Over the last few months I’ve sold a fair number of swords or knives. Today though I decided it was time for a tribute blade. I grabbed a couple tripods and cameras before taking them down to the smith. This wasn’t one that was going to end up on my tiktok or yutube channel, this was for the guys.

Given that this was a blade for the guys I served with it wasnt going to be a katana. I’d decided on a cavalry sword. There weren’t many swords historically used in the US military, we were largely too young. But a cav sword seemed fitting. I had to do some research into this one. While some of the techniques I knew would carry over no samurai had ever made a US cav sword. The sheath I had custom ordered so I had to make sure that the blade would be exact in its dimensions to fit. To make that work I had created a pattern I could judge against to make sure angle of curve and other measurements were right.

Starting out I set up the cameras with a time lapse picture setting rather than video. I got my music going with some random classic rock got to work. I went with layered Damascus steel, cutting it to length and then stacking, forging out to length, and welding the pieces together until I had 128 layers. As I worked I made sure the steel was nice and clean so the welds would set properly.

From there the billet went into the forge, coming out a short time later for me to start the hammer work. Here I used my advantages. Regular smiths had to resort to a hydraulic press or hammer to regulate the power and aim that I could do naturally. Since this wasn’t a video but pictures I also didnt have to worry about revealing myself by overpowering “Big Blu” style hammer blows. Using the angles of the anvil I start lengthening and curving the blade to shape.

Over the next two hours the blade truly took form. As it got into the final stages I quenched it, sharpened and worked it up to a nice finish. At this point was when the fine work began. Etched near the guard were the initials for each of the men from my platoon from that last fateful deployment. With each set of initials engraved on the blade I let my thumb trace along the ones that had a cross with them. These were the ones who had come home in a coffin and were now only able to be visited at Arlington. But for the five remaining survivors, myself included, each would get a custom blade like this in the coming days.

With the blade finally finished I set the camera to video for the last part, displaying the blade and showing the engraving work before facing the camera myself and speaking into it. “Brothers, here’s the first of the five blades. They’re all going to be as close to a match as I can make them, one for each of us. No matter how far away you’re still in my thoughts and still my brothers. I love you all. Be safe out there.”