the MAD Dwarf Workshop

Work in Progress - the Cawood sword

2011-01-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

For the past year I've been working on probably the most challenging swordsmithing related commission I've ever tried to tackle to date, making a reproduction of the "Cawood sword" and crafting it as traditionally as possible without the aid of modern power tools.

The original digital photoshop render I made for the customer:

Now if you've glanced through our website over at Mad Dwarf Workshop before then you've probably seen this beautiful rendition of the cawood that Andy made a couple years back. In fact it was Andy's first ever true high quality sword.

When an awesome gentleman approached us asking if we'd be interested in making another rendition for him we were a bit hesitant, no artist likes to make duplicates (at least we dont) but the elements and methods of making the Cawood that he asked for sounded like to much fun to pass up.

He first and foremost inquired about a reproduction of the piece because the name "Cawood" is in his family history. Secondly he wished it to be made as authentically as possible, asking if we could do it without aid of power tools... Now you dont have to be a bladesmith to know that this is a challenge, and its one that we've never faced. We're obviously young bladesmiths who dont claim to be experts by any means, with only minimal experience. But again, it was far to fun of a challenge to pass up. So I personally took up the main responsibility for the project, and began work with a fervent rush of energy and excitement...

Now the important thing to note is from the start I knew I would not be able to claim my methods of manufacturing on this sword to be exactly "historical" by any means. I may be using historical methods of manufacturing, but at the end of the day even the tools I am using for such old techniques like forging and draw filing are tools made in this modern age.

Yes I was forging, but out of a charcoal forge we made, not with a hand powered leather bellows iron age ground forge.

Yes I was draw filing the blade and using wet stones on it by hand, but I was using files and stones bought at hardware stores.

So while I am unable to claim the victorious statement of crafting this sword "historically" I can most definitely say it was at least made as "traditionally" as I could possibly manage. And if anything has ever been a learning experience this has...

The finished blade, polished and etched to show the 200+ layer pattern, and engraved with the same Latin letters seen on the original:

After months and months of work I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and nearing completion. At the moment slowly working on carving patterns into the figured walnut wood of the scabbard and grip.

The gentleman who commissioned the piece also asked if I could document the process in great detail from start to finish. So thus far I have a collection of well over 700 photos yet to be sorted through.

Once their in order I will begin the process of crafting a hand made leather bound booklet showing each key step with hand written notes and accompanying artwork to compliment the photos on the antiqued hand made brown paper. And of coarse I will also be sharing the process from A-Z on the Mad Dwarf Workshop's website when completed.

Even though I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I've still got a ways to go. Not only is this project a long and meticulous one by nature, but there have been plenty of roadblocks and distracting projects and commitments getting in the way. Some bad, others very very good... One particular distraction involving a silver screen......

but more on that another time... ;)

- David DelaGardelle

- MDW -

Fiddles, Mulled Cider, and the Road Ahead

2010-11-26T21:21:00.000-08:00

Been a while folks.
Life's been a whirlwind as of late for Andy and I. Mr. Davis with particular engagements and myself with the serious task of getting lost in the woods of inspiration and progress

A taste of whats swirling through my mind these days:

But by Gods grace we're keepin to the narrow path, trusting not in ourselves but in Him & His strength, and trudging forward to what ever lies around the bend.

Its been a year since we've worked on it, but we still have one very big project that we've yet to reveal due to legal liability. But we're nearing the time when we can share it with all of you, and hopefully offer up an ounce of inspiration through our measly attempts at this craft on the particular project. We're looking forward to it.

Thanks again for the support and interest, if someone would have told us 3 years ago where we would be now we would have been speechless and dumbfounded.
"Thank you" is not a good enough expression to use.

May the Lord bless you and yours, keep the fire ablaze...

- David D.

Usskorik the pine brandr - swords sketch

2010-04-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

full size sketch

New custom Nordic styled Seax - Kronulfr

2010-04-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

Just finished this new custom sword for a customer:

check out more photos on our Flickr page.

Irish RIng sword WIP collab with Ben Potter

2010-04-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

On st Patrick's day we announced a new collaboration project we are doing with our good friend Ben Potter.
Check it out:

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=16288&st=0&p=151707&#entry151707

As of now the billet which was forge welded by Andy has been drawn out to sword profile shape, and is now ready for heat treatment.
We plan on crafting the blade and then letting Ben take over from there with his devilish work.
The sketch above is what I made just as a springboard, but I for one am looking forward to letting Ben go wild and give this sword character.

And not being a commission Ben will be selling this on a first come first serve basis.

keep an eye out of that Bladesmiths forum thread to track the progress!

Thanks for looking

Reforging from the ground up...

2010-02-20T11:42:00.000-08:00

Well its been a long tough winter for us thus far at MDW. Making a lot of sacrifices time & commitment-wise outside the shop, and thus been in hibernation away from it for a good while now unfortunately...

BUT thankfully in the meantime we are making good use of the time we do have, and we could use YOUR help.
Yes, we mean it. Your help is needed random reader...

We've been busy with a lot of exciting and very large projects the past few months, & all of this work has pushed us into the next phase of growing Mad Dwarf Workshop as a legitimate serious business and provider of quality bladesmithing work.
So we are rebuilding our entire business and website from the ground up...

