I finally finished it. Sort of. For full details see my post at www.lostinthought.co.uk/blog/p... or read more about the steps in making this at: www.lostinthought.co.uk/blog/t...
That's probably how the style of daggers that have ridiculous "pommels" and no hand guards first came around - some ancient sword smith didn't melt enough bronze. LOL
Bronze isn't tough enough for sword-to-sword fencing, so during the era of bronze blades defence and protection of the hands relied on pairing the sword with a shield, as such, developed hand guards weren't all that necessary. It wasn't until hardenable steel blades became widespread (think 14th century longsword - both hands, no shield) that swords and knives became tough enough to withstand being used as offensive AND defensive weapons. That's where hand protection starts to develop.
melt the copper first then add the tin, you need to add borax (it helps get rid of impurities) and when preping the sand, pack it down with something with a smaller surface like a large dowel rod (it will pack it very tightly and prevent the metal from leaking out) when casting cast horizontally and use two holes, one fill hole and one vent hole. hope these tips help, you have a great attitude. keep it up!
"Wearing PPE, that's good." *immediate cut to shorts, and, probably more importantly, sneakers.* I think that might have been the joke, though. Still, some solid protection on top of your feet in case of spills is pretty important. Nice casting and good save on the dagger, looks amazing.
Not enough metal you lost a lot via the side flashing. You didn't drill any gas exit holes either. Place item in box first. Dust with talcom powder. Use brush to evenly coat. Use wire sive to get first layer of sand as fine as possible. Pack with sand. Flip over. Dust with powder, use brush to evenly coat. Use sive to get finest sand as first layer then pack with sand. Open the box in half. Use drill bit to drill small gas holes on one half and Form the pouring funnel at handle base if box is standing vertically. I recommend leaving box sideways and pouring into a drilled hole in the sand. Don't forget to Form a pathway to the gas release holes so metal can travel to it. Do this to ONE SIDE only not both. Smelt metal and pour. After cooling, cut tines off with angle grinder and polish up/sharpen. May need a small round file to get in between small spaces depending on what you're casting. Good luck mf. 👍
Nice short sword. I couldn't help but notice that you didn't work harden the bronze though, and that is a crucial part for making a bronze sword/knife.
fivesidedpixels Well you don't quench or temper bronze, doing that will make it really soft and malleable. You must hammer it cold to produce a quality bronze tool/weapon. If you don't work harden it, it will start to bend as soon as you strike it against anything harder then paper, It might even bend mid swing.
Check berillium bronze. It can get to 40 HRC while remaining tough and springy. It is used for tools that don't produce sparks, and also for some music equipment.
Rolf Bjorn Right but to put it in perspective I argue it would be "safer" to drink 6 grams of mercury then to work with beryllium bronze with out good safety equipment.
whoaaaa this is madness! instantly subbed when i saw how it turned out haha. i didnt realise the charcoal furnaces could get hot enough to melt copper/bronze
bro, I used to have a charcoal forge for forging steel, It was the most temperamental thing swinging form heating steel to dull red in half an hour to melting steel in like 10 mins.... was not fun
Also, if you ever want to make another copper alloy type tool/weapon, I've found it helps the edge by work hardening it instead of just grinding, as in hammer in the bevel a bit then refine with a grinder. You want to be careful not to over work it though since it might crack or fracture
you possibly had a lot of flashing because your casting sand wasn't rammed hard enough. Additionally, many other factors such as not enough ventilation and your charge in the crucible cooled - not being hot enough, could have caused your partial pour. you can poke welding rods carefully through the sand to add more ventilation.
Melt the copper first then add the tin. It keeps the bronze from being "lumpy" with bits of unmelted copper putting structural weaknesses in the blade.
looks good:) i think you could avoid much of the flashings by packing the mould even harder and use less talcum. you only need a light dusting of that stuff:)
Good Video! May I sugest you to add some more leather to the top of the hilt in order to avoid the hand slipping ahead if you thrust with it. Just a thought. Thanks for your attention.
Great video man I'm planning to cast a sword myself and I learned a lot from watching you. In a lot of the bronze making videos I've watched I've noticed that the copper is gotten completely molten before the tin is added. This might help with the lumpiness you were experiencing with your bronze.
just watching a bunch of weapon making vids cuz I feel I need to make them and keep on me at all times in case I get lost in a forest. I might actually get myself lost on purpose, I'd like the isolation.
