This sword is a rapier inspired by several blades made between 1570 and 1600, most notably a sword bearing the mark of Wolfgang Stantler as part of an order for the Town Guard of Munich in 1600 (see photo #51). Rapiers developed in part from the increased popularity of the civilian wear of swords combined with the development of fencing. Not being required to cut or punch through armor as a war blade would, the blade could be made lighter and faster with a balance closer to the hand for fencing. At the same time the hilt evolved from the simple finger ring found in the ricasso side of the cross on swords at least as early as 1400 into a more complex basket formed of a counterguard, one or two rings, quillions and knuckle bow. A form of hilt that was to remain popular for almost one hundred and fifty years.

The steels I used in the rapier blade are W2 and 203E. I cornmonly work with these steels because of their strength and high contrast despite the greater difficulty in working with them than simple carbon steel. Period blades would be forged in a charcoal fire~ and I have used charcoal and coaVcoke fired forges but this sword was forged in a gas forge because of it's similarity in atmosphere and convenience. First the two steels were cleaned of any surface oxidation by grinding the flats clean. I then stacked three alternating layers, two outer layers of 1/2 inch thick W2 steel, and one inner layer of 1/4 inch thick 203E. The billet is then heated, fluxed with borax and brought to weld heat in the forge and welded solid. The billet was then drawn out and successively folded (forge welding each fold solid) until the desired pattern density was reached (in this case approximately 217 layers, or 3 triple welds and two double.

Once the billet was finished I forged a bar out of the billet, forged the shoulder, then the tip and edges, next the fuller was forged in with a fullering tool I built for this sword, lastly the tang was hammered in. Once the blade was forged I heated it to a medium orange heat and buried it in hardwood ash. This heating and very slow cooling causes the crystalline structure to grow large soft crystals (annealing) that may be cut with files, chisels, or saws. After annealing the rapier was ground and filed to shape, the tang was drilled for the pommel pin, and the fuller was ground clean and sanded to about a 400 grit finish (while keeping the edged straight). Finally, the sword blade was sanded to a four hundred grit finish over its entire surface preparatory to hardening. To heat treat the blade I heated it to its transition temperature (found by watching the color of the steel or tapping with a magnet, when the steel becomes non magnetic during heating it has reached its transition temperature and is ready to quench) and quench in 160 degree Fahrenheit mineral oil based quench oil (this is what is known as hardening). Period quench mediums vary from plain water to saturated warm brine (the urine of a goat fed only ferns is suggested by Theophilus in Divers Arts) to linseed oil. Choice of quench medium is determined by the type of steel quenched. During hardening the steel becomes brittle and I must stress relieve it by heating to 400+f. degrees for a period of about two hours (this is tempering or stress relief), generally period blades were heated only for a few minutes to a higher temperature but holding the temperature longer gives a more complete stress relief and therefore greater toughness. Once the rapier was heat treated I finished sanding it clean (400 grit) and etched it in weak ferric chloride solution because of the excellent
contrast which results from its use. Medieval pattern welded blades were etched in vinegar, urine or weak acid such as dilute Oil of Vitriol,(even brine will work).

After finishing the blade I cut out the ash handle slabs and cut and split the bar sections for the guard. Once cut I forged a gentle taper down the bars length and twisted each bar(a simple Blacksmithing technique I chose because of the way twists catch light when polished). After twisting, forming, and cleaning up the bars (about 30 hr..) they were assembled into the basket. Then I pilot drilled arld chiseled a square mortise into the steel pommel (with chisels shaped specifically for the task) and ground that to shape. After that the collets were cut and forrned, all the hilt parts were hot blued and fit to the handle ends and the spiral groove for the wire wrap was filed into the wood. Once the parts all were assembled I cut the rayskin (a lovely grip material used for over a millennia the world around) into a rough oval, skived the edges and pulled it over the wood. The wire strands were then twisted together and wrapped around the grip and held in place by the handle collets. All the handle parts were then mounted on the blade and the blade was then oiled (traditionally the Japanese prefer clove oil, and the Malaysians used sandalwood oil. I don't know what was used in Europe, probably animal grease of some sort. I use a museum wax.

