River Jian in-progress

[kevin - the professor]

Hello Everyone,

I have a set of beautiful fittings that I got from Charles Wu. These fittings are in the style of the Han Dynasty, and they are sized for a short sword. Therefore, I am making what is known as a, "duan jian," - which is a double-edged short sword.

The pattern is what I call a River pattern, due to the lines of 15N20 that run up the blade, as well as all of the swirls and eddies. This length of blade was quite popular during the Han (as was a very long battle sword of similar proportions but longer dimensions). I think this would have been used by pirate and merchant alike (after all, there isn't a ton of difference).

Aggressive bargaining tool.

The blade is essentially done, although I still have to do just a tad of refinement of the tip. After that comes the woodwork.

I hope you like. Comments are welcomed.

Bar of crushed w's in the Twistomatic 3000, ready for twisting. This allows me to twist at welding heat, then scoot the forge along rail an inch, and then twist again. It takes the anxiety out of twisting, and should lead to very strong welds when twisting is done, since twists are made at welding heat.

This is the packet for the 4-way mosaic. This is twisted, crushed w's, placed in the corners of a cross made of 15N20.

Tip

ridge

Whole thing: 21.5" long, 1.25" at shoulders, .27" thick at forte, tapering to .13" about 4 inches from tip, and remaining about that size. I heat treated this (tempered) to between an RC of 56 and 58, using harness testing chisels from Matt Parkinson to test every inch or so on each bevel.

Now, I have to do the wood work. The fittings are great. You will see...

thanks for looking.

kc

 

[Dan Pierson]

Kevin - great to see that you've got your shop set up again and that you're finally making a jian!
Looking good so far.

 

[kevin - the professor]

Dan, well... I have made 4 jian (three before this one, but the other three each had a flaw the kept them from seeing the light of day). I am a bit of a perfectionist, especially given the quality of the fittings I am trying to match. I know you understand exactly what I mean.

thanks. Hope to see you at Ashokan this year.
kc

 

[Dan Pierson]

I certainly hope to be there -- mainly hoping that it's not the same weekend my niece comes cross
country to visit us for another math contest.

 

[BossDog]

Nice Kevin, please keep posting progress on this one.
I'd sure like to understand your twisting process a little better if you get a chance.
t

 

[Jeremiah Rostig]

Impressive work!

 

[kevin - the professor]

Boss - I don't have any better pics of the twist. That bar was 140 layers across and 4 layers deep. I had rotated the billet 90 degrees prior to the last welding to make some crushed w's. I should have welded once more, or flipped one weld run earlier, but the pattern came out ok.

The Twistomatic is just a mini forge that I made a mounting bracket for, and then put together a post-and-rail assembly from two slightly different sizes of square tubing. I can raise and lower each end where I made clamps to screw to the ends of the bar. One end I screw down tight, the other, I just set on the post for support. I adjust the height of the forge, if needed, too. Then, I just fire it up, heat a small section to welding heat, and twist slowly. Making new welds the whole time I am twisting. Then I advance the forge an inch along the rail, and do it again. It isn't much faster than traditional twisting, but it is a hell of a lot less stressful (unless you use O1, which can crumble in this because it is red short).

There is a sheath and handle hidden somewhere in there. Nice piece of curly walnut (it says so right on the board).

Maybe in 100 years somebody will see the Maker's Mark and wonder who this K Psy guy was. (Psy is the abbreviation for Professor of Psychology used in my field, so Kevin the Professor).

 

[kevin - the professor]

Love this camp stove.

I enlarged the opening for the tang, so I could get max strength for the sword. Making a blade to fit existing fittings is not ideal. Next time, I will send dimensions to Charles first.

Peening the hidden face of the guard to increase friction fit. Cold forging lets me shape the guard to fit the tang exactly.

Handle core slotted and epoxied. Now, I am setting up to make a tenon that will extend into the bottom of the guard (or between the shoulders).

Tenon was cut with Japanese backsaw.

cleaned up on the mill.

 

[kevin - the professor]

Tenon in guard. Look at the awesome work Charles Wu (don't know his real given name) can do. He is also a very nice, and honorable, man. I suggest all of you should do business with him for fittings or engraved and chased silver bookmarks. He is a man with dignity, who works hard to support his family, as a craftsman. You have to respect him for his ability, and also for his integrity. I do.

Matching tenon to fit shape of guard. I am not a good wood worker, but I struggle through.

