Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword Build, Created By Michael Cthulu of Discovery's Big Giant Swords

Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword Build, Created By Michael Cthulu of Discovery's Big Giant Swords

If you haven't had a chance yet to watch the full builds on youtube or the show that was on Discovery channel, do yourself a favor and check out the work of Michael Cthulu. The swords seem decorative at first as they are all based around fantasy video games and lore, but they are well put together and go through a battery of tests to prove their worth. Quite a good watch and enjoy the quirkiness of the craftsman himself. 

Creating Patterns In A Blade, An Intro Into Damascus Steel and It's History

Manuel Quiroga making a special pattern in folded Damascus steel

Seeing is believing. Case in point, have a look at the knife detail below. The folds and patterns in the steel are created from a well thought out and engineered process to create a hardened metal that is known as Damascus Steel. The process originates from Middle Eastern swordmaking and the steel itself is known as wootz, emanating from India around 300 BC.

The distinctive patterns are a result of the forge welding and layering of the steel as it is continually compressed pushing out impurities. Damascus Steel was once considered a lost art in swordmaking but has been rekindled as of late and potentially very close to its original origins. Check out a few great links below to help with a plethora more info on all things metalurgy in knife making. The second link plumbs the depths to fully understand the science behind the metal for those of you enjoy drilling down into the periodic table.

How to create patterns in blade steel

In depth discussion on Damascus Steel and why impurities enhanced the steel

Amazing pattern created within the folding and forge welding of the steel through a specific build process

Secrets Of The Viking Sword, From NOVA

The science of metalurgy, fascinates us to no end. We have no plans on dropping anchor into the world of black smithing, but seeing shows such as Secrets Of The Viking Sword, give amazing insight into where we are today in high tech alloys and raw metal materials.

Watching Richard Furrer of Door County Forgeworks craft an ancient style of blade from raw materials is truly good television. One aspect that we continue to be boggled upon though is how they knew what materials to use and where to mine for them. It is easy to think that we are much wiser in our modern age, but to see a sword such as the +ULFBERH+T come to life, it can be safely assumed that our ancestors were equally adept in many ways.

"The Vikings were among the fiercest warriors of all time. Yet only a select few carried the ultimate weapon of their era: the feared Ulfberht sword. Fashioned using a process that would remain unknown to the Vikings' rivals for centuries, the Ulfberht was a revolutionary high-tech tool as well as a work of art. Considered one of the greatest swords ever made, it remains a fearsome weapon more than a millennium after it last saw battle. But how did Viking sword makers design and build the Ulfberht, and what was its role in history? Now, NOVA uses cutting edge science and old-fashioned detective work to reconstruct the Ulfberht and finally unravel the "Secrets of the Viking Sword."

Link to original post on Nova

Find out more about Door County Forgeworks

Illustration of the +ULFBERH+T sword

Richard Furrer working on the inlay of the +ULFBERH+T sword

Richard Furrer drawing out the sword

The original +ULFBERH+T sword in detail

Becoming A Sword Maker - Understanding Japanese Samurai Sword Creation

Currently we are working on a massive project that will be coming out in 2012 and mucho amounts of homework is being done to make things just right. One aspect of this project happens to involve samurai's, so we have been diggin' into all things Japanese and came across this video which is the epitome of the warrior spirit. A buddy of ours is a black smith and a few years back gave us a run down on sword making and what also separates the wheat from the chaff, when when it comes to types of metal, carbon content and blade styles used to create knives and swords the proper way. Needless to say it was quite informative and also gave us our logo, as the blacksmith also forged our infamous Wrench Knife from a Craftsman 15/16ths box end wrench as a random gift.

As far as the project goes, details will become more plentiful in a few weeks, but it involves links to several hugely popular bands, warrior spirit and a metal album that could potentially shake up rock radio on Sirius XM Octane and Liquid Metal. Yep, its huge and we are damn stoked to be a part of it. While getting into the mindset of the album for new artwork, we are exploring a plethora of areas involving warfare. The first video being created is based upon the Samurai, so below is quite a bit more info on sword making as that was the Samurai's weapon of choice.

