 When it comes to making weapons and tools, we often start from a stock metal that's been previously smelted and worked into a large chunk of metal. However, as I've demonstrated a few times, making iron and other metals from scratch is a lot of labor, which made most metal pretty expensive in the past. So whenever possible, you'd reuse whatever scrap metal you already had. So in today's video, I wanted to explore that aspect of blacksmithing and challenge where they knew assistance I got to see how well they could transform some old farm tools into a sword suitable for battle. So here we have an old rusty scythe that is kind of on its last legs and we have a bronze sickle, both useful for harvesting and see if we can remake these into an actual sword. So the steel from the scythe can be pretty easily reworked and we can reshape that into more of a sword and then the bronze scythe can be melted down and recast. We can use that for things like the crossguard and the pommel on the sword. So let's get started. Historically, reusing metal would have been something that was done a lot because this was a very valuable commodity. In this particular case, we're taking the high carbon steel blade from the scythe and reusing it into a sword. The scythe blade here is meant to glide along large grasses and stuff like that for harvesting crops. We're taking it from a farming implement and repurposing it as it could have been done in the medieval era into making a usable fighting sword in which it will still be cutting through things but it won't be grass anymore. The type of sword that we're going to be going for in here is called a Norman broadsword. It was used in one hand in the early medieval era, obviously used by the Normans from France after the invasion at the Battle of Hastings, cut and thrust centric sword. Aquaculture is a lot of work and while going from farm to sword might be a challenge, going from farm to plate can be its own unique journey, as I well know. So sometimes it's best to just leave it to the experts, which you can now do better than ever with the day sponsor Cook Unity, the unique chef-to-you meal delivery service to get expertly crafted meals directly to your door weekly. Cook Unity is a culinary journey curated by over 70 talented chefs who are passionate about bringing gourmet dishes right to you. Imagine having award-winning chefs crafting a diverse array of globally inspired meals just for you and you don't even have to leave your home. With Cook Unity, you have the power to tailor your subscription to fit your lifestyle. Pause, skip weeks, or cancel anytime, it's all in your hands. Cook Unity offers seven dietary preferences including vegan, paleo, and gluten-free options. The menu is ever-changing, offering a symphony of flavors inspired by different cuisines. I've tried several meals now from their collection and they've all been a unique and tasty treat to have whenever I don't quite have enough energy to cook a full meal. In particular, I really enjoyed the beef bibimbap by Chef Choi in Seattle. Go to cookunity.com slash htme50 or click the link in the description below and use my code htme50 to get 50% off your first order of Cook Unity meals to try them out for yourself. The steps that we're going to do to transform the scythe blade into a sword is by straightening out this tang. This will be where our handle is connected to. And then this thick part back here that acts as a stop or cutting grasses is going to be flattened out and drawn out into another edge and doing that will help to straighten out the tip and give it a second cutting edge so that it can be used from both sides. Rather annoyingly it is continuing to remain bent but not only that is actually bending further. The reason for that is the thick spine of scythe blade as it's being drawn out into making an edge it's actually causing the steel to bend this way. Now how you would go about fixing that on a normal sword blade would be to work on the other side and so it would counteract it and keep it relatively straight. The problem with this is that the scythe blade already has a very thin edge on one side so I can't actually work it back and because of that thin edge not only can I not work it back but there is also a tear in the steel here going to become a bigger and bigger problem until I addressed it. We'll probably have to hand grind the edge back on here so that it's a little bit thicker and then maybe try and make the blade skinnier and then draw it back out from there. More work than I thought and more work than I've had on making swords in the past but I still think that it is doable even with all these setbacks. For historical purposes a lot of sword makers would not have had access to large vats of oil which would again be a very valuable commodity to use and so water historically would have been used. It is a little more aggressive when cooling the steel which can lead to problems but if you allow the steel to heat up and then cool slowly a few times before that in a process called annealing then it should in theory stop it from having any sort of stress fractures and make the blade perfectly usable. It's a little rigid but it's got some warping in it but that can be taken out in that tempering process. I can almost feel the noticeable difference from this half from the back half which is good we want that. Quick heating tempering process when we're done to make sure that the steel is not too brittle when we use it. Yeah it's a sword get it cleaned up on the grindstone do some hand filing get a handle on it and we can start hacking through stuff. So we have the completed size blade sword now and turned out surprisingly well. Very fun to hold. Very satisfying. There's some evidence that it came from a side. We still have some of the ridges that are still evident in there. Give it a little bit of a character. We got a pretty decent sword here I think and while working it it did get a little bit thin and our hilt came in a little heavier like two pounds so it is very back heavy. Overall I think it's turned out pretty good so give this a little bit of a swing and test it out killing a few objects. Just a little. You can see from this one that it's just cheering through the bone. So thanks again for watching. Thank you to all my supporters on Patreon. See you later. If you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe and check out other content we have covering a wide variety of topics. Also if you've enjoyed these series consider supporting us on Patreon. We are largely a fan-funded channel and depend on the support of our viewers in order to keep our series going. Thanks for watching.