chichi

Dancho, Thanks. keeping the heat up is quite a task. Not technical but requires your attention for several hours. Really beautiful work. Pardon my ignorance of geography but is Kiev Russia or Ukraine? I enjoy your work!

Can you show what the piece looks like when you start, or a few pictures showing how the shape progresses. Also, can you briefly describe the case hardening process. I understand the temperature must be maintained for many hours. Do you keep the piece in a clay pot with animal hooves or leather or ? Very beautiful work!

When a band saw blade is say brazed, I assume both ends are ground on the flat and then overlapped a little? Or, are they just butted edge to edge?

Knox, Where do you get your silver brazing rod. Can a regular brazing rod be used to join a saw blade ? I assume brazing requires too much heat?

Very beautiful. How are hawks on the snakes down under. I watched a tv program and I think it said the most deadly snake is a brown snake and it is common. Is this correct?

Great looking boy. Thumb on top or on the side? Horn to the left or?

Good for you. It looks like an interesting program!

Dancho, It seems to me your hammer would be better for manipulating the iron because a slight bend of the wrist causes a significant change in the angle at which the hammer face meets the iron. Hofi's hammer might be better for striking top tools and flattening because the relative closeness of the hammer face to the handle means a full face blow is more likely to occur. In any case, beautiful forgework! Have you posted a tutorial on your axe?

Ridgeway-I dont recall where I saw mark's video. FE-iron You make a nice spoon

You need to be in a different school. Your classmates obviously need a school for special needs. Who picks a fight with a 6'5" guy who can bench his weight because he participates in a physically demanding craft??

Dancho, Beautiful forged items. The hammer seems to be the opposite of the hammer made by the Israeli smith who is somewhat famous (cant think of his name). His hammers have mass close to the handle. I tried a similar hammer and liked it. From your description,this hammer design makes a lot of sense too even though it is so different. The American History Museum in New York had a display of the tools a smith used while travelling the Steppes of russia(found at an archaeological site in Russia). I dont recall the hammer shape but all he had was goat skin bellows, a small piece of iron for an anvil a hammer and a few other hand tools. That was sufficient to make the items and repairs needed by the people living in small rural villages that he visited. Very impressive! What is the purpose of the shape of the bottom edge of the axe blade? Did it have a purpose or was it just the result of the forging process?

I believe I saw a video of Mark Aspery making a simple spoon from 1/4 or 3/8. He made that scarf he demonstrates on the end, folded it back and welded the end effectively doubling the mass. A few strikes with the ball pein and he had a perfect spoon. I did the same and it worked perfectly. I bring this up so the newer smiths who need practice welding can do this for practice and end up with something useful. Good practice making the scarf and learning welding heat.

Greensngravy, I am near la crosse Wi. If you PM me, I can walk you thru damascus. Simple, but lots of pounding.

I believe Mark Aspery has a video on you tube or his site in which he uses a chisel (cape chisel) to square a hole. He is so good, it looks doable for a mere mortal.

I did the same element about 20 years ago. It was much harder than it looks. I made a simple trivet. I remember having an esp. hard time making the curved chisel . You did good!

Ric, You asked if I had a chemical analysis of the coal from Green Bay. I dont but you could call and get that info. If I had it, I would not know what it meant. Does the sulphur limit its use for smithing? As I said, it is not Pochahontas but it heats steel and is not smokey after it is heated. I have used coke for about 20 years and went to this coal because it was available and reasonably priced. I get done what I want and I am satisfied. Do you know of any other sources beside Centaur that has good coal in or near Wi.?

Scott, If you continue north to Green Bay there is a coal yard under the bridge next to the power plant that sells decent coal for $200 ton. It is not Pochahontas quality but I have welded hundreds if not thousands of times using this coal. It will teach you how to remove clinkers every hour.

Like all of the other comments, you are a creative genius. I also think there should be public acclaim for what you do. Fantastic!

Keith, Thanks for the info. I have heard a lot of gret things about Clay. You are lucky to have such talent in your family! Chichi

I missed the tooling. I thought he would have used some type of die for the rectangular tenon. If no tooling was used, very nice freehand work. It must take a lot of time to get the right dimesion.

Nice work in 15 minutes. Can you describe the process for us.

Please show the tooling you used for the tenons. very nice work.

I like this technique. Starting with pieces of the correct dimension saves a lot of pounding and the slitting , which is tricky, is eliminated. The old guys knew what they were doing,but, does this style of axe have any advantage over the modern western style axe?

Try to get to an experienced smith's shop and see how he/she gets sufficient heat to make the forging easier. If you took 200 heats, they were probably too cool to get the work done as you would like. It is a lot easier after you better manage the fire and take good heats. It will come. Keep pounding, and drinking beer.

I also like dividers and have made several. I dont bother to make them this fancy but you have done a sweet job on these. My hat is off to you.