Making a Excalibur letter opener Prepared for Ken Jeberg By Ken Jeberg Trades Technology Teacher Education

How to build a Excalibur letter opener

Our objective  Is to assess the skill level of the students with a simple project and work our way up from there.  Also this gives them opportunity to learn on some basic hand and power tools, before you get into the next projects  There is much safety learned here also

Material list  Need a piece of 3/16” steel rod  ¼” shelf pin  Bullet shell or whatever you have on hand that is dimensionally suitable  Polymer clay  Buffing compound : 400 grit, 800 grit, 2000 grit

Tools for project  Vice grips  15 pound persuader  Full tank propane burner  Ruler  20 oz. hammer  Black marker  Wood c-clamp  Stationary vice  Portable drill  Fine model file  Buffing wheel

Procedures for making the Excalibur letter opener First you heat up the metal rod on the propane torch until the metal is glowing red

Then you pound the metal until you get the metal to reach its required dimensions As you hammer you want to hammer the metal out at least 10 centimeters

As you hammer you need to check the blade against the edge of the ruler to make sure your sword stays strait. You want the thickness approx. 1.5 mm Width 1.2 cm Make sure you hit the rod squarely and not off to the center or the rod will hook to the right or left.

Now we shape the blade Mark 3.5 centimeters in the bottom part of the sword :  This is going to be the smooth part of the letter opener, so when you open a letter you don’t cut your fingers

Shaping the blade Make sure your piece is securely fastened before you begin the sanding  Before you start sanding your rough edge you can scribe in a line 3 mm in all around your sword where you want your sharp edge. This allows you to have a reference part so you don’t make to big of an edge

Now you clamp down on your piece as shown in this picture :  All you need is a fine hobby file, any bigger would take to much material off, and you would damage your project

Use your dremmal along the edge where your blade is being ground in, again make sure your project is secure.  When using your dremmal do light passes the full length of the blade The grinding disc is preferred for the handle piece.  Again do light passes so you don’t take to much material at once, that way you can make a nice rounded profile Use a regular buffing wheel, with some buffing compound and you can really make a nice smooth shiny blade

Form the guard Heat a shelf pin until it glows cherry red Pound the material on your sledge hammer head until You achieve this shape in this picture

You can see here what you want the form guard to look like, so it is just a matter of putting this piece in a vice and clamping it down securely and filing it to its appropriate shape The above piece you can see has a hole drilled to size So you can slip the guard up the handle :  You want the holes so the piece is pressed fitted on slightly  Then you use regular acid flux solder to bond the pieces together

Cut the pommel  You can use really what you have on hand, but this picture They are using a shell casing  There is no way set in stone to cut this off, they are using a drill and a hack saw to spin this end off for this project Once you have your piece cut you drill a tight hole in the one end And press it on as in like as in the picture.  When you have this piece in place you solder it on with acid flux solder

Solder, polish and clay Make sure your joints have been soldered strong, remember your joints are the pommel and guard Then you start the polishing process:  Use a regular polishing wheel, starting with a 400 grit polishing compound and finishing with a 2000 grit compound  You can polish until you get your desired finish, there is no time frame really with polishing. The next phase is to shape some dark clay on the handle like in The picture provided  Also some blue clay in the pommel so it is flush to the outer edges of the circle  Then you bake this project in the oven at about 400 degrees C for about 25 min, take your sword out and you are done

Go open a letter