There are a variety of patterns in damascus steel-making, each of which represents a different way of laying up the bars, and manipulating them afterward. Each step brings with it a unique opportunity to fail: if you work too slowly, things may oxidize and not weld cleanly anymore. If you work too fast, you may wind up with inclusions or a mis-aligned weld. Two bars the have been forge-welded together are now one bar; you can’t re-position things.
When I was making Jazzlet’s breadknife, [stderr] I originally spec’d it as quite a bit larger. This is how it came out.
Jazzlet’s knife is done.
Post vises are popular with blacksmiths because they can clamp incredibly strongly and the ajax-style threading allows them to be tightened quickly with one hand.
It’s probably a good thing that there are lots of regulatory hurdles that prevent someone from getting easy access to high explosive. The forms you need to fill out to get licensed as a blaster in Pennsylvania are pretty limited, there’s only one option for “why do you want to become a certified blaster?” and that’s “mining.”
[Warning: body mods]
I get a lot of stuff in the mail, because I’m always collecting components for various projects. Today I went to the post office and there was a large box that was very heavy. It didn’t make sense because I usually don’t order anything that’s going to be very heavy, for when I am away; if I’m away for more than a couple of days, my neighbor up the street collects my mail for me, and I don’t want to overload her.
I’m mad at myself for not thinking some things through that I should have seen coming a mile away.
Lately, I’ve been thinking of wrapped handles – especially after seeing some of the beautiful work kestrel does, and some of the Japanese-style wrappings on Michael Bell’s sword mountings. What’s something tough, beautiful, interesting, weather-proof?
I dragged myself through my door around 4:00pm yesterday. My connection from Minneapolis to Washington Dulles had mysteriously cancelled so Delta put me on a plane to Washington Reagan and generously suggested I take a taxi 30 miles between the airports. Naturally I was compensated with a $100 voucher to be spent on any future Delta flight I could not avoid having to be on.