vehmaa study

[Dan P.]

Hi All,
I had been thinking about that rather schizophrenic sword from Finland that makes an appearance at the end of Ian Peirce's book, "Swords of the Viking Age". I decided to make a little maquette of the part where one of the bars jumps out of line and becomes a serpentine inlay. Because I had no intention of making a six bar core, as per the original, I made it so that the middle bar jumps out on both sides. You will have to take my word for it that there are three bars right to the tip, but because of the low layer count (5) and the distortion caused by a faulty and impatient process, they are a little hard to see. The links below will lead you to photos of the two sides;

http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/y...s/100_1227.jpg

http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/y...s/100_1225.jpg

I would welcome and appreciate any comments, critiques or queries,
-Dan

[ZDP-189]

I love the idea of combining a damascus core with a tool steel edge.

[Dan P.]

Actually, because it was a model I just used a bit of mild steel for the edge.
-Dan

[John N]

just fantastic work! I love it

Its got some crazyness to it that shouldnt be there!

A bit of me doesnt want to know the process, coz its just got a plain cool factor not knowing, but the other bit of me has to ask how....

Where the middle bar becomes the serpent did you just carfully patch the inlay so the top of it lined up with the middle bar? (ie welded up the 3 bar core, then cut a serpent 'recess' then weld the serpent in ?

edit,.

I think this is one of the coolest pieces of welding ive ever seen, mindgames with metal! - im going to have to go and dig out my copy of the book now for a looksy at the original!

[Mick Maxen]

Dan, thats interesting work. I have a similar question as John. You say you only had three bars, but the serpent bar appears to sit on 3 bars as it twists and turns its way down the blade. I guess the serpent bar is welded onto the other bars. Did you just work it in at heat or chiseled a groove into the bar to set it in.

Good work.

Mick.

[owen bush]

that is very cool . you could be a first in modern times on that one .

[DCL]

wow stunning and nice looking

cool stuff.

DC

[Dan P.]

I posted a sort of explanation over on Don Fogg's forum, but I feel it's a bit cold to cut and paste it after receiving such kind feedback, so here's more or less how it was made;
The edge is mild steel (I think 8mm square that happened to be lying around and the right size).
There are three bars in the core, of 5 layers each. The outside two are in one piece, uninterrupted apart from the channel I made for the serpentine inlay. The middle bar is in two parts. The first part goes from the tip to where the inlay starts, where it ends in a equal sided scarf. The first part of the middle bar and the two side bars were then welded up to the scarf.
A channel was then punched to accomodate the inlay. The punching of the channel was a total disaster, and is responsible for most of the distortion and delaminations you see in the photos. It meant to cut it, but in the event I was too lazy.
The second part of the middle bar was then slit to half way up, using disk and hacksaw. The slit was then hammered onto the carf, and the two flat "tines" resulting from the slitting were manipulated into the channels as theoverlay. The lot was then welded, and then the mild steel edge was added for a little pizzazz.
The original only has the inlay on one side, which necessitated (I presume) the second panel for the other side (i.e. a six bar core), but doing both sides appealed to my sense of symmetry, and I had no intention of making another three bars, so I thought it might be interesting to give it a go.
-Dan

[Underhay]

I really like that pattern, I must have a look at my copy of that book again.

Thanks for explaining how you did it, I think I understood