Ordered a custom wakizashi from them early September, paid through Paypal. I emailed them twice since to make sure they acknowledge my request for my desired blade length and also to get an idea how long it would take before they ship. Zero replies. Is this normal for Hanbon?
As I understand it, when steel is quenched it freezes the harder austenite form that steel takes above a critical temperature and prevents it from reverting back to the softer pearlite or ferrite form.
My question is, would a piece of hardened steel slowly revert back to pearlite/ferrite form over a long enough timespan at ambient temperatures, lets say over several thousand years?
A black locust log I've had sitting around for a year and finally putting to use. My first time with BL and first non-board bow.
I'm removing the sapwood as others here have suggested and trying to chase the ring under it, but I think I messed up in thinking the darker ring areas was the late wood. Because the darker ring portions are definitely more porous while the thin light wood rings are more shiny and hard. Help?
So I just order this suction air-oil atomizer with a 1.5mm nozzle with the intention of building a waste oil burning forge for forging and heat treating longish items like short swords and spearheads.
A few reviewers mentioned they used this for their own forges, but I'm kind of at a loss on how to go about doing it right. All the waste oil forge builds I've been able to find online use a drip and blower system instead of this.
My biggest concern is the brass part melting at high heat. I'm guessing that I need a steel standoff pipe after the nozzle to mitigate this issue? Also, does the flame have to come downwards like what I see on the propane forge kits, or can it come from the side or bottom?
Any advice is appreciated.
For some reason all the hardware stores in my area don't carry any hardwood tool handles longer than 5 feet, but I wanted a 7 footer for a new spearhead. So I decided to make one myself.
I have some experience making wood arrow shafts, and I figured a polearm shaft was just an oversized arrow shaft.
I grabbed a 12 ft ash board from a local wood supplier and cut out a straight grain squarish blank with my circular saw, then plane away at the corners to eventually arrive at a round cross section.
Not quite yet finish, as I have to add forward taper and sand/seal it. The blank also curved out in the middle when I cut it loose from the board, so I will need to steam straighten it as well.
I got a 10 year old myself that I try to encourage to read. She was doing pretty well for while, but now she's slacking again. She has yet to finish the two chapter books I bought for her a few months ago.
Pretty much every kid in my extended family seems to either barely read books or have stopped reading as they get older, preferring to gawk at their ipads, playing Roblox or watching or listening to brainrot on youtube or tiktok.
When I was at that age, I will literally beg my folks to take me to the local library. By the time I was 12, I would borrow about 4-8 books every two weeks. I remember blitzing through the 600 pages of Goblet of Fire in less than week, reading it under my blanket with a flashlight even after my mom yelled at me to stop and go to bed.
It just seems to me paper reading is a dying activity among the younger generation? I want to get a sense of what other parents are experiencing in that regard.
Bought a pair of small spearpoints to assemble into throwing javelins. They look to be in the style of early medieval spear points from Scandinavian (Type X Solberg from what I can tell). They're about 11.5 cm long and 3.5 cm wide at the blade portion.
Mounted them on 4' rake poles from the hardware store, which had just the right taper. Total assembled weight came in at just over 1 lbs (480 grams). balance is just a little forward of center. Javelin feels nimble in the hands, and cast well.
I was surprised by how much a light javelin with a wide head like this was able to penetrate into the 3/4" SPF plywood I used as a target.
For reference:
CS lance point mounted on a 50 inch ash shovel handle, thrown at close range (~3 yards) from standing position against a 3/4" thick SPF plywood target. Total weight of spear is 2lbs 6 oz (1078 grams). Triangular lance point is about 5/8" wide on the sides.
For most standing throws, the lance point penetrated only 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch pass the back surface of wood board. Throws from a short run penetrated about 1/2 to 3/4 inch.
Messed with PU leather on and off over the years, but found out there was a local Tandy store nearby and I bought a long scrap of veg tan from them to try my hands at real leatherworking.
Made this sheath for my Serbian butcher knife over the week. I think it turned out well, though definitely need to work on my stitching consistency and learn to protect my work better as I scratched it a few times.
I have to say, it's a very enjoyable material to work with, and I've been surprised by how versatile it is - easy to cut and shape, can be flattened, molded or stretch with just water (thankful for that, because the stitched sheath was a bit tight for the knife).
BTW, I like to keep my knives oiled. But from a previous leather sheath that came with a bush knife, I had oil from the sheathed blade soak into the leather and discolour it on the other side. Any sort of treatment I can do for this sheath to prevent this?
INTRODUCTION
The "Scarlets" are the military moniker of several all-female rifle regiments raised by the new Aerian-Ostian Army. So-named from the red color of their uniforms as well as the common use of "scarlet" as an endearing term for young, unmarried women in northeastern Ostia.
