I rechecked my source on the burning method of fitting the grip to the tang. Jim Hrisoulas, the Complete Bladesmith, forging your way to perfection. It appears this is done after the final hardening and tempering. He says to wrap a wet piece of leather around the base of the blade to limit heat transfer up into the blade and set the blade into a Vice grip for stability. Then heat the tang to blue-black (not red hot) and push up onto the tang. Repeat the action and reheat as necessary until it fits all the way. Wear heavy gloves. Do it outdoors, there will be a lot of smoke. Exotic hardwoods can have irritating fumes. Ivory, stag antler, or horn will be destroyed by this process. When fully fitted, douse the wood in water to prevent further burning, and allow the tang to air-cool. The pictures of this process in the book show a very clean and even tang. This is often not the case with Chinese imports, the tangs are somewhat irregular. So results may vary. It also occurs to me that with the slightly curved tang typical of a dao, results may vary.
The pictures were perfect..! Exactly what I needed to see. Thank you again. Im also going to look into the book.
Hey Buddy..!! Do you have any pics on making the scabbard? I just purchased the metal to start the guard, pommel, and handle.. Thank you,
I do not have any pictures of scabbard making. The concept is not difficult. You take a board that is a couple inches wider and longer than the blade, and split it into two pieces. Trace the shape of the blade, and router/chisel out the space for the blade in both halves, keeping in mind the size and thickness so it fits snug and does not rattle once the two pieces are put together. This takes some measuring. And honestly, a little guess work. Mark on the opposite sides of each half (what will become the outside of the scabbard) the shape of the routered blade area because once you glue them together, you otherwise will not be able to tell where the space for the blade is. Then glue the two pieces together with some heavy grade glue. I use JB Weld, a very heavy grade two-part epoxy/hardener. Then, go around the marking that shows where the blade is and make a second marking about 5-6 millimeters out, which is how much material you want to keep all the way around the blade. At the point, I give it extra material, like a solid centimeter or centimeter and a half. This way the glue seam should be really solid. A lot of the cheap pieces from China shave they seam down to a knife edge, and they can start coming apart. Make that scabbard strong. Then, I shape it down on a belt sander, being careful to bring it to the outer tracing and not opening up the hollow space by shaping it down too much. Gradually round out the flat faces of the scabbard until the shape is pleasing and proportional. Much of this is done by simply eye-balling it, I don’t have a precision measuring method. then you can sand it to a fine grit and I like to finish the wood with linseed oil. Maple comes out beautifully this way, especially if it is curly maple or burl. i also put bronze fittings on it, I don’t know the proper names of the pieces but I put an end piece over the point, an piece over the mouth of the scabbard, and a couple of straps in the middle area. I can’t give you instruction on this because I do a lost-wax casting method which requires more training and specialized/expensive equipment than I can give you over a discussion forum. i don’t know what else to suggest, because I suspect that any other method such as forging the pieces would also take training and equipment beyond the scope of this discussion.
That was going to be my next question was the fittings themself. What kind of steel did you use for the pommel? And the fittings? I’m guessing since you used wax, you melted the metal and poured it. I’ll figure something out.
The guard and pommel are both low carbon “structural” steel. I bought a bar of steel from Lowes for the guard and found rod stock from an online supplier for the pommel. Those things can be cut, drilled, routered, and ground on a belt sander to shape them. the scabbard fittings are cast in bronze. Lost-wax casting is a specific technique requiring specialized equipment that is expensive and requires some amount of training to get clean castings. You will not be able to figure it out using equipment commonly found in one’s garage. That is the problem. If you don’t have access to that equipment and the training and experience, it’s a dead-end. I took classes in the art department of my community college for several years, to gain those skills, and then invested about $6-8 thousand dollars, about 15 years ago, for a basic set-up that I could do in my garage. Likely those prices would be much higher now, and not much good to you without the training. That is why I am saying, if the scabbard that came with the sword is functional, it might be best to just keep it. i suppose you could make fittings from steel bar, it would need to be larger than the cross-section of the finished scabbard. Cut out the center of the steel to create a ring that would fit around the scabbard. Use the grinder and a lot of sanding to smooth it out. That would create a couple of straps that could fit around the body and right over the mouth of the scabbard, but would not be a solution for the toe cap over the tip. Ive never tried that, but it’s an idea. keep in mind, the exposed steel needs to be cleaned of sweat, and oiled every time you use it, or it will rust. So any exposed steel on the scabbard would need that regular treatment as well. Bronze does not have that problem. I oil the blade, guard, and pommel every time, before I put it away.