For more info on Japanese armour and sword making here are some links and credits. Also, do yourself a favor if you are ever in New York City. Go to the MET Museum and take a look at their sword collection. You get to see all the cool ornate swords and the craftsmanship and then there is one in the collection that will make you start to sweat. It is nicked from stem to stearn and looks to have seen more battles than any of us might know, especially when it comes to hand to hand combat.

Red Samurai Armour, photo courtesy of James R. Miller

Japanese sword styles from wikipedia

In modern times the most commonly known type of Japanese sword is the Shinogi-Zukuri katana, which is a single-edged and usually curved long sword traditionally worn by samurai from the 15th century onwards. Other types of Japanese swords include: tsurugi or ken, which is a double-edged sword; ōdachi, nodachi, tachi, which are older styles of a very long single-edged sword; wakizashi, a medium sized sword; and the tanto which is an even smaller knife sized sword . Although they are pole-mounted weapons, the naginata and yari are considered part of the nihontō family due to the methods by which they are forged.

Japanese swords are still commonly seen today; antique and modernly-forged swords can easily be found and purchased. Modern, authentic nihontō are made by a few hundred swordsmiths. Many examples can be seen at an annual competition hosted by the All Japan Swordsmith Association, under the auspices of the Nihontō Bunka Shinkō Kyōkai (Society for the promotion of Japanese Sword Culture)^.

^Blade

Each blade has a unique profile, mostly dependent on the swordsmith and the construction method. The most prominent part is the middle ridge, or shinogi. In the earlier picture, the examples were flat to the shinogi, then tapering to the blade. However, swords could narrow down to the shinogi, then narrow further to the blade, or even expand outward towards the shinogi then shrink to the blade (producing a trapezoidal shape). A flat or narrowing shinogi is called shinogi-hikushi, whereas a fat blade is called a shinogi-takushi.

The shinogi can be placed near the back of the blade for a longer, sharper, more fragile tip or a more moderate shinogi near the center of the blade.

The sword also has an exact tip shape, which is considered an extremely important characteristic: the tip can be long (ōkissaki), medium (chūkissaki), short (kokissaki), or even hooked backwards (ikuri-ōkissaki). In addition, whether the front edge of the tip is more curved (fukura-tsuku) or (relatively) straight (fukura-kareru) is also important.

The kissaki (point) is not a "chisel-like" point, nor is the Western knife interpretation of a "tanto point" found on true Japanese swords; a straight, linearly-sloped point has the advantage of being easy to grind, but it bears only a superficial similarity to traditional Japanese kissaki. Kissaki have a curved profile, and smooth three-dimensional curvature across their surface towards the edge - though they are bounded by a straight line called the yokote and have crisp definition at all their edges.

Although it is not commonly known, the "chisel point" kissaki originated in Japan. Examples of such are shown in the book "The Japanese Sword" by Kanzan Sato. Because American bladesmiths use this design extensively it is a common misconception that the design originated in America.

A hole is punched through the tang nakago, called a mekugi-ana. It is used to anchor the blade using a mekugi, a small bamboo pin that is inserted into another cavity in the handle tsuka and through the mekugi-ana, thus restricting the blade from slipping out. To remove the tsuka one removes the mekugi. The swordsmith's signature mei is placed on the nakago.

Kissaki (blade tip or point) of a tachi blade, Bizen school, signed Bizen Kuni Osafune Yoshikage; Nambokucho era (14th century).

The habaki (blade collar) which locks the blade into the saya (scabbard) is visible just under the tsuba (hand guard).

^{Early Sword History}

Before 987, examples of Japanese swords were straight chokutō or jōkotō and others with unusual shapes. In the Heian period (8th to 11th centuries) sword-making developed through techniques brought over from China through trade in the early 10th century during the Tang Dynasty and through Siberia and Hokkaidō, territory of the Ainu people. The Ainu used warabite-tō (蕨手刀) and these influenced the nihontō, which was held with two hands and designed for cutting, rather than stabbing. According to legend, the Japanese sword was invented by a smith named Amakuni (ca.700 AD), along with the folded steel process. The folded steel process and single edge swords had been invented in the early 10th century Japan. Swords forged between 987 and 1597 are called kotō (古刀) (lit., "old swords"); these are considered the pinnacle of Japanese swordcraft. Early models had uneven curves with the deepest part of the curve at the hilt. As eras changed the center of the curve tended to move up the blade.

