Michael Stuart

Wow, my profile reminds me I joined here in June 2003! Many thanks to you Alan and everyone else here for keeping it so relevant and friendly for all this time. After another decade or two of hanging around here I might finally start to figure out this blade smithing stuff

It was a great event--I had a good time, ate well, and learned a lot!

Also a few shots of the cutting competition.

Here's pictures some I took, and a short clip of well coordinated striking. These are straight from the camera so let me know if I need to resize or otherwise reformat them. IMG_1551.mov

Here's a few more places: Metal supermarkets (Sunset off I-77) sells in small amounts but is not inexpensive https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/location/charlotte/ Foils in Harrisburg has scrap of various metals for sale https://www.foilsinc.com/New-Used-Steel.asp I've heard Howard Steel (near Uptown) is reasonable for mild steel but I haven't bought from them myself yet https://howardsteelinc.com/metal-and-services

That looks great! I decided to go ahead and order a gallon of actual heat treating oil that says it works for 1095, so we'll see how it works out.

I like how the blade pattern is echoed in the handle material. Nice work!

Any recommendations for heat treating wrought iron san mai with a 1095 core steel would be welcome. I'm not sure, for example, whether or how quickly any carbon diffusion might have occurred during forge welding. I don't have an oven so this likely will be done using a gas forge. I probably will have warm canola oil for the quench unless there's something else I should be using. I've got a couple seax blades ready up to this point in the process and am hoping not to mess them up. Thanks!

Campsite reserved, I'm looking forward to it!

Nice work! Round turned handles work, but I find if they are slightly flattened in the same plane as the top and bottom of the blade, it seems to make them a bit more comfortable in use.

Here's a thread where I sharpened the square teeth on my mom's antique bread knife; this tooth pattern works really well but I've not seen it in any modern bread knives.

It was an excellent event--you all nailed it! Next time I'll hope to be able to stay longer. I'd love to see smelting and/or hearth refining on the schedule, or even possibly something related to crucible steel.

I got this photo of the practice can chop on Saturday that didn't go quite as planned.

If it's annealed stock a Beverly shear might do the trick? A B2 is the go-to shear for the guys who make custom armor and the B3 is even beefier. https://www.elitemetaltools.com/manufacturers/beverly-shear

I like your interpretation of this style!