from there.
We've decided it's gonna be about 15 inches tall.
I have to draw it a little wider than it's gonna be in actuality because it gets some form.
Here... see what that looks like mirrored over
Now we got to add a little bit of arc at the bottom, use the three-point arc tool, so click...
Remove the center line...
There is. I mean this is a pretty basic form, really simple to draw, but it's gonna
give us a big advantage starting with a nice symmetrical piece, so now let's take it to the plasma cutter and get it cut.
So for our shovel head,
we're gonna be cutting it in mild steel initially and then afterwards we'll go out to the forge, Ilya's gonna forge a high-carbon wrap
that's gonna go around the outside. That's what's gonna get hardened. That's what's gonna be able to hit and smash things.
This is what's gonna attach to the pole and give us the big form that we need. We're gonna make it in two pieces.
It'll be plasma cut. I'm gonna go ahead and cut those pieces now so we can get them formed
and then we'll be able to shape it and get that outside.
Just use the mirror tools, select the center
We've got our lead and lead out for the plasma so the plasma cutter starts here,
goes all the way around, comes back, and ends there.
This portion will be attached to the actual shovel head will weld along the perimeter.
This portion will get rounded around creating a socket in which the wood handle can slide up into.
The next step for this build is to form the socket.
Kerry already cut out the template now Ilya is gonna move to the forge and start creating the shape.
First, he uses the anvil and a hand hammer to initialize the bend.
He then uses a mandrel to finalize the shape. Now this step takes about four or five heats.
Ilya has done this process many times for the shop on a daily basis making spear sockets,
so he makes it look easy. Trust me. It's not.
We're getting ready to plasma-cut the guard for our Shovel Knight sword out of this piece of half-inch plate.
After it's cut, we'll clean it up, dish it, and install it.
Now that he's deburred this guard, John's gonna
go ahead and use the fly press, which has a lot of pressure, to bend this large piece of steel.
He'll be able to create the entire form and then we'll go and brass it.
It's now time to form the cutting edge for our Shovel Knight sword.
Now we could just use the plasma and cut out a blank for it, grind it, and be done.
But Ilya, he decided to take a tougher route.
He's gonna forge it to shape. He's gonna start from a two inch wide strip and
just beat it around until the curve matches the initial cut-out.
Originally, this was supposed to be an American job. However, since you guys like watching Slavic labor,
I did Slavic style.
What I had to do for the edge was take a two inch strip and bend it. Then we take American parts
and attach it. But that's not all. We need to attach the shovel for the knight to hit people.
Premium Slavic job. Clean up the parts.
Weld them on, rivet them on, heat treat. We see smashed fruit and come back in a couple of weeks for more Slavic labor.
All right. Ilya just got done fitting this to the shovel
I'm gonna go through now. Clean up the perimeter and all the edges here.
Inside outside and also do the flat so I can hand it back to him, so he can actually attach it to the shovel itself.
After looking at a bunch of cover art and some fanart,
We noticed that sometimes this shovel appears to be flat and other times it has a lot of shape.
Ilya decided that he wanted to give it some form and add a nice central crease.
So he's gonna start on the anvil using a raising hammer to initialize that crease,
then move to the power hammer to crisp everything up and flatten it back out in certain areas.
Now that he has his curve and dish formed into this guard
John's going to go back to the sanders and smooth and polish the entire surface.
With our guard now formed to shape, and completely blended out on the sanders, the next step
is to turn on that classic brass color.
John's gonna use a torch to heat up the steel parts. Once they're up to temperature,
he's going to use a brass wire wheel to just deposit the brass on the surface of the steel.
It's now time to start on the handle portion of our sword build. The handle is going to be made up of a series of
different size pipes, one inside the other. We're gonna do a little forging to create some shape and
some welding and some blending. The first thing
I'm going to do is work on that traditional shovel handle, then we'll move on to doing the sword handle later.
So my first step is to use a whizzer, cut a straight line up on either side,
And then we're going to forge that out and around to make that shape, and then another piece of pipe to make the cross handle.
Much like you'd see on a regular shovel at the hardware store, he's going to be taking a piece of pipe
splitting it, bending it open, and then creating the handle. In this case
it's just a much thicker piece of steel so he has to do it hot.
Okay, Ilya pre-shaped the shovel body. Now I have the edge that I need the weld on.
We've got it clamped in place.
I want to put some tack welds on before I fully weld it on, then finish pulling the edge in to finish her off.
Okay, I now tack welded my two pieces together, and you'll watch me as I move from side to side...
kind of alternating, so I don't put too much heat in any one area to cause severe warpage.
Okay now we have it fully welded. We have minimal warpage from the heat.
Illya should be able to straighten that out. We'll be ready for grinding and heat treating.
Alright, John's done a great job joining our high carbon edge to the body of the shovel.
You can see he MIG welded the entire perimeter on the backside,
left the front side plane just like it should look. My next job is to go ahead and blend that weld out
and I'm gonna move on to grinding a striking edge all along the outside.
Now that I finished rough blending my welds on the handle portion
we'we got a couple of more grits to go to polish it out smooth it over. Then we'll be ready for the heat brassing.
Since this shovel head is so large, we can't just heat treated in a normal forge.
We're gonna be using the kiln which Ilya uses to heat treat armor on a regular basis.
Once the shovel is completely up to heat, I open the kiln, Ilya pulls it out, and quenches it in water.
Nothing warped, nothing cracked. This is a successful heat treating.
Our shovel and socket has now been welded together. John did a great job he ran some mid-weld all along the perimeter here.
My job is just to blend that weld, brighten up the edge, sharpen it,
and we're ready to hit somebody!
To get that in-game feel of this weapon,
we have to make sure the handle of the shovel and the handle of the sword portion are blue.
So John's gonna use some leather that he's dyed to the right color and just wrap those portions.
Even though it took a little while, and we made some changes when we went through this build,
we're really happy with the finished product. I feel like we've really captured the cartoon look of this piece.
We also have all been able to stay safe from Matt wandering around the shop with a shovel in his hand.
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Thanks for watching MAN AT ARMS: REFORGED.
We need to know what you want the guys to build, so tell us in the comments below what weapons you want to see next.