The nihonto as we know it today with its deep, graceful curve has its origin in shinogi-zukuri (single-edged blade with ridgeline) tachi which were developed sometime around the middle of the Heian period to service the need of the growing military class. Its shape reflects the changing form of warfare in Japan. Cavalry were now the predominant fighting unit and the older straight chokutō were particularly unsuitable for fighting from horseback. The curved sword is a far more efficient weapon when wielded by a warrior on horseback where the curve of the blade adds considerably to the downward force of a cutting action.

The tachi is a sword which is generally larger than a katana, and is worn suspended with the cutting edge down. This was the standard form of carrying the sword for centuries, and would eventually be displaced by the katana style where the blade was worn thrust through the belt, edge up. The tachi was worn slung across the left hip. The signature on the tang (nakago) of the blade was inscribed in such a way that it would always be on the outside of the sword when worn. This characteristic is important in recognising the development, function and different styles of wearing swords from this time onwards.

When worn with full armour, the tachi would be accompanied by a shorter blade in the form known as koshigatana ("waist sword"); a type of short sword with no hand-guard (tsuba) and where the hilt and scabbard meet to form the style of mounting called an aikuchi ("meeting mouth"). Daggers (tantō), were also carried for close combat fighting as well as carried generally for personal protection.

The Mongol invasions of Japan in the 13th century spurred further evolution of the Japanese sword. Often forced to abandon traditional mounted archery for hand-to-hand combat, many samurai found that their swords were too delicate and prone to damage when used against the thick leather armor of the invaders. In response, Japanese swordsmiths started to adopt thinner and simpler temper lines. Certain Japanese swordsmiths of this period began to make blades with thicker backs and bigger points as a response to the Mongol threat.

By the 15th century, the Sengoku Jidai civil war erupted, and the vast need for swords together with the ferocity of the fighting caused the highly artistic techniques of the Kamakura period (known as the "Golden Age of Swordmaking") to be abandoned in favor of more utilitarian and disposable weapons. The export of nihontō reached its height during the Muromachi period when at least 200,000 nihontō were shipped to Ming Dynasty China in official trade in an attempt to soak up the production of Japanese weapons and make it harder for pirates in the area to arm.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, samurai who increasingly found a need for a sword for use in closer quarters along with increasing use of foot-soldiers armed with spears led to the creation of the uchigatana, in both one-handed and two-handed forms. As the Sengoku civil wars progressed, the uchigatana evolved into the modern katana, and replaced the tachi as the primary weapon of the samurai, especially when not wearing armor. Many longer tachi were shortened in the 15th-17th centuries to meet the demand for katana.

The craft decayed as time progressed and firearms were introduced as a decisive force on the battlefield. At the end of the Muromachi period, the Tokugawa shoguns issued regulations controlling who could own and carry swords, and effectively standardized the description of a nihontō.

Ancient Armor - Quality Metalwork

Ancient Armor is a direct link to the past. The engraving, the linework and overall shape of the pieces point to the technology being used and the craftsmanship required to complete each piece. If you were a blacksmith at that time pounding out swords for 8 to 12 hours a day, it would give you an incredible grip. Rule of thumb, when the time machine is fully functional don't arm wrestle a blacksmith, same as nowadays with plumbers and electricians. But for journalistic purposes, looking back at "vintage" metal work and finding the harmony in the pieces being created is what we are diggin' into for our winter full of sheet metal fabrication.

Understanding armor shape and design puts you into the mentality of the Dynasties which created them. The warriors wore these items to instill fear into their opponents while also protecting them from deadly blows from the enemy. Types of armor varied from wood, leather, ceramic to metal based upon the need and technology of that particular empire. The advanced metal work of the Northern Europe is what we really enjoy as that directly ties into the craftsmanship we are looking at for future projects. 

Sometimes its all about getting back to basics on huge projects such as our 1951 Chevy 3/4 ton shop truck build. We need to go back to the well and look for ideas instead of just replacing parts. The truck will be a show piece for us and will sure as hell not be a rat rod. Not that doing those rides isn't cool but it has been done to death and then dug up and killed some more. To be honest after a "doctor" called our cafe race bike a rat rod bike, we knew the term has hit its limit in pop culture and cannot justify having a primered truck and calling it a day.

Some power metal from Sabaton to match the armor, pure Scandinavian battle metal!