There are a LOT more pics on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.colw...3456.1073741863.1407177569&type=3&uploaded=36

I don't have a lathe (yet). So, I am using the square-octagon- round trick from blacksmithing. I wish I had a lathe, though.

Here is where the handle work stops for the day. I am going to use the belt sander (not used a lot in this build), then rasps and files, and finally hand sanding to shape this from here.

Sheath channeled and epoxy set. Now, time to figure out how to inlet that guard (did I mention that I am not a good wood worker?).

Setting up for bulk material removal. I have a Craftsman benchtop wood-cutting bandsaw. I get a lot of use out of it on things like this. I use it to remove the bulk of wood from handles and sheaths. Once I approach final size and shape, everything is done with rasps, files, and paper.

In a previous pic you saw a German, handmade, rasp taking the corners off of the handle blank. I use this rasp for almost all rapid removal of wood, horn, antler, etc. It was an ebay score. Great tool. I suggest you all get one (at bargain prices, of course).

Sometimes I wish I had a set of block planes, but this rasp works great (better than the sureform rasps do for me, uhm... for sure).

Getting mark for the chape. My plan on this, as I often do on these large wood handles and sheaths, is to get the ends shaped, and then work towards the middle. There will be some complex shaping and transitions on this sheath. I have to work carefully and not remove too much at any one time or point. You will see what I mean as things progress.

Last one for today. Tomorrow, I will work on inletting the guard into the sheath. I will need patience for this, and I don't want to try it when I am tired, at the end of the day.

Thanks for looking so far!

kc

 

[kevin - the professor]

More on the handle today.

Center punch prior to drilling and pinning. I use a copper nail when I can. They are my favorite pins. 1/8". Actually, they are just about 2 hundredths under. Perfect for peening.

There is now a peened pin (rivet) there. Can you see it? I can't, and I put it there. I countersink by hand with copper, clean oxides off the pin stock, and carefully peen. Then, file the whole are with a coarse and then a smooth file. This is what you get.

Height gauge measuring and marking for ridges on the handle. I tried with just putting a strip of paper around the handle, but this way worked better.

Use tape to mark backsaw for depth of cut.

Cutting in the lines for handle ridges.

Rasp, chisel, and finally, a coarse file, all used to remove the extra material on the handle.

I taped the handle to protect it, and then used files to shape the raised sections. I wish I had a lathe.

Lots and lot of hand sanding followed, with a fair bit still remaining (I got the whole handle smooth filed and then sanded to 220 grit today).

Look how much material I rasped and filed off of the handle today (sawed and chiseled, too.).

Refining transition between tenon and rest of handle. It goes from sort of diamond shape (like the guard) to round.

Thanks for looking.
kc

 

[Ed of all trades]

Thanks for posting all of this. I am glad you are doing this without a lathe so I can see how you are doing it. Impressive. I'll be watching. Ed

 

[kevin - the professor]

Thanks Ed. I wish I had a lathe, though. Honestly, when this sword sells, I will probably use the money to buy a lathe.

kc

 

[Ed of all trades]

I understand that, hope it works out well and you are happy with it. Ed

 

[kevin - the professor]

I have been plugging along for the last couple of days. This is all just basic work on the sheath.

I have to get the guard inlet at the throat of the sheath, the wood nice and flat on all four sides, and the chape seated at the toe of the sheath. After I get those things set, I can do the majority of the wood removal. There is at least double the amount of wood on this blank that is needed for the final sheath, and I am slowly removing until I get the throat, chape, and sides worked out. Then, I can work faster (somewhat).

One of my favorite chisels. It is the tang of an old file, repurposed.

Tools for upcoming work. Chisels, rasps, riffler, and files.

Not inletting traditionally, instead I am making a pencil mark next to the area that needs to have material removed when the guard is on the sheath. Take the guard off, rasp or chisel, and then file a little to clean up, and refit. It is sort of the process on fitting guards on knives, too.

Picture of fitting the guard. It is almost there.

Layout lines for rasping down. Rasp, then file to clean up. I needed the exercise, so it was good.

Rasp (love this rasp)

Filing with a coarse file. I don't have a plane. So, I am using the file to get the surface smooth. I am getting the edge and the faces smooth. Only the middle portion matters, though, because the sheath will have a flattened diamond cross-section for the top half (it turns to oval for the bottom half, at least that is the plan).

I actually like filing wood. In the left side of this pic, you can see the wood that I have filed to prepare for the next steps. The flattened diamond will have flats on the edges where the vertices would normally be, and corners on the front and back face of the sheath. That is why I am smoothing the wood out. You can see the curl appearing on the left when compared to the unfiled wood on the right.

