Leaderboard

Howdy.. Well it has been an interesting last bit...took a bit of maneuvering , wheeling/dealing and being creative to stay afloat with minimal (if any) studio time but now that things have turned around and orders are once again coming in..I am BACK!! I did get some serious writing done on book IV as well as figure out how to get a bigger chuck of that wavy feather pattern I have been worklng on..here is the reult of one blade for the cover photo of book IV.. I am keeping this one for myself. 31" blade, double fullers, file worked spine..(wore out 3 files doing it..this steel is tough on files..that or the quality of files has taken a nose dive....) welded from 1095/meteoric iron mix and 1070..great contrast.. I am calling it the "Quetzalcoatl" pattern... hilted with steel fittings and copal grip panels...Using copal was a very unique adventure I will say that... boy that stuff had to get HOT to melt..smelled great though... All in all turned out OK if you ask me.. So..... I'M BACK!! JPH (now the real work starts..getting back into the swing as they say..)

The dimension you couldn't see in that picture was the 1/4" thickness. She was pretty well drawn out there. Did a little profile grinding today, and test etch.

Looks like two small knives instead of one big knife. Cut a V-notch right where that weld flaw is. Fish mouth weld the end shut.

I have made quite a few press dies out of just mild steel, with the exception of an eye punching die which is H13. So far, there has been no sign of wear other than a little bit of light surface texturing from the scale. I will say however that if you plan on using any sort of tooling in the press, have a hardened die that interacts with the tool or a sacrificial mild steel die that you won't mind getting marred by hard and/or cold tooling (punches, stop blocks, etc.) John

Here is another tool making video you might enjoy:

In the 18 years or so I've been on the forum, you're only the second person I've seen make shitodome, and your explanation and process pics are much more clear than the first guy some 17 years ago. And stop laughing, guys, it's pronounced something like "Sheeto-domeh," not what you're thinking.