Just a taste:

So we truly want YOUR thoughts and ideas on what you'd like to see from this new website and business structure as a whole...
- What specific content would you like to see more or less of?
- What type of website layout do you find most preferable?
- What styles of work would you like to see more from us?
- Or anything else that you think would be helpful for us to take into consideration!

Whatever ideas you have that we could use to improve Mad Dwarf Workshop let us know!

We're excited to share big news of what we've been upto and connect with more people.

Thanks so much for the support and encouragement all of you. ;)
Keep the forge abazin

David DelaGardelle
- Mad Dwarf Workshop -

Ben Potter - bladesmithing promo video

2009-10-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well ever since Ben stopped by our shop a while back, Andy and I have been a fan of his work. Admiring the amazing craftsmanship that he continually improves upon and his honorable work ethic and motives.

Since he has been doing his bladesmithing work now full time, I have tried to think of ways that I can support him to get his incredible work out there.
And one idea that came to mind was to make a commercial/promo video, featuring his work thus far to display on youtube & the web.

The end results is this:

if you have a youtube page as well please favorite or share on another site to support Ben's awesome work.

New Sword posted

2009-10-31T16:01:00.001-07:00

New sword finished and posted on the website:

EalGyd - Northern Noblemans Arming Sword

http://maddwarfworkshop.com/Swords/EalGyd.htm

Forging the Dwarven Miner Knife - video

2009-08-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Check out the step by step process of Andy forging a Dwarven styled tactical fighter knife:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVQH1Ide3Ko

Hammerin Open Shop event 09

2009-05-20T01:43:00.000-07:00

On May 9th Andy and I finally cleaned up or filthy shop, fired up our grills for BBQ, dusted off the old coal forges, and opened up our doors for a day to invite friends and fellow smiths for a hammerin/open shop event. It was mainly geared towards people who have never even forged hot steel before, and giving them a chance to get in on the action for a day and learn a whole lot.

Our good friend Adlai Stein from Don Foggs Bladesmiths Forum was kind enough to stop by our shop and share some of his awesome work, and help a few people at forging for the first time.

here are a few photos from the day itself. And more can be found on this thread on Blademsiths forum.

David DelaGardelle.
- M A D -

Back to life - and forging with a vengance!

2009-04-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Hey there to everyone and anyone who checks out this page and is interested in news from our workshop!

We are officially out of hibernation!
And its about darn time, we have so much on our to do list it hurts the brain just thinking about it!...

But Lord willing we will gain the strength and forge out some of our best work yet within the next couple weeks and coming months.

Although we cant give EXACT details as to what some of those mysterious ugly hunks of steel seen above will become, we can tell you to get ready to see a step up in our level of pattern welding, and some serious pushes forward in our quality and craftsmanship standards.

A while back we also had to briefly stop taking new custom orders as we were anticipating the evil onslaught of college junk and typical life stuff to pile on our backs and steal our time. But thankfully we are getting a lot more dedicated time in the shop and are ready and willing to take any new orders as of now. And so far the response has been great and we are glad we are taking new orders again.

Currently we are working with some extremely awesome kind genuine great people who really understand and appreciate our work, not to mention patience like none other!
And if any of our current customers is reading this now...
then THANK YOU for putting up with two insane confused college guys.. haha :)
We truly appreciate it.

So check back here more often as you can expect updates to become much more regular then they have been in the past.

We will be giving sneak peaks at specific projects in the works and some more in depth looks at our crafting techniques with photos and even some new videos from our shop.

Also when you get the chance take a minute to check out the website of our good friend and fellow craftsmen Shad Peters:
http://shadpeters.com/

Shad crafts one of a kind high quality custom made electric guitars and his work is incredible!
We will also be working with him closely this summer on a veriety of joint projects and crazy ideas soon to come.

But untill then keep your forge afire.
& God Bless!

David D.

the MAD Dwarf Workshop

Winter attacks the Workshop

2008-12-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well even though we are still just two crazy young college dudes we try our hardest to use our time wisely and get out to the shop whenever we can (whenever family and girlfriends permit), but every year when winter rolls around we are not match in our thin measly red sheet metal rusty old barn... haha :)

And of coarse the cold weather always seems to hit just when we get swamped with custom orders to forge.

But never the less we are doing are best to man up and forge despite our fingers freezing off.
At the moment out list of custom orders is huge, but thankfully everyone who we are working with is kind enough not to be demanding with deadlines.

But a few of those cool projects in the works are:
- a pattern welded migration age sword
- pattern welded elven sword
- pattern welded Dwarven fighter bowie

and tons more killer pieces in the works.

So hopefully college classes and cold weather doesn’t kill us before we can get all on our list finished. But in the mean time we will keep everyone who is interested in our work updated on what we are workin on in the shop right here on the blog!

This should be interesting!...

2008-11-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Well… We’ve finally entered the blogosphere… I guess we will see how two weird crazy young swordsmithing guys do with the world of bloggers... Haha :)

But we plan on using this blog to the best of our abilities and to keep people up to date with news and new stuff happening in our shop. Everything from the progress of projects in the works, finished swords & knives, and other random amusing events taking place at our forge.

But we hope you enjoy following us here and share your thoughts on our past work and work yet to come!

Thanks.

David DelaGardelle
- M A D -