Building swords from brass and stainless

This is how I make swords. I use stainless steel for the blades and different thicknesses of brass strips, sheets and tubing that I buy from my art supply store Blick's. I use steel instead of aluminum because of the ease polishing. I can also use thinner material and its stiffer. I may experiament with aluminum on some thicker blades but for these steel is the best.

First thing I do is draft out the pattern on the parts. This is really necessary if you are building more then one and they need to match.



Next I cut out the pattern and stick it to the metal using double tack.



I cut along the pattern using a dremel with a cut off disc. Im sure there is a better way but this is what I have at the moment.



I refine the blade with a sanding drum till it fits the pattern I have drawn.



Sand down the surface of the blade with a sanding disk using 220 grit. This even more refines the width of the blade and also rounds the edges. It cleans up the heavy scratches I may have caused during the grinding down of the edges.



Polish the blade using a felt wheel and flitz polish. Be careful because it flings the polish everywhere. I rub it on, spin the wheel away from everything, then go to work polishing.



I transfer the design of the tsuba the same way. And then using a toothed grinding like the one listed A.

I grind in the details using a really small engraving bit. and also cut the slot for the blade. And test fit the blade.





0.005 thick sheet brass is cut into a thin strip. I wrap that thin brass around the area of the blade that will touch the tsuba. I brush in a little flux as I wrap so when I go to soldier, it slide into the layer of the brass and become almost a solid. You can't skip this because the brass collar is going to stick to the blade and the whole thing will get soldiered together and hold it solid.

Thanksnfornthe wonderful tutorial....Sorry, maybe I missed the part : how do u make the sword sheath?

Awesome job and great tut.

Yeah sorry about that. Its brass tubing I flatten to the correct shape. Then I bend it to the curve. It takes a little clean up to remove the nicks and stuff but heavy coats of paint make the surface nice and flat.

NICE WORK!. Thanks for sharing man.

Cool. I always wondered where you got the swords from. Never knew you made them until now.

Groovy.

That's a really awesome tutorial! Thanks for that!!!

Thats pretty god damn impressive

That's pretty god damn impressive.

simply awesome!!!..that detail at that small a scale u must have elves workin for u!

nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow ... awesome skills.

Great tutorial! Pics saved!

Awesome stuff !

What thickness steel do you use for the bades?

Awesome! very helpful!

HOW DID I MISS THIS!!?! Great tutorial!