African Arms

Blade after forging and completing stages of normalizing and
annealing. This blade has been drawn out from a 11 1/2 inch bar of 1065.

Blade after zone hardening by carefully pouring water along the edge.
Like in Nepal, I use a tea pot to assure a thin steady stream. This
process is used in Africa, India, and throughout Asia. Now that the
edge hardening was a success, the blade is ready for clean up and polishing.

Bubinga wood block after chiseling away for some hours. Bubinga wood is
far too hard for a carving knife. So I will only use my wood file, hammer,
and chisel. Here you can see the hilt taking shape.

Believe it or not, hilt after two days work.

Using my chisel now to carefully dig out slopes of the pommel. Great care
must be taken once I've reached this step. One reckless blow would have
the chisel bite too deep and wreck the design.

The finished hilt took two weeks to complete, including days worth of
treatment given to the wood.

Finished akofena, "Breath".