I’m one of those people that have a hard time just making a “practice piece” when trying to dial in a process.  Recently I needed to verify some methodology in color case hardening, in preparation for a commission.  Rather than just lob off some 1018 bar stock, polish it up and heat treat it, I grabbed one of my sketchbooks and pulled a pattern for a Thor’s hammer pendant out of it.  I then proceeded to make a couple of them out of 1018.  These were used as practice pieces.  Here are the results:

Color case hardened pendants with copper jump rings

Without the copper rings they are just under 1 inch tall by just under .75 inch wide.  I do really love the look of color case hardening, and these turned out quite nice.

On another note, A few months back I starting taking a historical fencing class.  One of the folks at the school asked me if I could make a copy of a guard  that was on one of the fencing weapons.  The guard consisted of a cross 2 finger loops and a knuckle bow.  Having wanted to make such a guard for a while, I was quite happy to take on the challenge.  In the end this is what I wound up creating:

mild steel guard for fencing sword

It started as a bar .25 inches thick .75 inches wide and about 13 inches long.  After lots of cutting twisting bending and filing, it was completed.  It is all one piece, no welds.  I could have probably saved myself some time had I forged the arms round, but the forge was designed for knives and it wouldn’t have fit very well.

Both project were very satisfying and I am quite pleased with the results.

I’m still working on the backlog of photos I need to process in Lightroom and post, so if all goes well in the next few days I should have more pictures up.