Fitting the chape. Tap with dead blow hammer, and look for where it rubs. Remove where it rubs, and sometimes a little exactly opposite from where it rubs, too. Also remove in front of rub, so it will slide down. It is a lot like what Alan does with tomahawk heads, I imagine.

Here you can see the place where the chape is rubbing. Once I get this on, I can then shape the rest of the wood on the bottom section of the sheath. I need this oval to go by for the rest, though.

More tomorrow, hopefully.

 

[kevin - the professor]

Been awhile, but I am still working on this one. Almost done. Hopefully over the next 3 days I will finish.

Here I am sawing the lines to then chisel between for an mounting for the scabbard slide.

Cleaning up the area.

Using a Braun Block (from Ed) to sand the sheath. 100 grit paper and good backing, to get all the dips and stuff out.

These sheaths have a central ridge for most of the length that transitions to an oval near the chape.

Vise with neoprene on the jaws in a bullet vise, Braun block to sand.

More fitting of chape.

You can see the marks, where wood needs to be removed (and sometimes exactly opposite of there).

I soft-soldered (stay-brite) a hidden pin made from a copper nail into the guard. This is to make ultra-sure that the guard can't rattle, come what may.

Matching pinhole on the handle. Normally, you braze a ring to the guard, and then have the handle come inside that. This can keep the guard from moving. But, with these fittings, there wasn't enough room to use a ring like that, and have a tang that was very wide/thick. Therefore, I abandoned the ring, and you can see even the wood doesn't take up room on the sides of the handle. That leaves max room for tang, and the pin will take care of making doubly-certain that the guard can not rattle.

Surface prep for epoxying scabbard slide.

I feel like a criminal every time I do something like this, but I just had to put a pin through Charle's beautiful chape.

http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/ss231/thor2888/River Sword wip Duan Jian/IMG_2302.jpg

That's it for now. The sheath is fully polished, and now the scabbard slide and chape are attached. I just need to put a couple more layers of tung oil on it.

I also need to polish the handle, wrap some leather cord around the scabbard slide to make it more secure, do the final polish and etch, and epoxy and pin the handle.

That is it. Not much, really.

Thanks for looking. Will be done soon.
Comments welcomed, as always.

kc

 

[kevin - the professor]

Here is another set. This will be the last one until I get the leather cord to wrap the scabbard slide. If there is interest, I will provide a link to a Smithsonian article called The Scabbard Slide in Asia (or something close).

Here is a pic of the handle in place, but not pinned or epoxied. I am just looking to see if adjustments are needed. As you can see, I use tung oil. This stuff is great. Build it up slowly, in many layers. Wipe on, rub on. Let sit about 12 hours, repeat for several days. The sheath has a layer of tung oil that has filled the pores. It looks a little like a CA finish, only easier to do, and historically accurate.

Everything was stained with aqua fortis, which I learned from Alan, through this forum. I just buy Ferric Nitrate crystals and dissolve them in water. It is easier than nitric acid plus steel wool.
http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/ss231/thor2888/River Sword wip Duan Jian/IMG_2305.jpg
Charles Wu goodness.

This is some of the most interesting walnut I have ever seen. Tung oil and AF go together so very well.

Charles Wu goodness.

This is it until the leather arrives. Thanks for the kind words. There will be more when I get leather. Almost done, though. Wrap the scabbard slide with leather cord to help bind it. Then, sharpen, final polish, etch.
This one is going to Coop.

 

[kevin - the professor]

Here is the final version. Photos by Jim Cooper.
Fittings by Charles Wu.

 

[J. ROSA]

Wow Kevin, this is an impressive build! It's been really interesting and cool following your progress on this sword. Do you have stats for us; pob, etc?

 

[kevin - the professor]

Thanks for commenting.
The blade is 21.5" long, with an almost 12" handle.
pob is just barely ahead of the guard.
width = 1.3" at forte
thickness is between .25" and .3" at medial ridge, at forte.

There is a rapid distal taper for the first 4", then gradual until the last 5" of the blade, where it becomes even more gradual. The last 4" are .13" thick, until just before the point.

I prefer to grab the handle so that just my index finger is above the first riser, and that makes it so the pob is about 5" ahead of the grip (4-5" anyway).

kc

 

[J. ROSA]

Thanks for the stats. Any chance I can get that scabbard link?