You can remelt bronze, but here is a tip, you melt the copper completely by itself, then add the tin in before you go to pour, it will melt instantly and you got like, 30 seconds to pour it.
I think you should sift the sand, and put the sifted sand in the bottom, and compact it, than use the chunky-ish sand on the top and compact that down on top. for tighter fit on the sand, ya know?
Bronze age swords didn't actually have a tang, but were rivited into the handle. if you had just made a wooden handle for it and rivited it on you could have kept the whole length of your blade and had a historically accurate blade. Your dagger looks great though!
The blade is too thin for a sword. You need a ridge down the middle for something that thin. Generally, a bronze sword should be made at a min of 0.75cm thick. The handle should also be thicker(wood glued and riveted and wrapped in leather). There should also be a weight designed into the very back so the center of gravity is right above the handle. Other than that, pretty cool little project.
Bronze is such a beautiful metal! I'm starting with this hobby of melting aluminium and copper, and I want to make bronze. I'm pretty much going to have the same setup you are having. Glad to see that you were able to forge bronze. Did you design your foundry based on Grant Thompson The King of Random video on how to make a mini metal foundry?
When we worked with bronze years ago we just used a tiny dusting of flux over the sand mold too much and you mar the finished product and just have even more crap to grind away.
I was impressed when you showed your mistake in casting the sword, but you should have remelted the piece in the crucible and poured the real sword. It looks as if most of the work is AFTER the casting, so weren't that far behind to cast another. The finish and color on your on your dagger are very nice.
What type of cement/plaster did you use to create the furnace? I have all of my other materials ready. I am unconfident about using play-sand with plaster of Paris.
hey man love the vid if i rememeber correctly you can take a bit of borax or a coal to de oxidize the mix to get it less lumpy i dinno for a fact but i seee it all the time so i assume thats what its for
I know I am not a professional critique but you are supposed to dust off most of the talcum powder before you but your casting model in and also you are supposed to put very fine casting sand on the casting model the fill it till it over fills ocarina llc flattening then you scrape the exes sand off the top it just makes it so much more reliable
Very nice! I’m just starting to make my own stuff with casting, what are the law like re making old swords/knives in the uk? (Im In the uk too) great end result, bronze is so pretty polished up :) subbed
He didn't have to make it a dagger, he could've punched a couple holes in the bottom, carved a wooden handle with a slot, & either made or bought some bronze or brass rivets to hold it in place, or just made a bit more bronze & remelted what he had. Lemons...lemonade...
Congratulations - I take it that the problem was caused by there being insufficient bronze in the crucible? Please accept my humble "thumbs up" as a token of appreciation for your creation of this lovely unpitted, blemish-free blade.
I happen to know that my Christmas present is to be two one-pound ingots of tin. Till I saw your video I was under the impression that I needed to use 35% tin, yet your sword came out looking marvellously bronzey (so to speak) which means I can make a lot more bronze with my 2lb of tin than I´d previously realised. I´d better start stripping the burgeoning pile of dead starter motors, power supplies and CRT tellies which I´ve been squirrelling away in the garage. Ultimately I dream of having a go at a socketed spearhead but I´m content to begin with something more modest, such as a little pre-tang style dirk. Like you I use a charcoal & hairdryer furnace, though I´m still at the saucepan-crucible stage : )
dude if the zombie apocalypse happens i will go to you and make weps
Why tin I have steel, lead, and iron
Mat Connolley Damn. But can you personally buy a "metal melter" or do you make one?
xXPicktyleXx i
I am using "weps" from now on 👌🏼
Yea
your positiveattitude is great man, it makes the vid 10 times more enjoyable :D
Mat Connolley Super job, shame you under filled slightly, but it doesn't matter, you still ended up with a very nice dagger, well done.
Shona O'Neill
Hamin t.s clď
roman puscasu
Exactly great video even project didn't well that well :)
That's probably how the style of daggers that have ridiculous "pommels" and no hand guards first came around - some ancient sword smith didn't melt enough bronze. LOL
The easiest explanation is mostly the one which is true. ;)
Bronze isn't tough enough for sword-to-sword fencing, so during the era of bronze blades defence and protection of the hands relied on pairing the sword with a shield, as such, developed hand guards weren't all that necessary. It wasn't until hardenable steel blades became widespread (think 14th century longsword - both hands, no shield) that swords and knives became tough enough to withstand being used as offensive AND defensive weapons. That's where hand protection starts to develop.
