A team of South
Dakota Mines students have captured second place in a global knife and sword-making
competition. Mines was one of 20 international university teams vying for top
spots at the 2022 Mineral, Metals & Materials Society
(TMS)
bladesmithing competition.
Every component of
the sword was designed and hand made by undergraduate students. The entry was also
accompanied by a technical paper, poster, and video produced by the team. The
sword is heavily inspired by the US model 1860 light cavalry saber and other
examples from the same time period. The sword features a concave fuller that
runs half of the blade's length to improve balance and reduce weight without
sacrificing strength. The blade's mirror polish is contrasted with a hand-drawn,
electro-etched pattern near the hilt. The guard and pommel were hand carved in
wax and were poured from scrap cartridge brass through a shell/vacuum casting
process. The handle was made from a hard wood block, hand carved with fluted
twists and wrapped in a stingray skin and braided brass wire. The details in
the guard, grip, and pommel mimic historical examples from this time period.
A second team of
Mines students took home third place in a TMS trivia competition featuring
university teams from around the world called the “Materials Bowl.”
Mines students at
the TMS events topped competitors at several universities, including MIT, Purdue,
Colorado School of Mines, and many others.
“The accomplishments
of this team add to the proud legacy of 137 years of innovation in our
metallurgical engineering department and across our entire campus. This achievement
is one example of many that show our students are highly-competitive when
pitted against other top research institutions,” says Mines President
Jim Rankin.
The team credits its
success to a strong ethic of cooperation where each individual was valued for
their contribution to the team. “You can’t really create something like this on
your own without collaboration,” says Antonio Romero, a senior electrical engineering
major who is also president of the university Blacksmithing Club. “The highest
placing teams were those that did the most teamwork.”
The student-forged cavalry
saber included a type a modern steel that closely matched historic weapons of
this type. The steel required careful testing and documentation prior to
forging. The team spent about 110 cycles of heating and hand hammering to forge
the blade. They then undertook a unique metal treatment method that involved
placing the red-hot sword in molten lead for an hour, which gave the blade a unique
steel structure called bainite. This difficult tempering method included liquifying
about 200 pounds of lead, which involved taking apart and melting several
hundred tire balancing weights in a safe and ventilated environment in the
university foundry.
“Our lead bath was
across the foundry from our forge, so I had to heat up the sword and move
quickly to the bath to property quench it. There were a lot of logistics to the
safety aspects we had to maintain,” says Tyler Reinarts, a sophomore metallurgical
engineering student.
The team cast the
brass pommel and guard from a wax model they made by hand. The handle was
wrapped in white stingray skin and secured with brass thread. Finally, the team
etched a design on the blade using an electro-etching technique. The entire
sword-making process is captured in this team-produced video.
Emma Soehl, a metallurgical
engineering junior, credits her upcoming internship at Newmont this summer to her
participation in the Mines bladesmithing team. “This was a great experience to
add to my resume that gave me the edge to land employment,” she says.
The award-winning
sword will be placed in the university’s Department of Materials and
Metallurgical Engineering display case where it can be viewed by the public.
The TMS
international bladesmithing competition is generally held every two years, but
was delayed in 2021 due to the pandemic. It has been held three times since
2017, and Mines has placed or been given special recognition each time. Mines won the global
competition in 2017 with a 34-inch, single-edged blade students forged, based on the Arhus
Farm sword from 10th century Norway, and is now on display in the Department of
Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at Mines.