Dan O'Connor

Thanks Alan. Here Ya go. Sons-in-law are the brisket makers. I just cut 'em and eat 'em. Need to work on a one draw slice cut like a sushi chef. IMG_6387[1].MOV

Hello All. I am finally back making knives,. In April, I sold my first knife in 30 years. Hard to believe. The pandemic got me off the road and looming retirement made me kick it in gear. I have been making blades over the past few years but they were mostly to test my clay coatings. At this stage in my life I have narrowed my scope-a lot. Japanese inspired with single bevel, urashi and hamon. The longer blades are trademarked as Texas BrisketSword™. Kind of a long story for another time. All W2. English Yew and Desert Ironwood handles Texas Oak stand

Surely you are joking Mr. Boggs!!! Brisket is king when it comes to bar b que in Texas. If you cannot smoke a brisket to perfection then you must turn in your Texas Man Card. (BTW-I cannot, but I let a designated champion, my son-in-law, submit my man card entries).

Thanks Alan. Will update it with better contact info.

That is correct Alan. More red than gray but yes.

A Around 1.5mm

More detailed view of the hamon

Ha! Warps like a snake-Multiple times! Warps when I normalize. Warps when I heat treat. Warps when I grind the hollow post heat treat. That is the beauty of the differential hardening and leaving a bit of meat all over to have room to tidy up. Just take it to my smooth, flat sawmakers anvil and carefully bang it straight each time with a 2lb polished and slightly crowned hammer.

Thanks Guys. I get so caught up in the tools, like the hammer I built, as well as the whys and what fors of bladesmithing/knifemaking, I forget to actually make stuff. Trying to change that. Spent a boatload of time experimenting with hamons.You should see some of the info on the forum. Some surprising revelations. Be prepared to back up your arguments to what I post. Disclaimer- a lot of it will reference the clays I developed, make and sell, but will most likely apply to whatever you are using now.

Thanks Dan. Not really that heavy. .190" at the tang and tapers a good bit and the hollow back takes out a goodly amount of weight. The 18" length was more to see if I could do it. 14" is a more manageable length.

I am not sure how it was I got away from this forum. Lots of travel with work, time on social media and spending the last couple of years developing anti-scale and hamon clay. Anyway, more back into making blades. The name for this is a bit tongue in cheek I admit. Kind of a hit with the local crowd. Composite picture of one knife/sword. Loosely based off of a type of Yanagi-ba. 18" blade W2 steel Single bevel Hollow back Saya-European yew and desert ironwood Hamon Oiled leather sheath for saya

Geez! I kinda skipped out on this thread. Maybe because I was waiting to have a definitive answer. I don’t know about definitive but more to add to the conversation. This is a redo of the small knife above. Polish to 1200 redline paper. Brush on 2% nitric acid. Polish off with 3M Trizact 3000 and 5000 paper. 3 times. BF23BF32-F54B-4837-AA15-CD9620645EB8.MOV

Citric acid etch and post etch polished seems to be dialed in. Still optimizing pre-etch polish. All NJSB W-2. Hamon1800 clay and Paragon furnace.

Clay based Anti Scale and Hamon Compound NoScale2000 and Hamon1800 NoScale good to 2000 degrees on all steels carbon or stainless. 16oz of either $30 Any two 16 oz 56$ $10 flat rate shipping in US for up to 4 jars Nuclayer.com