Kristopher Skelton

That was Bill the Beerman! He was my friend Jeremiah's uncle (http://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/Bill-Scott-1949-2007-Beerman-lifted-1232359.php) Aaaaaaannnd I would totally buy one of your red ales from Bill any day (or bum one from you at the house). COLD BEER!!

With the idea of Ford, Chevy, etc. in mind, Boeing makes almost none of its own pieces. They farm out the work to hundreds of small, medium and large shops in the Seattle area, and buy larger pieces from specialty manufacturers (GE and others). But we call it a Boeing 747. I guess I question I haven't asked when we talk about this topic is: has anyone asked about authorship? Or is this something you're thinking about because you're in the MS process? There's no need to tell the customer anything, really, but as we're folks who can be honest to a fault it may benefit the conscience to mention the sub-contractors. It may also be a benefit to the sub-contractor who might want the recognition. On a couple of the knives I sold/traded I said I would include a "starter sheath"- something that was functional (and really at the limit of my ability with my knowledge and skills) but not particularly attractive. That may be a way to go on sole-authorship pieces, with mention of the sheath maker included in those even-higher-end pieces.

Blake- there is a lot of information here, though from the standpoint of a semester/year project most of it will at best inform your understanding of some of the arguments you might see in the material you read. The following isn't meant to condescend, but rather is wisdom passed from one historian to another- sometimes grad students forget about the tools at their disposal, and often undergrads aren't aware of everything that is available. Become good friends with your college/university's research/reference librarian. If you have access to JSTOR and Ebsco (the letters are correct, the case may be wrong though) use every iteration of your keywords that you can think of, and search using the terms you're finding in the articles that seem to be of value. Read a few of the articles that don't seem like they fully address your question, they may yield tangents that lead you to good nuggets of info. Inter-Library Loan may help with your access to some of these rarer books- though you will likely only have access to them for a few days, so plan your schedule so you can maximize your research. The camera on your phone is a portable photocopier. If there is an archive on campus or within driving distance, get to know the catalog (hopefully online) as they may have some material that is of use. Befriend the gatekeeper at the front desk. Ask about the archive's policies regarding photographing and copying material. Most of my archive time was spent harvesting information that I then read through in my apartment or during office hours. Good hunting!

I've been away for a while but I'm very pleased to say that very similar conversations have been had since I joined this forum a little while ago It's inspiring and I hope that by this time next year I'll be done with grad school, and back to working hot metal. I may even have thought my way out of a corner or two and will be able to return the favor from so many here (too many to name for fear of accidentally leaving someone out!)

Road trip! Good luck with this endeavor.

Call me simple, but I like the zebra-stripe style of random/ladder pattern. And I like the rubbed knife better. Thanks for sharing this!

I think I like the new handle better than the original. Can't wait to see it when it's all done.

Mind=blown.... thanks for sharing these videos. No more complaining that I don't have this-or-that piece of equipment (except possibly a team of three strikers who were around before the first hammer ). The precision of the forging embarrasses me

Instead of posting a dozen photos about the event I thought I'd try linking to my Flickr stream, and see what happens: Spring 2011 tatara You can turn on "show info" for a little more about each picture. All photos were taken with an iPhone4 (not too shabby, and less to carry than my camera). The masterminds of this project are local smiths Tom Ferry and Dave Lisch, who had no trouble recruiting volunteers for building and operating the tatara. I believe this was their third attempt at making steel and this tatara yielded the largest bloom they've had so far. I was there for the initial firing on Friday to help dry the clay, but missed the first part of Saturday morning's smelt firing. The fuel was wood charcoal cut into small blocks, and the base material for the bloom was hematite. The estimated yield was 30-35# out of a full bag of blasting media, estimated at 60#. a 5 gallon bucket of charcoal and about 4# of hematite were added every 8 minutes for about 4 hours. They weren't able to cut the bloom, though they did manage to break the head off of the sledge in the last picture. Tomfoolery was had by all

This whole thread is bladesmithing gold!

I'm not the only one who read that in Ira Glass' voice- right? :\ Thanks for posting that, it's a unique perspective on personal progress (or seeming lack thereof). And it's a good reminder that I need to go back to some of the pipe forums I used to lurk

Nice work guys. I was impressed with how prominent the sword was in the movie- it got lots of screen time.

I'm a bit behind the curve here, I haven't been on in a while. I hope your surgery was a fantastic success. It's ok to hate the PTs, and screaming is mother's milk to them

It's based on Michal Chrichton, so we should be thankful the swords didn't glow, or have CGI snakes running down their lengths to mimic the poems I love 13th Warrior, flaws and all. The first 11 minutes of Conan will get me in the shop faster than anything, ready to heat treat my current project, or have a hot German former-model do some leather wrap on my handle... wait, that sounds bad :\ Beer might be better for forging, but it seems to affect my postings

Wow! That is a piece of craftsmanship. I initially thought it was a photoshop, but I'm much more impressed that it's freaking iron. I remove my hat, sir