Eureka! (WIP Part 3)

Working on my sword yesterday I found a somewhat hilarious solution to an annoying problem I kept having. In order to use the threaded rod I picked up the other day I needed to drill holes through the cross guard and into the handle and blade. I kept forgetting to grab a drill from the basement so I was using my dremel. The problem is that my dremel drill bit was far too short to get the depth I wanted. There are some drill bits at work but they don't fit my dremel. Suddenly I remembered my hand crank drills! That's right. I have two antique manual drills, and they happened to be at work already. I used my smaller one and it worked great!



Antique tools are things of beauty




Drilling the hole into the handle



Now all of the holes are drilled and should be the proper sizes. I drilled the hole in the blade too. I figured it might be best to drill it now before I slim it down to almost nothing.

Speaking of the blade, working on it had kind of stalled because I couldn't figure out how to thin out the wood. I've mentioned my hand planer and how the screw was rusted and I was unable to extend the blade. Today I finally got some WD-40 and managed to get the screw loosened, so hopefully I can use it and get going again on that part. Yay! I was running out of things to do because a lot of the stuff is detail work and I don't want to start on that until I have all of the pieces roughed out and know they will work together.




My Hand Planer

 I cut a slot into the crossguard where the blade will sit. I put cardboard around the piece to keep the vice from putting marks into the wood.

I also went ahead and drew the designs onto the pieces. Mostly because it makes me feel like I'm further along even if it's one of the easiest steps of the whole process.

Now I just have to:
1. Thin out the blade and do basic shaping.
2. Add detail (carve the crossguard and pommel detail, and minor blade details).
3. Attach all three parts using the threaded rod and some adhesive.
4. Paint and seal.
5. Add leather grip.

I have a lot of work left, but I also feel like I'm getting really close and it's really taking shape. I actually see a sword when I look at it now, instead of a couple wooden slats. Maybe by next Friday I'll actually have it done! ...though, given the amount of work on the blade that's a huge maybe.