Sword

This project was inspired by BTimmons’ swords:

This is going to my 8 year old niece for Christmas. The blade is a strip of white oak ripped from the edge of a thick face-to-face glueup. There’s a heartwood/sapwood line down the center that sort of gives the illusion of some blade tapering (there is none. It’s just a 1/4” thick slab). I started by cutting a tang with a ripsaw and rounding a point on the bandsaw.

The handguard is hickory for maximum strength. I chopped a little mortise, then used a can to lay out the curves and a bandsaw and spindle sander to cut them. I freehanded the curves on the ends on a disc sander.

For the hilt, I used a plow plane to cut a groove in a piece of poplar half as deep as the thickness of the tang, crosscut it, doubled it back on itself and glued it together. I cut the curves on a bandsaw and disc sander, and freehanded the chamfers along the corners with the disc sander to get an octagonal cross section.

For the pommel, I first chopped a tapered mortise in another piece of hickory.

Then cut it into a circle with a flat spot where it goes up against the hilt, and put a shallow chamfer on both faces with the disc sander.

Cut down the middle of the tang, and wedged the pommel on with a little hickory wedge. A little black spray paint on the hilt (before final assembly) and this one’s in the bag. Overall length is 28”. It may not last long in the hands of an 8 year old (and it may get confiscated depending on what happens), but I won’t complain if it ends up back at my house.

-- "A man may conduct himself well in both adversity and good fortune, but if you want to test his character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln