Mike Sheffield

Thanks! I'm pretty sure that is where I read the info was that thread. Thank you. The last post of Kevin's on the first page is what I seem to remember.

I was just having a conversation about why we only normalize three times. I know why I do it. My three descending cycles set me up to make nice hamons ( I use 1075, W-1, and W-2 steels 99.99999999% of the time). It also seems to make my grains very nice and fine when I work 80crv2. I am lazy, and I didn't have to change any settings on my HT oven for my normalization cycles when I want to change over to 80crv2. That's why I do it. The person I was discussing this with said there was no way to over normalize steel, you could do it as many as you wanted, and the steel would harden. The reason we don't do it any more than three is there was no point. After three times the steel gained no more benefits, because the grains were as fine as they could get. This made since to me, but I could have sworn that a long time ago I think it was Kevin Cashen (memory has become an issue after an incident) circa 2005, said that too many nomalizations can lead to it becoming difficult to harden. Of course in the discussion I had completely forgotten about alloy banding. Are there any charts I can look at regarding this normalization not hardening phenomenon? It has been crazy trying to find anything online.

I understand why we normalize, and I always thought that normalizing does reduce hardenability. The reduced hardenability would only be a factor if you over normalize. I was told I was wrong which is fine...but why? I can't find anything on the topic. Thanks everyone.

I second. Also scotch needs no vote. Already known to be a law of nature. Especially a nice single malt.

Had a sheltie named Toby. Lost him 4 years ago. He was my forge dog and pipe smoking buddy. Smart as hell. The chill one. We also had Brett the corgi. Well he was a corgi. Cute as hell (and he knew it), tons of personality, hard headed, and too smart for his own good. Lost him a year and a half ago. Wish I could find some pics for guys. They were good pups. Still are missed sorley.

There are several in the St. Louis that sale many types of high carbon steels.

I was going to buy some more 15n20 soon anyway. If I could get some in 1/4" That would be awesome! I love that stuff.

Sword is beautiful. Watching Roland teach online is what got me interested in I:33.

I just showed my 13 year old my a tape for the first time. He really had no idea. Then I started trying to explain 8 trac, and was looked at with a blank stare.

Three Days Grace, Starset, Nightwish is good. Ludwig van, Johann Sebastian, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsaknov, and of course Mozart are all great choices. The original rock stars!

Alan, I would hang that on my wall as art! It speaks to me and its aesthetics are very pleaseing.

If you don't want your sword to curve then make sure your spine and edge is the same temp going into the quench, and don't put something on the back of blade that will hold heat there. So don't use clay, and make sure you heat is even. I have trouble with all my sword attempts twisting and bending side to side. Never had one sabre unless I wanted it to.

I see what you did there. Badum tissComing out spectacularly. Very nice.

Do you sleep? Wow... I can't stairing at those daggers.

Saw that puppy on youtube. That is really cool. I like your leather work too.