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If Your new to Bladesmithing


John Smith

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If your new to bladesmithing and or your thinking about doing Japanese Style Blades please feel free to hit me up, my shop is open to any one who want to come by and learn or just shoot the crap about blades.

 

I am located in Cascade MD so if your close enough please feel free to contact me or email me to set up a time to stop by.

 

Knowledge is power and I see a ton of up and coming smiths asking questions, well what better way to answer them, than to have you up to my shop to do some one on one work.

 

 

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John W Smith
www.smith-forge.org

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky. But Crom is your god, Crom and he lives in the earth. Once, giants lived in the Earth, Conan. And in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered. And the Earth shook. Fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters, but in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield. We who found it are just men. Not gods. Not giants. Just men. The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.

[Points to sword]

This you can trust

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Looks like you're only an hour and a half from me! Are you going to Fire & Brimstone at Baltimore Knife and Sword? Look under the events of interest page if you haven't seen it yet. I'll be there hopefully with my first sunobe for heat treat.

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My shop is always open, well on Saturdays it is open LOL and I plan on being at the Fire and Brimstone this year.

John W Smith
www.smith-forge.org

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky. But Crom is your god, Crom and he lives in the earth. Once, giants lived in the Earth, Conan. And in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered. And the Earth shook. Fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters, but in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield. We who found it are just men. Not gods. Not giants. Just men. The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.

[Points to sword]

This you can trust

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looking forward to any and all pilgrims who want to learn

John W Smith
www.smith-forge.org

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky. But Crom is your god, Crom and he lives in the earth. Once, giants lived in the Earth, Conan. And in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered. And the Earth shook. Fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters, but in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield. We who found it are just men. Not gods. Not giants. Just men. The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.

[Points to sword]

This you can trust

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well today was a great day forging with Jeff Fogleboch, he brought with him a deep desire to want to learn how to forge new sugata types, and he ended up forging a nice Hira-Zukuri Wakizshi, as I am sure he will post some images of it very soon.

 

We talk and laughed and he watched, and listened and applied this to his blade, I helped when asked or when I heard the hammer hitting wrong. Overall Jeff you did a fantastic job and I really want to see progress pictures of the wak before you bring it back for heat treating.

John W Smith
www.smith-forge.org

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky. But Crom is your god, Crom and he lives in the earth. Once, giants lived in the Earth, Conan. And in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered. And the Earth shook. Fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters, but in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield. We who found it are just men. Not gods. Not giants. Just men. The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.

[Points to sword]

This you can trust

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Thanks a lot John I had a fantastic time! Spent almost 9 hours there and I felt like it was only 5 minutes...and man do I need to strengthen my forearms! I learned a tremendous amount and learned to forge shinogi zukuri. Easily the most challenging thing I have ever done, but man is it gonna be cool when its done. Ill share some pictures of the blade here. I feel like this is the start of a great bladesmithing journey.

 

Here is the blade thus far. The blade length is around 19-20". So far I have forged the bevels, Straightened (to the best of my ability), pickled the scale, and started filing the Mune. its a lot of work...well worth it in my opinion.

IMG_8306.JPG

IMG_8308.JPG

IMG_8332.JPG

IMG_8333.JPG

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The blade looks fantastic, and you did a great job forging as with all things in life this one leave very little room for error. Like I stated earlier you can always take away from a blade, you just can't add back once you start filing.

John W Smith
www.smith-forge.org

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky. But Crom is your god, Crom and he lives in the earth. Once, giants lived in the Earth, Conan. And in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered. And the Earth shook. Fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters, but in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield. We who found it are just men. Not gods. Not giants. Just men. The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.

[Points to sword]

This you can trust

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That's how I started I wanted to understand steel first and foremost before I attempted any Japanese Style Blades. Then i started with several Tanto trying different steels and heat treat methods.

John W Smith
www.smith-forge.org

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky. But Crom is your god, Crom and he lives in the earth. Once, giants lived in the Earth, Conan. And in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered. And the Earth shook. Fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters, but in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield. We who found it are just men. Not gods. Not giants. Just men. The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.

[Points to sword]

This you can trust

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