Iron Ring Forge

Johnny wanted to be Thor (again) for Halloween this year. Since the God of Thunder ⚡ got a shiny new weapon recently, this slightly smaller version of Thor needed one, too.

The head of Stormbreaker is all wood, painted by Thor, um, Johnny himself. The handle (at least the part that you can see) is made from some bittersweet vines that Johnny and I harvested from my back yard. We stained it Groot Brown together. Minwax doesn't actually call this color "Groot Brown", but what do they know?

The only blacksmithing on this is meant to stay hidden. I didn't really want to trust dead bittersweet to hold onto that head, so I took some metal pipe and forged "vein-y" dents into it, painted it Groot Brown (again, not what Rust-Oleum calls it), and stuck it into the head.

This was easily the most complex project I've worked on. Lots of parts with many angles and shapes. Just forming the vines took some trial and error. But it was definitely fun, and I really enjoy projects that make me think, with plenty of problem solving. The brain needs exercise, too. And a satisfied customer is, well, satisfying for both of us.

I'm guessing that every blacksmith, and maybe even every metalworker, has been asked at least once if they've ever made a sword. I never have — until my favorite customer asked for a sword.

OK, it's not a *real* sword. It's made of mild steel, which won't hold an edge very well. And that's pretty OK, since this "sword" has all the sharpness of a spoon.

Johnny knows that all these "weapons" I've been making are for decoration only. However, when watermelons get back in season, there might be some casualties.

I used the same basic techniques making the blade as if this were a real sword, with the obvious exception of heat treating, which doesn't do a darned thing on mild steel.

The blank started out as 1/4" X 1", which I spread out to around 3/16" X 1-1/2". It's got a hidden tang that I cut out and Johnny sanded all the edges out. Johnny and I used a "guided" burn-in technique to attach the handle (made from scrap poplar). I drilled a series of holes where the tang would go, but smaller than the tang. I then heated up the tip of the tang and Johnny pressed the handle onto the hot tang, which burned through the tight fit. A few heats and the handle fit snugly on the tang. Johnny liked the smoke streaming out of the handle during the process. And I admit, so did I :-). Then I stuffed some 5-minute epoxy in the handle hole (to make sure the handle stayed snug, and inserted some pins as an extra safety measure.

As you can probably see, even if the sword was hardened and sharp, it wouldn't go very far with the Forged In Fire judges. There are a few hammer marks that I didn't want to grind out. But for my first sword, and a decoration one at that, I was happy enough with the outcome. Johnny's face when he got it was more than enough to crown me Forged In Fire Champion.