The official Transmission of the Klingon Imperial Weapons Guild.
9803.15____________________________________________Vol.2/No.3 Part Two
As the Guild grows, we will try to enhance camaraderie by publishing histories of our members (both Klingon and Terran). It is not necessary to develop a family history to be a Guild member, but it does help to solidify an image of you as a fellow crafts person and Klin.
House Subaiesh
This month's history is to honor our Guild member VisTar.
House Subaiesh is a Major Family Line in the Klingon Empire. The Subaiesh have been attempting to make changes within the Empire for the last decade. By pursuading the Klingon Fusion Houses to form an Alliance for the good of all, they have managed to secure a fair degree of political power within the Empire.
The Subaiesh are leading a growing movement for improved relations with the Federation, which most Imperial Family lines have vehemently opposed, despite the initiation of the formation of a *Grand Alliance* with the United Federation of Planets. Having survived the initial political backlash of their peace efforts, the Subaiesh are determined to place as many of their line members as possible in the Klingon Imperial Diplomatic Corps, whatever it costs. From a strong position there, the line hopes to gain sufficient clout to put their plan into operation.
House Subaiesh is a member of the Kasara Family Alliance; which is a formal alliance through treaties and consortships of over a half dozen influential family lines in the Empire. These family lines are pro-Federation and pro-Grand Alliance and use their powerful influences in many aspects of the Klingon Empire to follow through on thier plans.
House Subaiesh is an extended family line composed of 65% Klingon/Human Fusions and 35% Klingon/Romulan Fusions. There are approximately 22,000 members of the Subaiesh line throughout the Empire who follow Admiral Kemarrin epetai Subaiesh as their current House Leader. There are estimated to be several dozen Subaiesh presently located on Terra. House Subaiesh members can be identified by two parallel scars two centimeters long somewhere on the line member's person. The current Terran Head of the House is the Chancellor Stalker zantai Subaiesh of the KIDC.
Next month: Send in your bios or be forced to read the hazy recollections of a drooling 163 year old Klingon weaponsmith. If you've sent one in and I didn't post it, its been lost ......so send it again. I am finally settled with the new computer so losses should be a thing of the past........SHOULD be.
The tajtIq or Klingon Shortsword
The tajtIq like the 'algnegh and the ghIntaq dates to a more ancient time in Klingon history. It falls into the vast array of weapons utilized by Klingon warriors prior to the development of the standard fighting style brought about by the Mok'bara.
The tajtIq can be defined as either a short sword or a long knife(Okrand states that it is "a knife with a particularly long blade that is used almost as if it were a sword."), but in either case it lends itself to more *intimate* combat situations. The ancient Klingon's who favored the tajtIq were known for their rapid hand movements and not for their shear strength and size. The size and balance of this weapon allows it's user to deliver multiple strikes before the enemy can react and defend.
As the Klingons embraced the Mok'bara the need for such specialized weapons waned, but it is still not uncommon to see a warrior wielding a pair of these savage blades.
Qa'Pla!!!
mupwI' yI'uchtaH !!
tajtIq - Klingon shortsword
A much better picture will be posted as soon as the pommel is placed. This one really does not do the weapon justice.
tajtIq Dimensions - average:
Blade material -- 440C stainless steel
thickness of blade -- .25 inches
length of blade -- 20.00 inches.
width of blade -- 2.5 inches
Handle material -- 6.5 inch antelope horn with sterling pommel
Total length -- 26.5 inches
weight -- 1.5 pounds
Next month : jey'naS or Double bladed Battle Axe
Cutting methods for knife projects
This month the tips section will deal with how to get your piece of material cut into it's rough shape. As I have mentioned before there are basically three ways to do this: 1. Bandsaw, 2. Cutting torch and 3. *Cold - chisel* .
The first two methods are very self explanatory and in some cases cost prohibitive.
Number one - the band saw. Bandsaws that can cut out thick steel (particularly stainless) are generally expensive and not practical unless you plan on making a great many knives. Large projects are quite difficult to handle on most saws except the ones with very large tables and these are the most expensive. A bandsaw makes a very clean cut and saves much grinding time, but it can't make the tight curves seen in many of the Klingon weapons we deal with. I opted for a *cut-off* saw which is a small contractors tool normally used to cut *re-bar* and construction steel. I modified the table to allow for vertical work and to hold larger items. I also bought special alloyed blades to handle stainless, but I still have to improvise to get the *detail* work cut out.
Number 2 - Cutting torches. These can take many forms - from standard oxy/acetylene to the plasma cutters we have all drooled about. There are also laser cutters and *water cutters* that I have heard tales about but have no actual knowledge of (however I have a distinct impression that those are very expensive). These devices provide a means of cutting large projects out with a minimum of physical effort - however they do not provide a clean cut and room must be allowed to maintain your pattern lines. The *slag* produced by the torch increases your working time in clean-up, but a great deal of progress can be made on the areas with tight curves. You need a steady hand for this process.
