Matthew Parkinson

I had a pro pic done of this one at bladeshow, just got the image back from Sharp By Coop, This one also won the ABS Moran award (best knife in the style of Bill Moran)

got the Pro pic back from sharp by coop, managed to get the pattern to pop way better than I could in pics

Great to see you back on here Dick!! I haven't had a chance to work on any others in this vein, I do have a bunch of ideas I drew out, that I plan to make. I think I can pull off a river scene with tree lined banks, and i have an idea for a lake flanked by mountains, I drew out and idea for Lilly pads as well .. that one I am less sure I can pull off. This one was really close to what I had in mind , a few things i want o do again, one thing the edge bar was just a little bit to dense I wanted a lot a chatoyance and it was so fine It muddied out a bit I think I'll also add

Fiebing's leather dye , Med Brown. trick is to sand back between coats up to 800 grit then use 0000 wool and several coats of oil. MP

Just finished this guy for my table at Blade show, 400 layer ladder pattern blade this some of the most chatoyant steel I have ever made, the video doesn't do it justice. Nickel silver guard, curly maple handle inlaid in silver in a pattern based of one of Bill Moran's knives . Knife is a full take down assembled with a twist pattern Damascus nut. MP PXL_20220519_172854535.mp4 PXL_20220519_173034584.mp4

long ago there was a guy on here names Dick Sexstone , he was the first guy I ever saw that would treat a knife as a canvas. He made a knife that wasn't just themed if was a picture, he had a technique he demoed at ashoken one year he called "die displaced damascus" that he used to make landscapes, in damascus. (among other things) the idea of patterning a picture is something that suck with me for a long time now. recently I saw Joshua Prince do a piece with a plug welded "moon", that gave me the idea to do a moon rise or sunset, I started playing around with this piece. (it took seve

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.adirondackfolkschool.org%2Fafs%2Findex.php%3Fm%3DCourse%26cid%3D1831%26fbclid%3DIwAR3C7wZShf1775F1n5bC_ZE5pRKh238N7V5DUW2ULCtCidbCyUQRPKssIgM&h=AT1JnQTwYAeZzn-uRmSU-Iibt37Rgv-bX4MDLJg1Cr71haHsMx_lA83vOVfRRb8HYsY-qisESJf5ylMcrXj2neTmYZuS0ynlDZ-eRlTy-4pvBjqgrwjq5O10gNSGx1kA5W3AHEgGWGAPq_zfYA&__tn__=-UK*F I have space left in this class at the Adirondack folk school in Lake Luzerne NY. coming up end of July. This is a great beginner to intermediate level class. Ill be covering a forging a flush choil blade, fitting a guard , fitting a

My first instinct was to dismiss this as sour grapes. How ever I have been saying many of the same things for years, I even wrote about it in my column. First I will say in hind sight I think FIF is a symptom not a cause. The rise and the slow death of most of the forums and then the rise of the facebook smithing groups in there place are just as much a cause as FIF and in fact are also a symptom. a little history as I remember it. I started on the early forums back in 96 or so. The rise of early forums like Anvil fire, CKD (latter Knifenet) swordforums Iforgeiron. in the beginni

demo video I did 6-7 years ago for NESM

Working in Coal I would use flux as well. Especially for odd shaped welds like hawk eyes. its is the consistent soak time at temp that is key to breaking down the scale, I don't know that i could do that in a coal forge with out burning up the work flux would shorten that soak time. in fact to long a soak when using flux and the flux will get full of crud and cause issues. MP

This may sound like it is going against the prevailing wisdom but I swear it is the truth. you don't need flux and you don't need to do any surface prep, for the last 5-6 years i have not used any flux for any Damascus work I have done, this is the method I use. For initial stack I just cut bars to length and weld the corners to hold everything in place on longer stacks I will run a bead down the middle. I don't prep any thing unless it has white paint (that can stop a weld flat). I weld in a gas forge running hot, the temp isn't super important hotter is better up to a point. yo

You didn't mention how you are judging the temps. For 1095 table salt works well it melts at 1474 degf. normalize three times right around this temp to reduce grain size, then quench from the temp the salt melts. heating slowly helps keep everything heating evenly turn the forge down and go slow. 1095 should be quenched in something like Parks 50, but In thin cross sections like a knife medium speed oils will work though you may get an auto hamon, in a pinch canola at heated to 125DegF or so should be fast enough for 1095.

don't worry I'll get coop to shoot this one as well .. figured you all would want to see the delay in working on this one. MP

And my work is complete on the sword, I also finished the wood core to the scabbard (forgot to get photo). I need to build a box and ship this up to Jordan to finish the scabbard. MP PXL_20210304_181116360.mp4 PXL_20210304_181154443.mp4 PXL_20210304_181223880.mp4

I has been some time since I had time to work on this I needed to finish this commission first, I ship it out to day so I was able to get back to work on this guy. I got the pommel finalized today and set the two bezels, at this point I still need to finish the scabbard core and etch the blade, then I'll pass the sword on to Jordan to finish. MP