After some time, when about the half of the work was done

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And finally - all the flutes were made.

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Here the piece appears black, because I normalized it at the end of the work - got some nasty cracks in the area of the original welding seam (well visible on the right of the last image here)

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And the upper section after some initial sanding with grit #60

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I still have some low areas - as I don't want to sand deeper, my intend is to fill them with the MIG/MAG and to re-sand them again.

Meanwhile, while dealing with the fluting, I found some time to make the bottom - cylindrical - part of the helmet. Anyway - it wasn't difficult issue at all.

First, I cut a strip long enough to encircle the upper section, leaving some extra, of course

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After that the "eyes" were drawn

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and partially cut - to the degree where I was able to operate with the power tools

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The rest was filing by hand - there was just no other way.

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As seen, in the beginning the slots were more "rectangular" - in such way it was easy for me to operate with a machine in hand. With the file they were made more "round" - as seen on the originals.
Finally - the strip was bent into a cylinder with diameter close to the diameter of the upper section.

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Now I was able to connect the two sections of the helmet in one piece. This was made by welding.

* both sections aligned and secured by clamps

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From this position I made the first inch of seam - just above the nose; and moving the clamps step by step added another.

** first several inches already welded

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*** the horizontal seam almost finished - just a bit of it (in the area of the vertical seam at the back) was un-welded yet

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At this point I was already able to trim the strip. Well, I cut it just a bit bigger.....

**** the resulting gap filled with a "filler" - a tiny strip of metal - and everything clamped with locking pliers

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***** the vertical seam welded - and this finished the welding from the outside

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****** the whole welding repeated from the inside - as this seam would not be visible, it was made strong and wider

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And the helmet after the initial sanding with grits #60 and #80 - the aim was to grind flush the welding seams

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In an attempt to revive this thread, let me show the finished grip of the khanjar

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I had some long-lasting doubts how to decorate the fittings, but at the end I stopped my choice on this relatively simple diamond-shaped patter.
The work was made with engraving tolls entirely by hand.

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At the end, all what was left from the silver ring was soldered at the rear fitting, and both were glued with epoxy to the rest of the grip.
I need some additional polishing, but anyway - the dagger is ready. The next step is the scabbard.

I miss the updates for this thread. The work is so beautiful, almost entirely made by you personally, and has a lovely flare of form and function. It adds variety and your work is inspiring. Thanks for updating again!

Have you done any more work on your turban helmet, Boris?

No, I don't have any progress with the helmet so far, except with the avaintail - it's completed.

I hope I'll be able to obtain several days (or even more) days on leave to the end of this month, and I plan to use them working mainly on the helmet.

Moving forward with this project, next was the scabbard for the khanjar.
The construction of the wooden core is the same as done previously - chiseled halves, glued together and filed and sanded to the final shape.
As I wanted different cover over the core, I abbandoned the leather this time, and used fine velvet instead.

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The colour is somewhat brighter than I wanted, but this was the best one I managed to find in the stores.

Boris--

I think you owe it to the myArmoury community to suit up in full regalia when all this is done.

Well, I personally don't intend to darken the cloth artificially.

Instead, I will leave the time to do its job - surely, when ready, I would play with this dagger and scabbard for a couple of hours (almost like a little kid with a new toy :lol: ); many of my fellows - re-enactors would gladly take it in their hands to have a glimpse and feel it.
All this deliberate touching with hands away from sterile would gradually darken the velvet into a colour of an old and used cloth, giving more "historical" rather than "artificial" appearance.

The blade of the kilij returned from heat-treatment some time ago, but just recently I started work on it.

* still black, just after stripping-off the oxides with an wire-brush

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** and after the passes with grits up to #180 on the belt-grinder

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Next is my favourite (hmmmmm) hand-sanding by stones and paper.
Meanwhile the guard was cast in a nearby foundry - the wooden master I've made (on the left) and the bronze result after some initial grinding (on the right)

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And the last entry for this weekend is about the helmet.
As it was left for about half-a-year, its surface was covered with rust. This forced me to sand it again - top - up to grit #120, the bottom - up to #80.

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The middle section with the flutes would be definitely "pain in the a@#*s" - here I made just one of 20 (and it's still quite un-finished yet) just to work-out the whole step-by-step process.

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That's an interesting yelman, Boris. Do you have any pictures of swords with mini ricassos before the false edge?

Boris, this thread is incredible. I love watching your progress. Are you still working on the Kilij as well?

# Kai
One quick "Google" search with key-word "kilij" will show you numerous swords of this type with such mini-ricassos.
Apart from the kilij of Mehmed II The Conqueror (on which my work is based), in particular interest for me are these several swords (they all are from the early years of the Ottoman Empire - middle-end of the 15. C). Personally for me they all show such feature.






All pictures' URLs are taken from http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=4223

# Ian
All work on this project is shown here in "real", or at least "almost real" time.
So, at this moment the kilij is in the condition as it is shown.

The blade of the kilij about the middle of the sanding - finished up to a grit #600

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As the Islamic blades usually show very high level and quality of sanding before polishing, my intent is to go on further away - at least up to grit #1500, or even - #2000