This build log is mainly to serve as public notice that I will be making and there for carying around a katana on site.
This katana is more of a backyard mash up, rather than a traditionaly made katana, as obviously stated by it being made out of a large tent pike.
I hope to start sharpening it tomorrow, with a deep narrow blade.
If people are concerned or interested, swords are legal to buy, sell and make in Qld. Just call weapons licencing qld to find out first hand. The only real provision is that the owner of the sword does nothing unusual or threatening with it. E.g. practicing kenjutsu in the quad.
Pictures won’t attach due to size restrictions. Feel free to ask in person. Check fb page Forrester Leather and steel.
The Katana has been bladed and heat treated in our new supper large quench tank. Though the blade bent slightly in quench treatment. I endeavour to straighten this bend and 're heat treat it. Possible tomorrow.
Which will be one of the last times you will have to see Scary McScare Face on sight, until I find a pipe for sheathing it
That warping you’re getting is from internal stresses in the steel, caused by the forging process. To prevent it occurring again you need to normalize the steel by cooling it super slowly. A common method is to leave the entire blade in the forge to cool, but that won’t work for something this large. Another common method is to bury the red hot blade in a tub of vermiculite, which will insulate it and allow it to cool more slowly. If the blade is thin and struggles to hold enough heat for this process, strapping some chunks of steel to with side before heating it to red can also assist.
Finally, one of the key concepts for a katana is the differential hardening, with a soft spine and a hard edge. Traditionally, this is done using a clay to cover the spine before the final heat & quench, reducing the heat absorbed by the spine and slowing the cooling in the quench, but you can achieve the same result by heating the spine after your quench with an oxy torch, and keeping the edge cold in water.
Very interesting stuff. When i said katana I ment in shape onĺy. But i have 3 more to go, so i would be fooling not to try applying some of those techniques. I will 're read several time so I have a firm idea in my head about how to integrate it.
Thanks for your time bro