You just blew my mind, I never thought of it like that. It makes sense thought. Thanks, I can really reevaluate the way I see swords and shields now.
Ymis Ha
Without pommels, how will you end your opponent rightly?
Great save! Honestly, considering the softness of bronze, that length makes it a much more resilient design. Very nice.
Great work! I love how you improvised to make this dagger from the"failed" sword casting. Overall great video!
i hope you try again. i would like to see someone cast colden sword. but that would be expensive
And pointless since gold would be too soft. But then this is TH-cam so go and start a Kickstarter to make a golden sword ;) or dagger
I love this dagger,It's very very cool,I like it,it's beautiful
bro, so funny when you opened up the mold after the pour. it turned out great.
when you just finished reading percy jackson
Cool job boss! Love the work you did, and the... "ingenuity" to make it into a dagger.
sword to dagger ... nice recovery !
Roy Bean jour MTV kgm
❤💙💚💛💩☝🔫💣
ᕦ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕤ Ultimate #POWA j
ᕦ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕤ Ultimate #POWA g
Roy Bean xhehsjsns
Hdhsdjskdksd f2ffjkdmddkdkd ekeekr4
The blade indeed looks awesome!
I've been searching for an example of bronze making on a small scale for a long time, excellent work! Subscribed!
Its lovely. So well done and I love your attitude even more.
melt the copper first then add the tin, you need to add borax (it helps get rid of impurities) and when preping the sand, pack it down with something with a smaller surface like a large dowel rod (it will pack it very tightly and prevent the metal from leaking out) when casting cast horizontally and use two holes, one fill hole and one vent hole. hope these tips help, you have a great attitude. keep it up!
DAMMIT I LOVE YOUR ENTHUSIASM. This shiws me how much you love your work!
KEEP IT UP!!
I find videos like this so satisfying, keep up the good work!
GREAT SAVE, it turned out really cool.
That turned out really nice lovely colour
Thanks!
Thanks man I really learn from you I manage to make my own bronze dagger and its really cool
That dagger look really good!
what a lovely dagger, cool attitude dude
"Wearing PPE that's good" *wearing shorts*
"Wearing PPE, that's good." *immediate cut to shorts, and, probably more importantly, sneakers.*
I think that might have been the joke, though. Still, some solid protection on top of your feet in case of spills is pretty important. Nice casting and good save on the dagger, looks amazing.
Pffft, Feet are overrated.
dick manjones he should weld it!!!
@@bigboibunz Molten bronze may change your mind.
you turned failure into success. Good lesson for me and maybe some other folks. Keep up the great work.
this man i just want to give him a hug
YAY
not bad for being not very experienced. you made something with your two hands, you should be proud.
I love how you say what your doing and other people don’t say anything at all
amazing craftsmanship
really awesome dagger
this is the first video I've watched. subbing already!
beautiful color
Not enough metal you lost a lot via the side flashing. You didn't drill any gas exit holes either.
Place item in box first. Dust with talcom powder. Use brush to evenly coat. Use wire sive to get first layer of sand as fine as possible. Pack with sand.
Flip over. Dust with powder, use brush to evenly coat. Use sive to get finest sand as first layer then pack with sand. Open the box in half. Use drill bit to drill small gas holes on one half and Form the pouring funnel at handle base if box is standing vertically.
I recommend leaving box sideways and pouring into a drilled hole in the sand. Don't forget to Form a pathway to the gas release holes so metal can travel to it. Do this to ONE SIDE only not both. Smelt metal and pour.
After cooling, cut tines off with angle grinder and polish up/sharpen. May need a small round file to get in between small spaces depending on what you're casting. Good luck mf. 👍
Nice recovery there!! :)) Beautiful blade.
You just advanced your smithing level! You can now smelt Bronze maces.
Nice short sword. I couldn't help but notice that you didn't work harden the bronze though, and that is a crucial part for making a bronze sword/knife.
With a face like that, I highly doubt it. ( gyazo.com/bf7edf7ecac8867c49aa17d7d837ae38 )
Nah, you don't need to do any hardening/quenching/tempering jazz with bronze weapons. They would just be cast, grind off the excess, and sharpened.
fivesidedpixels Well you don't quench or temper bronze, doing that will make it really soft and malleable. You must hammer it cold to produce a quality bronze tool/weapon. If you don't work harden it, it will start to bend as soon as you strike it against anything harder then paper, It might even bend mid swing.
