[Boris Bedrosov]

Although I haven't made any progress recently, I finally decided what the khanjar would look like:



Black horn, combined with brass fittings and floral-shaped washers (both represented in yellow); and inlaid mother-of-pearl diamonds (in white).

Also, I was lucky to find extremely cheap pieces of mother-of-pearl



Although they aren't the best mother-of-pearl I've ever seen and would need some additional sanding and polishing, the price for all four is just 1 Euro - far less than what I had had to pay if I've ordered them from abroad.

[Boris Bedrosov]

Although my intend is to continue to use my faithful pallash as a main weapon during the events, I decided to make another, totally new sword, as a part of this project.
I hadn't any doubts at all, what this weapon would look like. Targeting the middle of the 15th C. as a time period, there is a wonderful specimen, now kept it the Topkapi Palace Museum. This is the kilic of Sultan Mehmed II Fatih (The Conqueror)


Picture taken from Wikipedia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...api082.jpg)

Its dimensions - blade length of 104 cm and overall of 126, and the extensive gold inlay have always made me think that this sword is ceremonial. That's why I designed a smaller version with 88 cm long blade, keeping the proportions between blade-length and blade-wight.

So, the real work began......
After tracing the contours with a paper pattern



the blade was cut from 6 mm 65G leaf-spring steel.



Grinding, grinding and even more ..... grinding , and the right side of the sword was ready.



After restoring the blade-thickness margins (this helps me when working on the other side)



guess what followed - yes, more grinding again.
As on the right side, here on the left the most labour-intensive part was to grind the yelman.



This is because, in the kilic (and all kilic-like swords) the yelman is the broadest and the thinnest part of the blade, so a lot of metal have to be removed.
After the yelman the work was far more quicker and soon the blade got its distal taper.

[Randall Moffett]

You are a master. Just love seeing your updates! The dagger looks wonderful. I cannot wait to see the sabre finished!

RPM

[Boris Bedrosov]

What I did next was to trace all the lines on the blade. These lines mark the boundaries between the fullers and the edges.



The work was a little bit tricky - some of the lines run parallel of the cutting edge, some are parallel of the spine, while third aren't parallel of nothing. But regardless this the work was done on both sides.
Some more grinding took place and the cutting edges - the main and that of the yelman - were soon ready.



This pictures was taken after the central line of the main fuller was made; that's why its visible here.
Speaking about the fullers, I tried to make the upper ones with scrabbler (I don't know if this is the real word used in English for this tool, or I've just invented it). So, I mean I tried to cut them with a cutting tool, which goes up and down along the blade, parallel to one of the edges, in this particular case - the spine.



It was very interesting to me to work in this manner - you maybe know, I like to do the things in the old-fashion ways, and this was something new to me - but unfortunately, the tool I used didn't allow me to work very close to the spine, while its cutting edge was not of best quality and quickly gave way. Although these constrains, this was a good experience and new knowledge to me.
The main fuller was made in already tested consequence - the central line was marked and cut with 1 mm cutting disc, widened with 3 mm one and after that with grinding disc I removed as much metal as it was possible.



On this closer image



you could see both fullers. Of course, there is a lot of work that has to be done on them.

[Boris Bedrosov]

The kilic finally took shape



The tang



The four rivets at the left are for the eventual pommel - I'm not sure if I would be able to balance the weapon just with the guard and grip. So, I'm ready to add a little pommel at the far end.

The fullers at close range



And the yelman



And another shot of the whole blade, this time from strange, but interesting point of view



There is a quite more work to be done additionally, especially on the fullers, but my intend is do it after the heat-treatment. For now, I want just to normalize the blade before shipment.

[Henrik Granlid]

Would it, perhaps, be possible to balance it with some sort of lead or steel inlay in the wooden core? Or would this make the core too fragile?

[Boris Bedrosov]

This could be possible indeed, but what amount?
In any case, there will be some additional metal at the grip - brass washers for the rivets and copper and brass plates between the tang and the scales of the grip (this is traditional way here on the Eastern Balkans, especially at the expensive weapons).

And although I made the distal tapper solely "on feelings" (I didn't have any information about the tapper of the original), the result is very good. Now, the PoB is at about first one-third from the guard, which for the weapon with such yelman is very good.
I made some crude test, putting a makeshift guard on the blade. Although this was just a piece of steel, the result was very good - the PoB moved to about 10-15 cm from the guard, the kilij was quite hand-able and agile, relatively easy to control. The strike was powerful and potent - without sharpened edge the weapon easily cut half an inch branch of relatively soft wood.

[Isaac D Rainey]

What kind of tools do you use to make the sword?

[Boris Bedrosov]

The primary tool is my angle-grinder. Matched with appropriate discs, I use it for cutting, grinding and all such heavy-duty activities. I use relatively small (in order to work with one hand when necessary) BOSCH machine with 750 Watts electric motor.