The first three regiments were raised by King Devon I in the spring of 433, shortly after he replaced King Regus on the Ostian throne. Forced by male manpower shortages after the protracted war against the Aerian pretender Craig I, recruitment was opened to physically fit women from the peasantry of rural Ostia and Aeras. Young Ostian and Aerian widows and orphaned daughters who have lost husbands and fathers in the war formed a large majority of initial recruits, attracted by the good pay, land grants, and tax exemptions that came with service. Many of the Ostian recruits had manned and fought on the ramparts of the Highwater as informal levies and volunteers during the pivotal siege defense against Craig I's grand army and his Aurean reinforcements sent by High Queen Ulga.
The establishment of the scarlet regiments marked the first time women were openly admitted into royal Ostian infantry units, paving the path for general acceptance of female soldiers in front-line service and general improvement of women rights in the realm.
Plate I - Scarlet private carrying her standard-issued Mk.III rifle, a falling block breechloading rifle in .58 caliber that replaced the old Mk.II muzzleloading rifled musket. During the Lusturian campaign, these well-trained female recruits used their rifles to great effect against the Lusturian separatists, outranging their archers and slaughtering thousands of their footmen and horsemen before they could close with pike or lance.
Plate II - Issued Gear of A Scarlet Riflest, circa 433-435
OOC Description: Concept art for an isekai medieval-fantasy turned steampunk world I worked on several years back. Gist of lore is a resourceful engineer from a mundane world gets teleported to the magical world of Sagea, where he is caught up in the interconnected civil wars and proxy conflicts between the royal kingdoms of Aurea and Aeria. The MC passes and develops key advanced military and industrial technologies - often augmented by native magic - to the warring factions with serious consequences.
Was fixing up the bad factory edge on my new arming sword (90 degree bevel 🙄) but I slip with my lower grit stones and scratched up the polished body of the blade in some spots.
I tried to repolish it with 1000, 2000, and 3000 grit sandpaper meant for car body touch up but I'm still seeing some hairline scratches. What's the proper process to put a polished surface back on? Doesn't need to be a mirror finish.
Using my wax seal stamp to put some personalization to my new arming sword(?). Took a few tries to get it lined up right.
Clip of the setup in action. I picked up this trick from a Clay Hayes video.
I'm using my beefy Swedish Forest Knife by Casstrom here. Even with only one hand to pull the stave through (the other to hold my phone), it makes quick work of shaving out the fades on the short bow I'm working on. A lot safer and more control than using just the knife.
Hope this helps anyone who's starting out.
Have some birch arrow shafts I stained with water-based gel stain (Varathane). The label recommends a topcoat of spar urethane for waterproofing, but I usually rub my unstained shafts with 50/50 beeswax-linseed oil instead. Would the gel stain take the beeswax?
This was a spur of the moment project that got out of hand. Originally suppose to be a simple medieval style crossbow made out from a scrap piece of 2x6 SPF and some hardware from another older build. By the end of it, I probably dumped enough money to have gotten a cheap compound with twice the performance.
But she shoots, and with some attitude. Pushing a 440 grain bolt at 172 fps. With a 350 gr bolt she'll hit 189 fps. Every shot feels like getting slap in the jaw, probably because the whole thing only weighs 3 pounds and the heavy glass limbs make up a good chunk of it. Adding an old UTG red dot helped with not just accuracy but recoil by bringing the weight up to 4 pounds.
The loose laminate style prod is cut from a pair of cheap replacement fiberglass limbs from Amazon originally meant for a #40 recurve bow. Because each od rhe limbs were only 23" long and I wanted a 10"-12" draw, I had to make a riser to utilize two piece prod which I never done before. According to my bathroom scale, the limbs are pulling at about 125 lbs at full draw, though a lot of stacking through the last two inches.
Trigger and release system is a roller nut with double axle action like from a 15th century hunting crossbow to minimize trigger weight. I might had made it work too well, because it only takes about 2-3 lbs of pressure to release the nut as of now.
Stock still needs contouring and sanding and I need to work on the trigger, but as of now she is functional.
This started out as a project to make use of a piece of scrap 2x6. Ended up working on it on and off over 6 months and dumping a few hundred dollars on material and tools on it.
Finally got it to a "shootable" state tonight along with a whippe lever to span her, though I'm going to make and install a bolt clip before I try her out in earnest for safety reasons. Also need to round and sand the stock to final shape.
It's got a double axle release, for a lighter trigger than the traditional single lever release while maintaining a comfortable length of pull. Limbs are made from a pair of fiberglass replacement limbs for a 40lb bow that I cut into pieces and bolted together for a loose laminate prod (thanks to kenh at arbalistguild for his expertise in this). I made the prod modular so I can just add more limbs on to increase the poundage. As far as I can tell shes pulling at least 100 lbs at 9.5" powerstroke with the current configuration. End goal is to get a KE good enough for hunting medium game.
