JPH

Hello: OK what you are asking is not something that can be answered simply..I mean what is YOUR idea as to what is "best"? There are so many variables as far as various aspects of swordsmithing and I can tell right off that you have NOT read the primers in this section.. Cause if you have you would realize that there is NO "Perfect" sword and there is no "Perfect" sword steel..there are trade offs as far as hardness vs toughness vs shock resistance vs durability.. There is a WHOLE LOTTA stuff going on in a sword blade that you HAVE to get "right" or else someone could get FUBAR'd.. I am more than willing to "help you out" with my limited knowledge..and all of that... but...since you mentioned it and as you said above that you "awe" people with your work .. I take that as a gauntlet thrown.,.. so since you threw the gauge.. well then "Awe" me in whatever way you prefer.. I have been doing this for a good 5 years or so (and a weee bit more..)so you can take what I say or leave it. Show me (and everyone else here) what you have done. In the mean time here is my Bonefides,,, JPH

Hope no one minds.. Those are not cold shuts..they are cold laps caused by the peining of the "tops" when you flattened..you should not of cut down that deep... HOWEVER there is a way to cut down that deep and that is to chamfer the "tops" a bit to compensate for the peining effect. That is what I do when I cut down past the radius.. This way you don't get the lap-overs that can be a PITA,,, Also..flatten at a welding heat..makes things a bunch easier if you ask me... Hope this helps.. JPH

Hello: I hate to be a pest but why did you put in the sori? Sori is usually the result of yaki-ire.. (hardening)..that is unless you plan on having a heap load of sori on this or are you using an oil quench (something I do NOT recommend to those starting out due to flame up dangers)... or are you not planning on a Hamon?? Then again what do I know about all of this stuff anyways?? Japanese blades sure ain't my strong suit that's for sure.... JPH

We use to use the same song I would play on the squawk box in our airborne ops back in the day "High Speed Dirt" (see the earth below...soon to make a crater..Blue Sky..Black Death... I'm off to meet my maker..) for some reason the only ones that found my taste in music amusing was my XO, SGM and myself.. has a great "beat" too it though.. JPH

Hello: No TiG..No can..just a technique that Cleston Sinyard and I stumbled upon way back in the late 1970's/early 1980's.. I usually weld it up to 420J or AEB-L... JPH

Hello: Hope this helps.. I have been forging 440C..154CM/ats34, 17/4-Ph and a few other SS for about 45 years now and it is a LOT of work. YOuy have to be totally attentive when working or you will regret it. 440C for some reason got a "bad name" in the knife world..why this is I do not know for certain..but when properly worked and the right HT is done.....EXCELLENT steel for short <10" blades... 440 C is a bugger cause it can air harden in thinner sections but I oil quench followed by a sub-zero in LiNi followed by three temper cycles and I get some GREAT performance from this steel. xxxxxx I even pattern weld with it and I do NOT use a can... however if you are just starting out..the best bet is to find someone who has been doing this and have them walk you though a half dozen or so pieces... Just work slow and take a lot of notes and ask questions.. JPH

Steve...mix your own....if you need the proportions let me know,,,it;'s a two chem mix.. JPH

Not a mistake..it's a DESIGN CHANGE..yeah..that's it..a design change...

Hello: Something my mentor Herr Hauffmann said some 50 years ago.."All men make mistakes..a master craftsman makes it look like it is suppose to be there"...There are ways to cover cosmetic things in a way that they will not be seen, such as hammer tone/marked piened finish or even checkering or file work...get creative... JPH

4140 usually with stellite chambers and throats (usually) some are Cr lined..some are not...

couple hundred mile drive from someone who'd done it? Not hardly..that is if you are up where I think you may be... JPH

Hello: Here is a teaser pic on some of the other pieces in that batch.. These are bacon and beans pieces for the website... Coco-Bolo and phosphor bronze and PW blades.. JPH

