Bryan Bondurant

Dave, Isn't Dons Mark an Apple Blossom? I was just looking and it seemed there were a couple versions. My suggestion would be as below, Mark or Katana in the center, just so we keep our history and a short to the point domain name. Also, you (Dave) and everyone of us work for free here, or more or less students of Don, nobody should take on any Don Fogg Legacy project for a profit. Any money made should support the forum, buy Don Fogg Knives for the Bladesmiths Museum in Arkansas, or give away hammers or something, not pay for my tea, coffee, and or beer. MHO Don Fogg Bladesmiths Forum bladesmithsforum.com PS, Don Fogg never took a dime and I, We, owe him everything, Don introduced me to Dr James Batson, corrected me on Arkansas Bowies, and Im from Arkansas, introduced me to Jerry Fisk, Arkansas Knife Makers, Uncle Als, Damascus, Crucible, Wootz, Amerasian, taught me how to build a forge, make an anvil, and did about everything but baptize me when I waded into and got dunked into a stump hole duck hunting in Bayou Meto Arkansas,,,,,,, My family was privileged to be there when Don was inducted into the ABS Hall Of Fame, to shake his hand, Arkansas Historic Museum, Little Rock Arkansas. OK, in case anyone is not getting it, Don Fogg is high on my list of important people and highest on my list of any and all designated knife men, designer, maker, buyer, seller, collector and or blade salivator.

OK, since I posted first, Im out in New Mexico, back to my roots as a young cowboy in Billy the Kid Country, just not young anymore. Im working on my first pair of spurs and learning engraving the GRS method. Mostly Im training cow dogs and raising some runner ducks. I have an old shed Im setting up a forge in, kind of an American Japanese style similar to what I had in Thailand, air blown side blast charcoal forge, stand up version, most likely a hand crank. Some will remember I sold my Sea Robin Anvil when I moved onto a sailboat in Key West, the Anvil and a bunch of tools went to a guy up in Ocala, hope he is still using them . If anyone has a large or double sided Sea Robin, I would interested, b.

Sorry if I came across all doom and gloom,,,,, For sure Don made the right choices with both of you guys to lead the forum, Alan and Dave. For sure none of the the original "young guns" are an old Don Fogg, but certainly we have a few younger, under 50 skilled Dons on here that if they live long enough, may catch up, and everyone contributes in their own way. We have a few Masters on here, not sure who is still posting. There is no way any bladesmith database will ever catch up with this forum or even come close, basically this was it, the very first, the best contributors, the most posts. Random thought,,,,,, we need a gear page for some shirts and hats and things. I would like to see a retro Don Fogg Bladesmiths Forum shirt and hat. I just paid like 25 bucks for an Oliver Saddle Shop t shirt for one of my kids, it would be cool to have a sweet t shirt with Dons Mark or a Tanto or something as a tribute to him.

More tidbits of steel travel, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions_of_Japan

Both dow rigged sailboats and crucible steel came from India and spread from there. Indians would sail into the the Red Sea and get the boats hijacked, eventually they were copied. My opinion, indians made crucible first, it went overland to Japan via China. While I was living in Asia there was a forge found in Malyasia close to the border of Thailand, that was probably the entry of steel into crossing the straights of Malaca then into Southern Philippines, from there into Northern Philippines. Basically there is nothing new under the sun, the oldest Wootz aka Crucible Steel, came from India, then went to Middle East, probably via Mongols. Some hate to hear it, but Japanese did not invent swords or sword making, they sure enough improved on it, perfected it by duplication before we could scientifically see inside the steel, but it came from Mongols first over land then by sea. There is a bunch of crazy unknown history there, just try to explain to FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) guy in Manilla all their steel and sword designs came from Southern Philippines aka Sulu Sultanate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turko-Mongol_sabers

I just read a thread on Japanese Stones and remembered trying to get some when I was living in Asia. I dug back into the back of the forum and read some old threads from as far back as 2003. The forum started off as part of Don Foggs website, got pretty big, and now still has a dedicated group but what happened to everyone else? Where the heck did they go? Reading back I saw names I had not seen in years, clicked a few and they have not posted in many years, a few I saw had last signed in more than 2 years ago. Its hard to believe anyone would dedicate themselves to learning how to make knives and then just stop. A few people have certainly retired or got caught up in dong art, but there were some heavy hitters, guys putting out lots of work, and now its like they fell off the internet. Maybe its just life,,,,, Some are plenty old enough to know Thomas Wolf, "You Cant Go Home" and probably reflected on that whole concept, I did back in the days of books, before the interwebs. I left the forum for a few years while sailing, maybe Im still trying to go home but home is not there anymore? There was man that inherited some of the best ranch land in Texas, thousands and thousands of acres on the Brazos River. He told me it was all going to change hands anyway and he had no interest in preserving it as a ranch or even working on it, in fact he leased it all out and lived in a hotel in Mexico City. There were pictures of 20 cowboys and hundreds and hundreds of cows on that place before it was even fenced, I still day dream about that land, being a young cowboy there, and fear for the future of the place, hate to think of it getting changed much more than it has already been changed, at least the rattlesnakes will always keep some of it for themselves. My kids keep letting me know Im getting old, still in my early fifties, maybe thats just what happens, you get old, people drift away, places change, I would still like to think that old members are still making knives somewhere. It would be cool to hear from some of the old members that have not posted in a while for whatever reason.

This subject has gone around a few times, for me its mostly a money and time issue, with up to 2000 grit paper available, and spray adhesives, one can get a bunch of stuff done. I lived in Asia for 8 years, so very influenced by that experience, highest regards to the artist there. At the moment Im learning engraving, with a GRS setup and thinking ways I can use that in an oriental way. Back in the early days of the forum, hardly anyone knew anything, thats why we came here, to tap into Don Foggs experience which he shared freely. People have come and gone, some are more collector or into personal blades than selling, but this forum has created more great bladesmiths than every other website combined and all the information is still there, especially the early day stuff, 2003 to 2010. I remembered looking into getting Japanese stones back then and found the old link,

Heres a blast from the past, 2003, from the early days of the Don Fogg Forum. Back then there was very little information about anything, just the coveted VHS tapes. For a time there was a great interest in traditional Japanese polishing, the mystery and secrets of it all.

Dave, Nordic Tugs are awesome boats,,,, great project and even better job on getting it done. Sorry we never crossed paths down in Florida, were out here in the middle of a ocean of grass now days, if you ever run out of beer,,,, I have some work for you, b.

Hard to believe how long this forum has been going, glad to see you are back. I have always read and looked, but not making any steel objects lately so not posting about that, but still reading and digging around old threads. I rebuilt my old saddle last year, making some leather for dogs and headstalls for horses.

Sweet,,,,,,

The accident happened on a clear day in decent wether, the flight was described as a maintenance flight. Most likely a repair was made to the aircraft and the accident actually happened during a test flight to prove the repair. It may be months before a full investigation is complete. Around the world we have American Heroes that are missing family and Military families missing Heroes as the loneliest day of the year for soldiers and military families comes again, December 25. May God Bless America and our Military Community this Christmas.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/12/10/funeral-arrangements-announced-for-3-killed-in-national-guard-helicopter-crash/

http://www.armyaircrews.com/blackhawk.html This link is to the definitive Blackhawk pilots, crew, and pax lost since the first prototype was lost in 1978.

WE LOST BROTHERS THIS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STAND UP FOR THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!