Matthew Parkinson

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

Progress has been slow on this, I needed to set it aside to work on a commission, and progress on that has been slow. I cant remember ever being less productive, or at least it seems that way. any way I forced my self to make some progress on this today. I got the blade polished out the makers marks added, the pommel plates etched , the guard blued and polished and all the stones set in place. .. all I have left before I pass it back to Jordan is to fab the scabbard core, etch the blade, and set the plates in the pommel. MP

Thanks man , i was hoping to have this done , but needed to start working on paying projects as well as waiting on a new container of blueing solution. of course than i got side tracked by the 1 cubic inch challenge... I need to focus..MP

I did the machine polish on the blade it is not at 400 grit and ready to hand sand out, and I riveted the bezels inplace. moving forward.

Closer still, I got the grip wrapped , I got the bezel drilled for the rivet and blued the pommel and guard, It is a bit splotchy as my bluing solution is pretty old. I gave up trying to get it even and ordered a couple new containers, I'll redo the blueing on the guard and pommel once it comes in. I ended up evening up the guard a bit more. ... seems like that is a never ending task. symmetry is the bain of my existence ... My checklist to get this guy done, is finish polishing and etching the blade, etch the panels for the sides of the pommel, rivet the bezels in place on th

I decided I didn't like the bezels I had made, so I remade them the base is nickel silver and the bezel is sterling. with the new bezels set I finished the polish on the pommel as well as the two side plates. I am going to drill a few holes and rivet the new bezels in place. At that point I can etch the side panels and put it together.

More slow progress on this sword. I finalized the pommel and got it all polished out to 600 grit. that included a bunch of time with a #4 swiss cut file refinine the lines and getting everything even. I got the nut filled out polished hardened and repolished and got the final stone set. moving on to the side panels today, I am going get the polished and etched , then carefully set them in the silver bezels .. then cold blue the pommel .. at least that is the idea. MP PXL_20210104_181852849.mp4

I took a jewelry / silver smithing class a few years ago, majorly helped me with my technique. I haven't taught though. These are sort of non-traditional, the stones are set in bezels separately and then will be secured with epoxy, I under cut the edges of the steel and put small notches on the bezel where to make a mechanical bond. I have been doing them this way for a few reasons, in damascus or as in this case a blues steel. first it lets me finish out the steel parts without worry about scratching them it setting the stones. It also lets me sit the stones lower in that would