Excellent explanations Lin! I would have said pretty much the same things. As with many things in Bladesmithing, and especially forge work, I s...

All too often in my shop, the saying goes..... Some days you eat the bear.... and some days the bear eats you. By now "my" bear should be so fat th...

With the steps already suggested, Stabilized Maple burl should "pop"......although I have run across some that didn't, and I have to believe it was du...

I was one of those whom an individual attempted to sue. I had a local guy show up at my shop one morning, asking if I sharpened knives. He brought a...

The only untreaded wood I use is ironwood, or African blackwood. Advise please. African Blackwood is by far my favorite "natural" handle mat...

I almost mentioned Aldo in my post...and probably should have. I know how Aldo gets his steel "to order", so I would trust anything he offers. It's...

Joshua: I can't offer much experience with welding 1095 into a damascus billet.... I messed with it a few times, didn't like the results (the billets...

Personally, I always recommend 5160 for JS performance test blades. More people have passed the JS test with 5160 then another other steel. The cave...

As far as plunge lines go, most of them I grind now are very sharp and don't have much of a radius at all in them. What is the best practice to use wi...

I've tested 1" ceramic wool versus 2" in the same forge "shell". The results were surprising to me, but after researching my results I understood why...

They tell me not to mess with it getting stamped. I don't know how to respond to them honestly. I want my stamp, I have wanted it for many years just ...

In my opinion, the most important thing that a potential JS applicant can do is to get your presentation knives to as many MS for inspection WELL BEFO...

Although this is an older thread, it's good that it's come back to life for all the newer members who might not have seen it. A year or so ago ...

I agree with Matt... I don't make a lot of swords anymore, but did in the past. I found that an overly long forge is more a hindrance than a help. A...

Oh yeah.....I know all about the "new forge" blues. Once you get used to the forge, and get a bit more experience, start working on that grain stru...