Finishing Touches

Well, it has come to an end. My time at Wet Dog Forge has concluded, and I have a couple really neat pieces to show before I go.

The Mighty Spear

First, there is the spearhead. The spear is known as one of the most versatile weapons ever created. They can be made quickly and in mass, they are great for experienced fighters, and are extremely easy to use for beginners. You could put a spear in the hands of someone who has never fought before and they would pick up how to use it rather quickly.

With my training in Isshinryu Karate, I had to learn staff fighting, which in our style, the techniques are based on spear fighting. So, I would feel confident picking this up if I were to get into a fantasy style fight scene.

For this spearhead, we used the high-quality steel again, so it was quite resilient and hard to move. But, I still managed to move the metal (with a little help from the power hammer for the fan part). We had to taper down the end that would be our point, and then widen the end that would become the socket.

I was afraid I had heated it too many times, but it ended up with just the right shape.

After we got the shape, we heated up just the fan end so that we could bend it over into the socket.

Glowing metal looks so cool!

After it was all bent into place, we heated just the bladed end and stuck it in the ashes to normalize. The reason we did this, was so the blade would stay nice and sturdy, but the actual socket would have a bit of give to it. That way, if we decided to have some fun and start throwing it, the socket would be much less likely to snap, and would bend instead. The former is not really fixable, but the latter is.

After everything cooled down, it was time for touch ups. Grinding, shaping, and then oil quenching. The final product was super smooth and very deadly.

We actually ran out of material for the staff part, so we cut down a small tree and I will finish it on my own time at home.

Is that from a game?

We had some scrap leftover from another plasma cutter project, and I had an idea for how to use them. We had two crescent moon shapes, and I thought it would be cool to weld them onto a handle and get, essentially, a double bladed axe. I thought it might look a bit "mall-ninja" esc. but it came out looking not too shabby.

I kept it simple and just called it the Crescent Moon Axe

What have I learned?

Well, aside from the actual skills of forging, I learned that blacksmithing is not this magical task that seems so otherworldly. It takes years to master, but it is moving metal in the way that you want. Also, most of the work actually comes from the touch up after the forging. The actual forging and hammering can be done in not a great amount of time, depending on the piece. The super intricate and decorative pieces we see in pop-culture, would take years in real life to actually finish. That being said, it blows my mind to think about how good so many pieces from years and years ago were. It takes a lot of time with modern technology, I can't even begin to think about the time and effort that went into smithing back then.

In the end, this has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I feel like I have such a better understanding of the craft, and now I can compare it to how it is portrayed in media.

I cannot thank my teacher, Will Wideman, enough for my time here. It was a pleasure, and I hope to continue forging in any capacity I can.