Welcome to the final episode of creating a sword for the ChronoBlade game by nWay.
If you have not watched them yet, you might want to check out the previous three episodes
to catch up.
The next step is to prepare the wooden hilt core with hide glue for an underwrap.
This is a technique for which Peter Johnsson has written a nice tutorial on the bladesmiths
forums.
The glue is quite sticky and although I am trying to get a tight wrap, I sometimes need
to push the hemp cord together with a metal scriber.
At this point, the guards and pommel are not permanently attached and they are sticking
together by friction.
I am also gluing in some thicker hemp cord in the middle as a riser to give a better
grip.
The next part is exciting since I am going to use 24 karat gold wire.
This is for a metal overlay technique that I learned in one of Jim Austin's Koftgari
classes.
The wire I was able to buy was too thick and as a first step I get to use a draw plate
to reduce the diameter of the wire.
This is somewhat tricky since the wire can break easily the thinner it gets.
Before I can go to the next drawplate, I need to anneal the wire to make it soft again.
This is easier by twisting it together in a little bow.
I am drawing the wire down until I reach 0.16mm thickness.
Before the wire can be overlayed the ground needs to be prepared.
It can be cut or chiseled.
The chiseling is a Japanese technique called Nunome Zogan.
The idea is to raise little metal spikes that will be able to grab onto the gold wire.
The design I am overlaying is a cross potent.
I am using a brass tool to push the wire into the ground.
Once the design is complete, I am using a planishing hammer to even everything out.
This also smoothes out the chisel marks so that they are barely visible.
The final step in preparing the pommel and guards for assembly is to create their patina.
I am using a very simple technique to brown the steel.
The most challenging part of the Koftgari exercise was to overlay gold into the hardened
steel of the sword plate.
This is not a technique meant for hardened steel and required a lot of tempering an patience.
I do not recommend this to anyone.
I had to sharpen the chisel after every single pass.
Alright, after this hurdle has been overcome.
It's time to glue everything together.
However, the glue is not sufficient to hold everything together.
Instead, I am peening the tang over the pommel so that it will never come loose.
The tang has not been hardened and is soft steel, I could peen it cold but then where
is the fun in that.
The whole exercise looks so much more dramatic when an oxy-actelyn torch is involved.
Before we can put the sword to use there is one more step missing and that is to wrap
the hilt in leather.
I never enjoy doing this.
The skiving of the leather is tedious, and the hide glue makes everything a big mess.
There is not help though, I will have to suffer through this process, too.
However, you do not have to suffer, so I am showing everyting at a much faster speed.
Another wrap of hemp cord is applied here to press the leather firmly into the underwrap
and making sure that the hide glue is pressed into everything.
I let it sit overnight and remove the hemp cord the next day.
There are two more steps missing before the sword is complete.
I am going to grind away the peened over tang for a smooth transition into the pommel.
The last step is to sharpen the sword using the slack belt.
Let's see how the sword cuts.
Thank you for following me along on my journey to create this sword.
Here are some pictures of the final result.
I hope you enjoyed this video and if you did, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to
my channel.