21 July 2009

Today I did some finish work on a bowie. I fitted the handle, did the fine polishing, added a nickel silver ferrule on the back, and peened the tang over to hold it together. It is about 10" in the blade, 5 in the handle, with nickel silver bolster and backplate, hand forged 5160 cross guard (wire brush finish) and a polished horn handle. The blade is also 5160 to make a very durable and versatile blade. You may notice the part of the blade not beveled to a cutting edge looks a little bumpy. Normally, I do a satin finish on knives, but on this bowie i decided to only partially polish it to leave the "rustic" finish and show the hammer marks, which seems to be in fashion lately.
I also did the main body of the polishing on a lateen style blade, which is an early medieval style of blade with a raised center-line, hollow-ground. It was tricky to keep the blade shape, but it was successful. Should be finished in the next week, and sent out to the customer. All in all, a very productive day. Sorry about the haphazard picture placement, I haven't quite got the hang of the layout yet.
-Mark

A brief introduction to Morrow's Blades

Mark Morrow is a smith with over 35 years of experience forging steel. Mark has extensive experience in bladesmithing, blacksmithing, tool making, armor, casting, even leather and wood work. He began crafting knives at the age of 13 out of junk steel, broken saw blades, leaf springs, anything he could get his hands on. Eventually he built a forge, started making his own tools, building bigger and better forges and adding to his shop.
Mark branched out into decorative ironwork, which he still does, but concentrates on historic and custom blades and weapons. Mark creates all sorts of blades and weapons, from European to Frontier, Roman to Japanese, and everything in between. He has even created blades from fantasy cult classics like the He-man sword from Masters of the Universe, fully functional and combat ready .
Mark has martial arts experience appropriate to the weapons he crafts, operating under the philosophy that to make a sword you need to know how it is used. Mark makes every blade combat ready, capable of withstanding any use the historic blade would undergo, unlike many modern replicas, which simply do not hold up.

If you're wondering why this blog is written in the third person, it is because Mark can't be pulled away from his work long enough to type this out. The art of bladesmithing is Mark's business, hobby, passion and life. Luckily, I've gotten him to agree to take pictures of his work, in progress and finished, and share it here for the benefit of those whom, like myself, can't forge a flawless katana. Yet.

If you'd like to check out some of his work, visit his website, it may be under maintenance at the moment, I'll try to get some pictures on here as soon as possible.

www.swordsmith.net

Enjoy,
-Liam