Number 3 - Using hand tools. The following section is here thanks to the hard work of K'Beck. This advice and methodology can be of great help to those of you who want to get started but can't justify expensive machinery.
For the Machine Impaired: By K'Beck
For those of us who don't have the space or money to buy every piece
of equipment that we really want or need, there will always be a few techniques that will
help achieve our goal in spite of our handicap. I hope to present a few of them here
whenever I can, so here goes the first one.
Cutting steel can be a challenge. If you buy steel in bar form and shape it into a straight
knife you can use a hack saw or simply grind down to your pattern , but when you need to
do a piece that is a little more challenging, such as the bat'leth or the cut outs on the
dk'tag you need to get a little more aggressive. The method I will demonstrate is only one way that you may accomplish your task.
The Cold Chisel Method;
You will need the following tools:
1.An anvil,These can get expensive! they can range from 25 lb on up to 200 lb or more. I
don't have one, for a long time I used the flat section on my 6" vice , now I have a 8"
section of rail road track. I got mine from a SCA member. I have seen an article that
showed a Tialand fellow using what looked like a 6" X 6" hunk of steel buried in the
ground, you just have to do some checking around to see what you can find. the heavier the better!
2.A hammer - again the heavier the better, I found out the hard way that I wouldn't go over the 4lb range. I was using a 7lb sledge and couldn't control it very well (I hit my hand far too many times). A claw hammer will work , but its a little too light.
3.A cold chisel , they aren't very expensive and a good one will last longer. I use a 1/2 inch
wide one.
4.A drill and drill bit , a drill press is nice but a hand held one is faster to use on larger
pieces . I like to use a 1/4 inch drill bit, I kept breaking 3/16th ones.
Now on to the project, I am cutting out a bat'leth from 3/16 stainless steel plate. I
am forced to cut it out in two halves then I plan on welding them together , I wasn't able to get a piece of steel wide enough. I had already cut out the basic shape when K'Daq
suggested that I write this. So we get to start as I cut out the holes for the handles .
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Your eyes do not deceive you ,I painted the thing green so you could see
where I had everything marked better . The first step is to drill holes all around the
perimeter of the cut. Be very careful not to let the drill "wander" outside of the layout line, and leave yourself room to slip up a bit. It is far easier to remove metal than it is to put it back on! When you are drilling your worst enemy is heat. Keep your drill bit cool. I
use the oil that I have drained from my car the last time I did my oil change (OK the last time my wife did the oil change) Water will work but it evaporates far too fast and it doesn't stay like oil. I set the whole piece on a table that I put together so that I can drill all the way through and into the table top without worrying about it, other wise set it on blocks or scrap wood. If you are working on a smaller piece clamp it down so it doesn't spin when the drill bit cuts through.
I will throw in my two cents worth here on shop safety.My grandfather told me if you have something you like ,protect it! Safety glasses are a must! Gloves are suggested when
they do not interfere with anything you are using (i.e.. small things that you can not hold
on to with gloves) I wear fingerless gloves most of the time. If something metal falls, don't try to catch it. Just get out of the way. The bat'Leth caught on my shirt tail once and I
grabbed it out of habit and received a nasty cut on my palm from a bur on the edge.
After you have all the holes drilled it's time to go to the anvil.
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Start your cuts as
near to the outer edge of the holes as you can , it will leave less material to remove later.
I don't try to cut all the way through from one side, I leave a little so that I can flip it over and finish out the cut from the opposite side. That way I don't let the cutting edge of the
chisel hit the surface of the anvil, it would be bad for both tools.
Now if everything is done right all you should have to do is knock out the cut out, sounds simple huh? I use the edge of my anvil so that it and the hammer act like a set of
scissors to shear the small portion of metal that's left between the cuts, otherwise you
may bend your blade trying to force the whole thing out at one time. Once it starts
separating it goes fast.
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Once you have your cut made grind or file those edges
down to the finished size, step outside into the wind and let your wife or significant other
take your picture.
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The Standard bat'leth and the Sword of Kahless
Selecting material, creating a pattern, layout and rough cuts.
This month we start a double project that the majority of you have quietly waited for. With patience and the continued advice from members such as K'Beck's above you can see your dreams realized.
Enough talk ! Lets wade into this.
