One of the things I love about science is that it proceeds not just by learning what is true, or what works – but by learning what is not true or what does not work. Naturally, we’d all rather make great leaps of understanding, but sometimes we can learn a bit, and push things in a good direction if we can handle a bit of failure.
Today, I advanced the art of blade-smithing a tiny bit by discovering another thing that does not quite work.
The last run of mokume was nearly a disaster. This time, it was nearly a cakewalk. For me, that’s the fun of doing crafts: figuring them out and getting better and understanding them more. And not hurting myself.
This is not a weapon (the weapons of war are unfortunate instruments) – it’s a Japanese-style box cutter, a “kiridashi.”
So far, everything I have tried to do, today, has failed. Everything. I’m afraid to even try to boil an egg for lunch.
Today when I went over to the shop there were signs of ninjas in the sand-tray.
We left the story (and the milling machine) sitting in the middle of the hallway, about 100 feet from the shop.
This is what I have on my workbench right now. I’m pretty pleased with how they came out because they’re all my metallurgy. There’s still plenty of time to ruin them, though.
Last Wednesday, knowing the milling machine move was coming up, I assembled a load of stuff-moving gear in the back of my truck: engine crane, crank cargo straps, tow straps, chains, variety of wrenches, 2×4 pieces, pipe pieces, and a first aid kit.
We humans can move very heavy things, using just our brains and simple tools. Or hydraulics. For everything else, there are hydraulics.
I’ve been very busy doing stuff that has to do with the forge, but none of which is forging.