OK. time to show us what Santa brought all you good little boys and girls. I'll start. And a closer look at the axe's head. So, yeah ... I SCORED BIG TIME this Christmas. :yes:
Yikes, Orcs beware. I gave my superior a pasta maker. She gave me a book on how to make pies. So it's win win. In the process of attempting steak and kidney now pics to follow.
WOW!!! They look amazing. That axe head in particular is magnificent. Great stuff!!!! Perhaps also great staff if you have monk gear around
Heh heh I gathering quite the arsenal. All I really wanted was a mace .... The axe is a good 2 1/2 feet long, so it's almost a staff. Heh heh And Hugh, I've never actually had steak and kidney pie, wonder if I can get it here in the US?
I'm sure you can get it somewhere in the US my grandfather used to live in Arizona and he made it. Here are the results.- Or will be once I photoshop them down.
Looks delicious! :yes: btw, isn't this amazing? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTGYwiMgzUU Such a great skill, to take pieces of iron and make ithem into a work of art.
I don't know how I feel about so many modern tools used to make it. I guess you could say it's a very good recreation of a medieval area sword. I think something is lost somehow or somewhere when the smith doesn't actually bend the metal to his will with his muscles and not those of an automatic hammer. Granted, you DO pay a great deal more for a traditionally forged sword compared to a modern fabrication of one. Me, I don't mind paying more for the "hand crafted" version. I was fortunate enough to speak at length with the man who forged my longsword and he certainly earned every penny I gave him.
Even medieval smiths had trip hammers powered by water wheels where available, so I don't begrudge modern smiths their auto-hammers.
The Italian fella that made my Bastard sword uses the modern techniques and with him it seems to be more about mass production at the lowest effort, this is just the impression I got and could be completely wrong because we didn't speak that long. The guy that made my longsword almost felt like he was parting with a child when he gave me the sword, (for money of course) and I got the impression he cared greatly about his works. You could see the pride on his face and we did talk quite a while about the process and such, it was fascinating really.
I agree with Daryk about the power hammer, I think the blacksmiths also had apprentices who functioned as the modern power hammer, ie, the blacksmith would hold the piece of iron and two or three apprentices would take turns to strike the hot metal. I try to read as much as I can about these things (and watch as many videos as possible) because I'd like to learn about that stuff, and perhaps make something of my own one day (wouldn't that be cool ). Modern equipment seems to be mostly about removing the need for extra hands and doing something faster, for example metal heating (which is what industry is all about). I can completely relate with what sirchet says here, as well: This: is also something I think about. For example, when I see sword making with modern tools I wonder what tools and tricks a roman army blacksmith would have used to make/fix weapons, when he was part of a unit that was on the march. These guys made weapons that were both "mass produced" and hand made. It seems to me that it is not exceptionally difficult to make a weapon that is solely for decorative purposes, however, to make a weapon that would be "functional" ie sharp is quite different, because it would mean heating the metal and then rapidly cooling it down in order to obtain the sharpness, without giving that property only to the cutting edge of the sword and not to the middle of the blade, because this rapid cooling process while ensuring that the metal is sharp, also makes the metal brittle.
I agree and is very cool how it's done. I should have been a little more clear about what I meant in reference to what I call mass produced equipment. I didn't mean to talk down about a smith that uses a power hammer, I just prefer the weapons and armor made without it. I think the Japanese were the first to solve the brittle issue by folding the metal and combining it with carbon to create a rudimentary form of steel. All good stuff, if you ask me.
The Japanese certainly did that. I think the Romans must have used some similar technique before them, though, I remember reading something like that in an Osprey book. I have not seen videos with actual Roman metalworking, though (there should be some with Japanese bladesmithing on youtube). And of course there is the story about the meeting of king Richard with Saladin the Wise, where Richerd, to demonstrate the power of the crusaders took out his sword and cut down a wooden pole with one stroke. Saladin calmly took out his sword, held it edge up, and let a silk scarf fall on it. The blade was so keen, it cut the silk. Saladin's sword was from Damascus. It seems to be a fascinating job to be a blacksmith. Being practical, creative, artistic and imaginative all seem to converge in that single profession.
I agree completely and I remember reading about that meeting too, Damascus was one the most advanced cultural and technological centers of that time era.
