JPH

Hello: Since I am still on desk duty I have been editing pics for book IV (I was told as long as I can do something sitting down and not stress anything I am OK) here are a couple more hamon shots...Being laid up like this sucks..I see the Dr again end of next week..hopefully it's good news... Anyway some interesting stuff going on in this blade... This is on my Kogarasu Maru that I did a few years back before I moved down to Florida. Shows interesting Hada... JPH

Alan.. I am not Polish..I am 1/2 Greek and 1/2 Kurd... Actually I cover that in the book..not hard to do just takes a LOT of time and patience..plus a good supply of band-aids.. Here's one with hiratsura.. same blade by the way.,..JPH

Or is it I wish I Hada Hamon? Since I am still somewhat hobbled due to my recent health dilemma..I am taking pics for book IV..so here's one from my Hamon/Yakiba section... Thought I would share. Pic really shows the Hada quite nicely and a good deal of activity along the shibuchi line as well..I am happy with the way this one came out.. JPH

Howdy: if you are really worried abouit the heat transfer...are you using a blower or a venturi? If a blower use stainless steel pipe..it withstands a lot more heat than black iron pipe. I use stainless in my crucible furnace burner..works quite well.. Venturi burners usually don't get all that hot.. A photo would be nice...just to clarify what you are asking.. JPH

Hello: Thank you all for the sentiments..It is appreciated. Yeah it's been rough and boy being laid up for that long took a huge bite out of the finances and things are really tight but we are still surviving. I have so many things laying on my bench that are in various stages of being done and well..not being able to do much really is frustrating beyond belief... however.. I have been able to get a bunch of writing done on book IV and that is progress..so not all was completely lost time wise. I really delved into the temperline/Hamon and the Japanese blades sections..I owe that to the late Bob Engnath as I have all our notes from when we were starting out doing that back in the early 1980s..we burned up a lot of steel and heard many... far too many "Tinks of Death".. as we called them.. He and I..and our wives... use to get into all sorts of mischief at knife shows.. I pitied the public that got caught between our tables..In other words we had a helluva lotta fun..Got thrown out of a few restaurants as well for our antics..Usually that was due to a lack of a sense of humor on the side of the restaurant's manager..I still miss that man. He was the greatest traditional scrimshander in the world when he was alive.. His work looked like a black and white photograph. He was THAT good... So...back to doing what I am ALLOWED to do.. JPH

Howdy: While my health problems laid me low I was able to (with a lot of help from my son) get two pieces done..It sucks cause I could do that in a day before this hit but be that as it may. The down time allowed me to get some serious text work done on book IV and that is good..so..here is one of the two..The other one will be listed for sale.. Crucible Damask...1.6%C, 0.0015% V and 0.002%Cr by weight. Blade length is 7 3/4" One piece of my "Fossilized Bovine Ivory" grip with phosphor bronze mounts and studs. Overall length 13 1/8" Didn't turn out half bad. My son did the melt (he was the brawn..) under my verbal instruction (I was the feeble brains) and well the puck turned out fantastic and the knife came out pretty good as well..He did all the heavy work ... and I did what I could do with my limited abilities at the time. all in all...not a bad reult. JPH

Howdy! The rumors of my demise are unfounded,,,I am still here to the chagrin of my enemies and the delight of my friends...what a ride we had..All started out with getting rear ended by a drunk driver...well that gave me some soft tissue damage in my neck, shoulders and upper back..No fun.. and as the weeks passed I couldn't feel my hands..I mean at all..Well the Drs at the VA did some x-rays and it seems that the impact of the accident moved some shell fragments that were in my neck and things went downhill from there..They were pressing right on my spinal cord and well several surgeries and infections later..I ended up being laid low and not being able to do much of anything for way too long. As Mr Baggins asked : "Don't adventures ever end"??. No heavy work..no real light work either at times while I was trying to beat the infections (that kept on coming back and that means another surgery and starting back at square one...)..and rest and not do any more damage. However..I am on my last few days on these new meds and they are kicking arse on the infection and I am now able to get back to work on a limited basis for now..Still no heavy lifting or hammer swinging yet...but in two/three weeks I should be able to get back into this hammer and tongs..FINALLY.. So all in all you will see my cantankerous self popping in from time to time... I'm BACK!! JPH

Hello!! Still gathering intel on he PayPal situation.. Update on Google Pay..my personal account is now active so I can now receive my royalty payments now problem there..The business account I am still waiting on he activation number to arrive USPS.. Costs are reasonable... 1.25%.. even if they were as high as my VISA/MC charges those fees come off my taxes as legit business expenses so.. I am still rather upset about this whole mess.. JPH

Alve: That is what is really getting under my skin..They allow all these others to take paypal and they shut me down?? 140K Plus folks selling swords?? and they nuke me?/ I am still rather upset about all of this and I am now gathering he information I need to see where I go from here.. In the mean time I did set up with google pay and after speaking with them they have no problem as long as what I sell is legal where I am located...My google pay for business will take a few more days though.. JPH

Hello: I forge them in and then do some clean up using a small drum sander 1/2" dia and sanding bands on my foredom flex shaft.. for smaller (narrower) ones I use files then papers around some round micarta to clean them out.. If I scrape them is the clean up is minimal if you are good at scraping..

GG: yeah, PayPal is a PITA at times but they did come in handy for my overseas suppliers when I ordered the horns from your part of the world..as well as rayskin and other exotic leathers.. UPDATE: (The hits keep on comin')..PayPal just shut down my wife's account (she had one for "house stuff" as well as getting paid for her sports column/articles ...she is a writer for professional wrestling..[there are several pro wrestlers that want to storm PayPal on our behalf and pile drive a few folks for real..] so she is in he same mess that I am..) and they shut down my son's PayPal and he has noting to do with this at all...and he still lives out west..!! This is starting to get funny when you look at it but I am still going to fight this...It is just not right... More as things progress.. JP (working to finish my water cooled furnace blower) H

Update: Well..it is official..I sell illegal and deadly weapons.. Yes all..I am 100% guilty of selling (gasp..) SWORDS!! Yes..that is is what got me shut down.. Apparently swords are illegal to sell as far as PayPal is concerned and there is no appeal of this decision..So I am taking the next step once I figure out who I call first. More as things progress... JP (still working on melting steel) H

Hello: I am sill waiting for some sort of reply from PayPal..they have 1 more day in their 3 day reply time..so they say. I am still very upset over this simply due to the fact that they won't even tell me what I sell that is prohibited. To make things even more interesting I do not or ever had any PayPal logos, shopping carts or their "Buy It Now" features on my site. All I did was mention that I accept PayPal on my "Payment options".. I am really working blind here.... If I hear anything I will let ya all know ASAP as to what transpired.. JP (back to working on getting a gas furnace hot enough to melt steel) H

JDWare: It was 100% legit cause when I called paypal they said it was closed due to me selling prohibited weapons.. but they would not tell me what was prohibited to them....so the fight continues... JPH

and it IS 100% legit cause 30 seconds after I read that I was on the horn to them and then they stonewalled me.. Niels: All I sell is hand made/hand forged items other than an occasional gemstone that I hand cut myself. That is it.I have no idea after some geeze 30 odd years of taking paypal (I signed up when they first started in what 1998ish?) they do this out of the blue and then they don't have the ba.... to at least tell me why?? Oh I am not done with this....no where near.. all ideas and suggestions are being considered here cause if they can do it to me..they can do the same others.. Mortem Tyrannis!! JPH