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Didn't know where to post this so I figured here in the main forum should work. http://www.glbg.us/ There are going to be some great demonstrators there to learn from, some of the best in our craft, it'll be well worth the trip to Michigan to attend. I'll be there, turning dirt into...

There seems to be alot of talk lately about "slag inclusions" or metal having a "grain" direction. In a comercial steel, this is probably unlikely. It is something else that someone is seeing, while I can't comment on what exactly it is, I can almost certainly guarantee that it isn't slag. I...

Been building alot of tools lately, trying to get enough stuff around to make my life a bit easier. Being as I've got a wife and 3 daughters, I've got very little fun money to just go buy stuff, so I save scrap and scrounge around to find useful stuff that can be used. First up is a heat...

I've been working on this on and off for a while as a gift for Christmas. The blade was forged from a mix of W1, 1095, and 15n20, in a low layer W's pattern and drawn out width wise instead of length wise, if that makes sense. The handle material is a black micarta bolster, and some stabilized...

I've been prepping for my 4th smelt for the past week and this morning I got up and started to smelt :) A few details about the smelt, I used about 45 pounds of crushed taconite pellets and crushed up bloomery bits. I used a new blower for this smelt, an industrial vacuum cleaner motor. It's a...

I started a few days ago to start processing up the bloom from my last smelt, and in doing so I started to make a bar that I wanted to turn into a contenental style seax (spear point) I had some iron from my last smelt from magnetite and some very high carbon steel and cast from running some of...

I just updated my website with a bit of my journey into smelting ( http://clevercrowforge.weebly.com/steel-making.html ) I've only been smelting for a little while and I'm pretty hooked on doing it. I'm planing on doing a couple more smelts before the snow flies around here. There's nothing...

I've been tinkering around with some feather patterns. I'm using Aldo's 1095 and 15n20 starting with 18 layers and the 15n20 doubled up. The first one came out ok, but when drawing it out after the last weld, it got cocked a bit and the pattern was different from side to side. I still finished...

I've been working on this for a little while. It started out as a chainsaw chain and a few small files. Once I got the initial billet welded up, I trippled it 4 more times to give it a finer pattern. The handle wrap is done with a black leather strip. Today I finally got around to hardening and...

Today I tried out my new little press to see if I could make damascus. I've used a hammer before to do it, but never a press. We're a Stihl chainsaw dealer where I work so, I've got chains up the kazoo. All in all I'm pretty happy, still lots of practicing to do, but here's a short video I took...

In real life I'm an auto mechanic, I know lots of folks who are collectors of "stuff" It may just be part of the mechanic's life to collect stuff that most folks would throw away. In my travels today I was at the shop across the street, which is an ag equipment dealer. I sometimes spend some of...

It's been a while since I've melted metal, so tonight I decided to melt up some for a bolster on a knife I'm working on. I had been reading on shibuichi, which is an alloy of copper and silver, and I wanted to give it a try. I've got some silver and copper squirreled away for the real stuff, but...

I'm wondering what kind of steel to use for the liner in a liner lock? Should I pony up and buy the titanium, or will plain old carbon steel work? I assume that it should have a spring temper? Thanks Zeb

Not that I don't have alot of other irons in the fire, but I've been wanting to make a liner lock folder. The wife's been gone for the past couple days and the kids have been with me, so no garage time, but lots of craft time :) while the girls cut up straws and paper to glue together I decided...

Howdy everyone! I've lurked here for a while and I'd figure I'd introduce myself. I've been working with metal one way or another since I was pretty young, when I tired of playing on the swingset, dad let me practice using the cutting torch to cut it up, I may have been maybe 8 years old :) I'm...