Pattern Welding/Bladesmithing

All iron age cultures use forging as a primary manner of working iron or steel into functional shapes. Other basic tools and their use (filing, grinding chiseling, punching, polishing...) are all also with certain variations universally used. Medieval and Renaissance iron and steel blades used in knives and swords vary widely in material, quality3 and design, but most construction techniques were known to most bladesmiths more or less proficiently. For instance while most iron using cultures learned to forge weld capably, several stand out for their complex development of the technique. Certain areas would use fullers to forge a groove in the center of a sword blade, others would grind similar grooves Pommels, guards, and blade size and shape changed with location and era. Even when blades were being built of a popular style variance would occur, even if only in the form of a few atypical works.

The purity and trace alloying elements of iron and steel also vary depending on time and location.. Raw materials used to make different items would probably be bog iron, bloom iron, wrought iron, cast iron, or steel of various carbon contents. Depending on the location and era some few smiths might produce their own raw materials from ore, bog iron, and rarely meteorite but for the most part iron and steel would be purchased or imported from a smelter. Iron and steel account for significant amounts of international trade throughout the middle ages and renaissance. The medieval European foundry/smelter was a brick or clay stack with ore and fuel stacked in layers and fired, which depended on draft to actually melt and convert the ore into a combinatiQn of bloom iron or cast iron depending on the presence of carburi~;ing, materials (charcoal, dung...) and atmosphere. These materials were then converted to wrought iron, then into blister steel or pattern welded steel.

Pattern welding was used widely in Europe throughout the middle ages and later. Contrary to popular opinion, the technique was never really "lost". The use of the
technique itself accomplishes several things. It is a method of purifying the iron by working internal impurities (slag, undesirable alloying elements) to the surface of the billet where they will burn offin the fire. Pattern welding also allows a smith to combine smaller pieces of wrought iron into a large enough billet to make a sword or other large blade with. It can also allow the smith to control the overall carbon content of the billet by welding together steel and iron of differing carbon content into a billet of enough layers to allow the migration of the carbon at welding and forging heat which will tend to equalize the carbon and thus the hardness evenly through the billet. Only about 60% uf all La Tene (Celtic) Period (500-50 BC) sword and knife blades examined by Radomir Pleiner(1993)were medium to high carbon steel in one or both edges, the rest were wrought iron or very mild steel. However, even this early smiths were building up most blades from multiple rods, and fold welding as well. Pattern welding has been used continuously since the early iron age enjoying periods of greater or lesser popularity.

Summary

Authenticity- aside from the use of modern steel (smelting my own steel would have been far more dangerous than gilding, see Category rules #4) this is a pretty period piece, The stylistic variation is within the scope of its period and the production techniques can all be duplicated in period.

Scope- this is certainly not a minor project. The different techniques used were forge welding, forging, hot fullering, heat treating, grinding, filing, hot chiseling, hot drifting, cold raising, twisting, heat bluing, gold inlaying, engraving etc. The blade is twisted pattern welded steel embellished by an inlaid gold star, the hilt is forged steel bars and pommel with a rayskin covered hardwood grip.

Workmanship- design and materials are appropriate to 1590 The color scheme and shape came out pretty much as I wanted. The hilt is strong and tight The fuller stops several inches short of the center of percussion (sweet spot) to afford greater thicknes and impact strength. And the sword balances close to the 3 .1 " in front of the ricasso recommended in 1610 by Rudolfo Capo Ferro da Cagli (an Italian fencing master) for a dueling rapier.

Creativity- starting with a basic bar design I used a twist form for the hilt to reflect the twist in the blade pattern, I also used the twist in the wire of the grip. I did so because of the way a twist reflects light, I felt it would look fairly spectacular and am happy with the result. The other embellishment is the gold star inlaid in the grain of the damascus twist.