I’ve decided to add a crossguard to the poniard. I like the look of copper and dark steel, so I’m going to make the crossguard in copper, from a half inch thick bar.
Since my 1045 carbon steel bar is half inch by half inch bar
, I’ve begun by drilling a half inch diameter hole in the copper. I began with much smaller drill bits, and worked my way up to the big hole. Of course, this hole in round, and it needs to be square, so I’ve ground a nice flat on a spare bit of the same 1045 steel bar to use as a makeshift broach to turn the round hole square (see it above laying on the right side of the jeweler’s saw). To help with this, I’ve used my jeweler’s saw to cut opposite square corners most of the way through
Above, you can see where I’ve driven the “broach” partway through the copper bar. I’ll work from both sides to finish up the square hole, with several annealings in between.
Above is the completed square hole. Quite a bit of work!
And here is the rough crossguard in place on the poniard. I’ll begin refining the shape after I’ve played with this for a while, and decide on how to make it look best.
Thanks for Looking!