Lugnut

I came accross this on a tech website and thought this might be interesting to some of you guys. http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2006/11/17/6011 It basicly talks about carbon nanotube's (a recently "discovered" tech that has some huge implications for the computer industry) being discovered in wootz and damascus steel blades. Some pattern theory in there as well

Thanks for the Welcomes everyone. John - I'm located in Arvada as well. I'd be interested in getting togather sometime to talk about some of the education you've found around the area.

I've been a member for a while and tend to be more of a lurker than a poster. I've been messing around teaching myself smithing for just under a year now. and enjoying it quite a bit. I've read quite few books on the subject but it's something else entirely to actualy do it! I've often found that it takes a few tries for me to get the result I want and it's ussually not doen the way any of the books explain it. Earlier this year I started looking for some classes to get some real teaching but unfortunatly the closest to me (Frances Whitikers forge in Carbondale) was filled up on perople this year. I'm already planning on getting into next years class though. So far I've made: An anvil hold down a few cut off hardys several smaller handheld punches/chisils lots of practice hooks! a set of 36 rose garden markers with hanging copper signs a Tomahawk a throwing knife a dear antlered letter opener I'm in this for the learning and really appriciate the blueprints posted on this site! John

I play a few video games so I'll throw in my two cents Something dealing with the hardening/tempering process for weapons could be done very neatly in a game. Once steel is hardened it has to be tempered to the desired hardness and on steel this can be observed through the running of colors (like a rainbow) Maybe an element of the game could involve having to quench the weapon at a certain point in the running of colors upon the item. The more accurate the quench time, the better the weapon. Perhaps different materials flow the colors quicker or slower, perhaps some secrets in the game could involve quenching certain weapon at certain colors to get special abilities. I'm sure one of the more experienced guys around here will correct me if I made and errors in trying to explain this process.