1. Materials - We are not Ferrengi nor Pakled but materials must be acquired and at a reasonable cost. Lets put my *perfectionist twinge* aside for a moment and talk sense. At this stage you need to examine the reasons you wish to have a weapon of this nature. Do you crave realism ? Is it the actual owning of a technically accurate weapon that drives you ? If the answers to these questions are yes then you have taken the expensive (and *heavier*) road. This road is much more difficult to travel but it can be traversed if you take your time and keep your eyes open. In order to keep costs down you must become familiar with local scrap yards or get friendly with a local machine shop. It is always possible to *luck into* a situation where the perfect scrap of metal becomes available for your needs. If not you need to resign yourself to paying the extra to satisfy your goals.
If you are like the majority of Klingon fans, then stark realism is not essential and allowances can be made in material selection. Face reality for a moment - Klingons are massive beings capable of using weapons that a typical human could only dream of lifting in a fight. If you are a human and aspire to carry such a weapon to a convention, you need to make the modifications to your blade that will allow you to comfortably assume your place in Klingon society. Reducing the weight can only be accomplished by making a smaller weapon (usually unacceptable), using lighter material, or using thinner material.
Lighter materials typically used are aluminum, plexiglass, wood and most recently titanium. Aluminum is commonly seen, easy to work with and durable but lacks the cold hard appearance of steel. Wood is very easy to work with and an excellent practice material for beginning craftsmen. With the new sealers and paint options available a respectable sword can be produced. Plastics are also subject to the downside of paints and also have a higher price and lower durability factor. We all know the downside to titanium - cost - but it gives you the ability to have a technically accurate sword that a human can handle without the questionable appearance of wood, plastic or aluminum.
Another common method to reduce weight is to use 1/8th plate as a blade material. This would quickly cut the weight of a typical *Kri'stak* weapon in half. I do not want my words to be interpreted as critisism of craftsmen producing these blades - a 1/8th blade thickness is an honorable weapon for convention or public appearance use. They photograph well, are a thing of beauty to be seen swung in glorious arcs and when crafted by a skilled artisan they make a most worthy weapon.
Finally much has been said or inferred about stainless versus carbon steel. Carbon steel should not be scorned. In fact I would say that a Klingon would be more likely to own a carbon steel blade than a stainless steel one. Carbon steel is the steel of the forge and stainless is a development of modern Terra. The only importance to you (the soon to be owners) is that carbon steel requires more upkeep since it rusts more readily (yes lower grades of stainless DO rust).
The area of concern for you is whether the steel can be heat treated to a edge holding hardness. If you aren't planning on hardening your blade than it doesn't really matter what steel you make it out of - in this case go straight to your local supplier of construction grade steel.
This is the Imperial Weapons Guild and we are here to learn about quality edged weaponry, so we will concentrate on weapons quality metals from here on. This is not to be taken as a put-down to our members (or anybody else) working in other materials. If God has put you in a position to create then do so and revel in this honor as long as you have the strength. One day I hope you all will be holding a sword made with your own two hands. I hope I and the members of the Guild can help you realize this quest.
Patterns
The Standard bat'leth pattern can be acquired by visiting the December *mupwI'* and printing the line drawing. Take this to your local copying center and have it enlarged until the distance from tip to tip is 1 meter (as described in the Trek Encyclopedia and as referenced by Worf in TNG). As for the Sword of Kahless, there are a number of flat plan images of it now in a number of Trek reference books.....or you can print the image of the Titanium SOK now posted in this issue and enlarge it to a width of 43 inches.
Remember this is a massive Galactic Empire. Alter the pattern to your liking. If you want longer blades then make them so. If you want bigger secondary blades then make them that way. Do not fall into the *pit* created by fandom that says "a bat'leth looks exactly like this". There are a number of patterns available around the net, and in Trek reference books. The one posted here is only my preference and the size is one specified by Worf and the Trek Encyclopedia - but who is to say that you can't have one twice as wide ? Surely not I. If you need a Terran example of this concept I give you two the *Bowie Knife* and the *Katana*. I challenge you to find a definition that locks these weapons into a *mold*.
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If you are cutting these patterns with a torch you need to transfer the image with a hard chalk marker or the heat will burn off your line. Using any other method only requires that you make an accurate transfer (you can even tack the pattern directly to your material and cut to it as I did on the QIS project).
Rough Cuts
For these projects we will be using two of the methods outlined above. K'Beck has already given you an excellent course on using the cold-chisel. I will be using the oxy/acetylene torch. The process is self explanatory and the pictures included are only for your entertainment. Look closely and see if you can pick up the images of hot sparks burning into K'Daq's skin.
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Now you have finished a major step. Have some ale! Howl out your back door! Gather your files or grinders as we move to the next step in which we clean the cuts to the pattern line and lay out the bevels. Thats the topic for next month. Perhaps we can get some more insight from K'Beck.... or from some of our new members who have traveled this path. Good luck, write me with any and all questions and........
mupwI' yI'uchtaH !!