The finishing is combined - up to the grit 180 on a belt-sander, after that - by hand with appropriate stones and sanding papers (with hard-wood blocks).

The fullers are made mainly with a DREMEL rotary tool with different accessories attached. The sets and working steps were discussed here (the post you want to see is somewhere in the middle)
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...highlight=

Some measuring and drawing tools - caliper (absolutely mandatory), rulers, permanent markers, pencils.

Some additional tools - files, central punch, drill-press, vice, C-clamps, long wooden block, buffing wheel with polishing compounds and all stuff like this I might use during work.

And last, but not least - my protective gear.

[Boris Bedrosov]

For the normalization process I constructed this



scratch-built furnace. In German language there's a special word for such - "ersatz" or an inferior substitute for an item. In this case the "ersatz" was built by several autoclaved aerated concrete blocks, bricks and roof-tiles.

Although at the back my Dad smiles at my bright idea, in one or another way, with some flaws (due to the design), it works



The chamber is too big and the propane torch is only one, but with some help the blade took its baptism by fire.



I expected even greater bending after first normalization, so now everything was OK.
This was followed by an alignment and a second pass in the furnace. After it the bent was lesser - yeah, the "ersatz" actually works.
So, now the blade is packed and ready to be shipped for the heat-treatment.

[Bartlomiej Jakubiec]

Dear Boris, please, can you tell how your scrabbler tool works? I mean, how it is supposed to grind metal, and i consequence make fuller?

[Boris Bedrosov]

The construction of the scrabbler is similar to an ordinary carpenter's bench plane and in many ways it works similarly to it.
They both share the same basic ideas - as the scrabbler/plane glides over the metal/wood, the angled blade shaves the surface, thus creating the desired finish - flat and smooth on the wood or a fuller (in our case) on the metal.

The scrabbler on the picture is of very basic design - it was created from scrap without any technical plan in a matter of a couple of hours. On the left is the cutting tool, bolted between two vertical metal planks; with the slotted horizontal plank on the right you could adjust the distance from the weapon's edge - this is done with the wingnut. On the reverse side (not visible on this picture) a ball-bearing is bolted to the horizontal plank - its purpose is to facilitate the movement up-and-down alongside the edge.

[Boris Bedrosov]

Some work on the washers for the khanjar and the kilij (actually, recently I decided to make them as a pair - a saber and a dagger with as much as possible resemblance in their hilts)


From top left clockwise: the disks are drawn on a bronze sheet and drilled; cut and edges beveled; after the initial sanding; lines marked; the disk is chiseled; the leaves of the flower are initially cut (down) then filed (up)
In the middle: the coin has a size aprox. the size of one Euro.

[Bartlomiej Jakubiec]

But what is the cutting tool in scrabbler? Grinding stone?

[Boris Bedrosov]

Oh, sorry! I knew, I've missed something in my previous post.

The cutting tool is made from some HSS (high-speed steel) tool - in this particular case from drill-bit. As I was not satisfied by its performance (although it's possible the drill-bit itself was not from best quality) for the next time I plan to use some metal lathe tool-bit.

[Alex Cerioli]

Amazing thread...regarding the scimitar, didn't the Turk get the curvature through differential hardening like in the japanese swords?

[Boris Bedrosov]

[Boris Bedrosov]

For the fittings of the khanjar I used pieces of standard brass pipe. As its perimeter was just a bit bigger than needed (approx. with 4-5 mm), I cut the pieces lengthwise and silver brazed them again.
After some minor filing, the tubes were fitted in their places.



The scales and the separator were glued with epoxy, temporary bolted to the blade and clamped with G-clamps. Before that the separator was filed with some decorative work - actually nothing special, just straight cut - half-moon left - straight cut - half-moon right.



The separator doesn't look much good - the sheet is somewhat thin and the cuts are widely-spaced; but in anyway it's better than nothing.

[Boris Bedrosov]

Originally, this post should be a part from the previous one, but while writing it my daughter rushed into the room like a hurricane, so I haven't nothing to do but to post what I had done so far rather than losing everything.....

These



are the parts of the fittings before brazing. The silver ring in the middle will be destroyed in order to be mounted on the upper fitting.
As I have quite limited experience with silver so far, this will be done by a friend of mine, who is a silversmith.

[Boris Bedrosov]

The horn grip of the khanjar after finishing and first crude polish



I've got some white fibers - they are quite visible on the reverse side. Most of them will be covered by the mother-of-pearl inlays and the fittings.



These fibers usually are considered as a flaw in the horn (at least here in Bulgaria), but in anyway they make it to look good.

The washers were finished also (here are shown all of them - not only for the khanjar itself, but for the kilij). Some of them need additional cleaning - they've got some dirt between the leaves.



The first slot for the washer was cut - I have five more to do



And finally - this is it



It's missing only the rivet.