BigTimeZergRushciď
BigTimeZergRush 0
Awesome dagger man !
Check berillium bronze. It can get to 40 HRC while remaining tough and springy. It is used for tools that don't produce sparks, and also for some music equipment.
Its also extremely toxic. If you get a piece of beryllium bronze stuck in you, you will die. Don't work with beryllium bronze its not worth the risk.
BigTimeZergRush Ideal for a Morgul blade.
It's a lung hazard, it's inert when a solid piece. Unless you inject it as a fine dust in the lungs.
Rolf Bjorn Right but to put it in perspective I argue it would be "safer" to drink 6 grams of mercury then to work with beryllium bronze with out good safety equipment.
Just a tip scrape the slag or the hunk of crap floating on the top it’ll make the metal more pure
You could have worked with the blade blank for the sword - bronze swords were sometimes attached to solid handles with pins on the guard piece
This guys sounds very timid, nice and relaxing.
Nice outcome man!!
whoaaaa this is madness! instantly subbed when i saw how it turned out haha. i didnt realise the charcoal furnaces could get hot enough to melt copper/bronze
bro, I used to have a charcoal forge for forging steel, It was the most temperamental thing swinging form heating steel to dull red in half an hour to melting steel in like 10 mins.... was not fun
That's very neat.
Trident is my favourite weapon.
uuuuuuaaaaaauuuuuuu que coisa mais Beautiful !
Also, if you ever want to make another copper alloy type tool/weapon, I've found it helps the edge by work hardening it instead of just grinding, as in hammer in the bevel a bit then refine with a grinder. You want to be careful not to over work it though since it might crack or fracture
Sorry if it sounds a bit nit picky, I just really love bronze and copper alloys :D
you possibly had a lot of flashing because your casting sand wasn't rammed hard enough. Additionally, many other factors such as not enough ventilation and your charge in the crucible cooled - not being hot enough, could have caused your partial pour. you can poke welding rods carefully through the sand to add more ventilation.
did so much effect i'm glad i'ts awesome
Great video!
wow! great Work👍
Very nice!
i like your sword dude:)
Nice vibes man, enjoy the work. Laughed at 3:00.
Melt the copper first then add the tin. It keeps the bronze from being "lumpy" with bits of unmelted copper putting structural weaknesses in the blade.
@@LostInThought no problem m8
this guy knows nothing about casting..... but he still made a huge improvisation at the end.:)
I think u burned the tin out by putting in with the copper at the start tin has a much lower melting point then copper
it's really cool
Congratulations, nice video and beautiful sword :)
Metatron what do YOU so HERE?
Metatron Senpai i love ur Videos
Metatron er dagger
looks good:) i think you could avoid much of the flashings by packing the mould even harder and use less talcum. you only need a light dusting of that stuff:)
Cool dagger bro
I love the look of it. Have you considered adding scales to the handle to beef it up a little?
Dude your such a cool guy with such a great personality you need more subs
Mat Connolley No problem
The end scared the shit out of me
Good Video!
May I sugest you to add some more leather to the top of the hilt in order to avoid the hand slipping ahead if you thrust with it. Just a thought.
Thanks for your attention.
you're very sympatic dude c:
Great video man I'm planning to cast a sword myself and I learned a lot from watching you. In a lot of the bronze making videos I've watched I've noticed that the copper is gotten completely molten before the tin is added. This might help with the lumpiness you were experiencing with your bronze.
toss some borax in for good luck
just watching a bunch of weapon making vids cuz I feel I need to make them and keep on me at all times in case I get lost in a forest. I might actually get myself lost on purpose, I'd like the isolation.
You can remelt bronze, but here is a tip, you melt the copper completely by itself, then add the tin in before you go to pour, it will melt instantly and you got like, 30 seconds to pour it.
superblahmanofdo
I think you should sift the sand, and put the sifted sand in the bottom, and compact it, than use the chunky-ish sand on the top and compact that down on top.
for tighter fit on the sand, ya know?
Bronze age swords didn't actually have a tang, but were rivited into the handle. if you had just made a wooden handle for it and rivited it on you could have kept the whole length of your blade and had a historically accurate blade. Your dagger looks great though!
very Nice axe
3:10 maybe sucsess is not always going as planned but you need a smart thinking to turn failure into successful
nice video man!
The blade is too thin for a sword. You need a ridge down the middle for something that thin. Generally, a bronze sword should be made at a min of 0.75cm thick. The handle should also be thicker(wood glued and riveted and wrapped in leather). There should also be a weight designed into the very back so the center of gravity is right above the handle. Other than that, pretty cool little project.
This guy deserves more subs
it looks so good. Maybe if you try it again you use more bronze
Bronze is such a beautiful metal! I'm starting with this hobby of melting aluminium and copper, and I want to make bronze. I'm pretty much going to have the same setup you are having. Glad to see that you were able to forge bronze. Did you design your foundry based on Grant Thompson The King of Random video on how to make a mini metal foundry?
When we worked with bronze years ago we just used a tiny dusting of flux over the sand mold too much and you mar the finished product and just have even more crap to grind away.
Thanks for the tip!
Great friend
I love your accent, sir.
I was impressed when you showed your mistake in casting the sword, but you should have remelted the piece in the crucible and poured the real sword. It looks as if most of the work is AFTER the casting, so weren't that far behind to cast another. The finish and color on your on your dagger are very nice.
that is soo cool
That lumpiness is called slag. You have to remove the slag so it would be smooth
Hell, the early swords didn't have tangs either.
That’s cool
Duuuude. Would love to get my hands on your weapon.
What type of cement/plaster did you use to create the furnace? I have all of my other materials ready. I am unconfident about using play-sand with plaster of Paris.
Unfortunately I live in the United States and shipping will be £97. Hahaha I'm going to try to find something similar that's sold locally. Thank you.
hey man love the vid if i rememeber correctly you can take a bit of borax or a coal to de oxidize the mix to get it less lumpy i dinno for a fact but i seee it all the time so i assume thats what its for
haha, have you tried a second time? definitely wanna see if you do!
nice dagger
Just wondering....is the metal melting thing based on The King Of Random's one? Or is it just a common design?
I know I am not a professional critique but you are supposed to dust off most of the talcum powder before you but your casting model in and also you are supposed to put very fine casting sand on the casting model the fill it till it over fills ocarina llc flattening then you scrape the exes sand off the top it just makes it so much more reliable
PS but the dagger I'd amazing good job
Mat Connolley no problem keep doing the great work I love these videos
How can you not mistake it for gold without examining?
Very nice! I’m just starting to make my own stuff with casting, what are the law like re making old swords/knives in the uk? (Im In the uk too) great end result, bronze is so pretty polished up :) subbed
@@LostInThought, thanks for the reply. ahh yes that's kind of what i hoped thanks!
Nice work i subbed
One more question, how much casting sand do I need? Will 12 pounds / 5 kg be enough?
He didn't have to make it a dagger, he could've punched a couple holes in the bottom, carved a wooden handle with a slot, & either made or bought some bronze or brass rivets to hold it in place, or just made a bit more bronze & remelted what he had. Lemons...lemonade...
Home, in the US.
Wow cool bud a..dang I wish it came out the way u wanted still sweet
I'm told the tin is added last because it boils off. That might be your missing 20% but indeed you were short a few bars.
Nice 👍
Congratulations - I take it that the problem was caused by there being insufficient bronze in the crucible? Please accept my humble "thumbs up" as a token of appreciation for your creation of this lovely unpitted, blemish-free blade.
I happen to know that my Christmas present is to be two one-pound ingots of tin. Till I saw your video I was under the impression that I needed to use 35% tin, yet your sword came out looking marvellously bronzey (so to speak) which means I can make a lot more bronze with my 2lb of tin than I´d previously realised. I´d better start stripping the burgeoning pile of dead starter motors, power supplies and CRT tellies which I´ve been squirrelling away in the garage. Ultimately I dream of having a go at a socketed spearhead but I´m content to begin with something more modest, such as a little pre-tang style dirk. Like you I use a charcoal & hairdryer furnace, though I´m still at the saucepan-crucible stage : )
That is a really nice dagger! You know you could have just melted it back down and tried again? The metal wont be lumpy the next time thru.
Omg a Celestial Bronze Sword!!
Lol Percy Jackson fan