Here's a little guy that I whipped up out of some leftover bench scraps I had laying about from "paid order" projects as well as bacon and beans stuff.....figured I might as well use them for something useful ...so I put this one in with this last batch of 25 or so PW blades that I started about two weeks ago and that I am just now finishing..(will post pics of those these next few days as I get them done. I mean why waste the materials..?? The pieces aren't that big...But I managed to cobble this together... Blade is 1095 Electrite with a 1095/meteoric iron mix..etched up a bit rough but that dang meteorite does that usually... had that little stubbins left over from a larger dagger I did some 5-6 months ago...forged this out of it..didn't turn put all that bad Blade is 4 5/8" long... some phosphor bronze bits for the bolster and pommel plates..some scrap waterboo horn for spacers and a short piece of stag for the grip...(needed the horn to get a usable grip length..) OAL is 8 1/2".. Didn't turn out half bad for a leftover blade made by an old Dog Face from a bunch of bench scraps I had laying about.. Back to finishing up the rest of this bunch... JPH

How many swords have I made so far?? Humm I'd have to say a good 5 dozen at least....and then a bit more... And for the record..I am always puttering around cause I have at least three or four blades going at different stages at any given time..right now I am working on around 20 or so...mostly site stock..my "bacon and beans" stuff..maybe even some cornbread if these turn out decently... JPH

Buzz: I have been doing this for like a little while now ( 5 years plus a bit..) and I think I have it more or less figured out as far as my own working rhythm goes so my puttering is a bit more efficient than most folks.. Brother Thomas: The move to Florida has delayed the finishing of book IV..I am about 90% done with the text..still need a graphics guy and a photographer.. Well back to profiling and then heat treating....in 114 degree heat..I can just lay them outside...flip them over once and the quench..saves on LPG KBO all JPH

Hello: Here is the product for the last week...5 PW swords in wood, bone and bronze. Blades are a mix of 1095/meteoric iron with enough WI to help refine the meteoric iron to a usable material .. Grips are mounted in phosphor bronze with Coco-Bolo, African Blackwood or Bovine ivory. Not too bad for a old forge rat just puttering about. Website stock ..gotta keep the beans and bacon around..folks gotta eat. That fancy guard on the centre sword was a real BEAR to get forged right...ruined 3 pieces trying to forge it out. 4th one worked.. Blade lengths are in the 19" to 22" range..Forged in fullers on the 4 blades that have them... JPH

The reason why I am saying this is a weld shear is the fact that the "cracks" extend around the edge and through to the other side of the blade more of less following a lamination.... At least that it what it looks like from the photo. If I could see it first had I would be able to tell for sure but going off of the photos that is what it looks like to me. The thinner the cross section the faster you loose heat and you can easily get weld shears once the temp drops and you start to "push" it.. For the record..when I do any of my SM patterns I usually use an angle grinder..it is a lot faster and offers a good deal of control as you can vary the depth of the cut., Nothing wrong with using one.. JPH

Hello: Hope no one minds... I have a couple years and a bit's worth of experience doing this sorta thing but they do not look like cracks to me...at least not the ones on the bevels..what they look like is either cold shuts or weld shearing..both of which is due to improper working temps. I have found that if you work these two steels at a near welding heat you will prevent the weld shearing problems..just make sure you normalize properly afterwards due to grain growth concerns... Hope this helps JPH

hello...hope no one minds... did you anneal the pins before you used them? Also did you slightly countersink the pin hole before you placed them? The annealing will allow for a "smoother" pein over with less breaking/splitting/chipping and the counter sink will give some "room" for the brass to "move into" thereby making for a bit more of a secure grip on things... hope this helps.. jph

Like I said..I was raised around the Amish..in fact my mentor..Herr Hauffmann was where I picked alot of it up but the Amish speak a whole Gamut of various German dialects as do the Mennonites as well...but the latter tend to be a bit more "modern" than the former language wise. They call it "Pennsylvania German" or Hinterwaldler Deutsch...I can still hold my own in a conversation but it does get interesting at times..... My Greek and Kurdish are much better than my German or Vietnamese...but what the heck.. Thomas...your eyes are better than mine and I had my glasses on!! JPH

Ok I speak and read a good bit of Old German..bneing I was raised around a whole lot of Amish The intro says..more or less: " The New York Custom Knife show is always worth the trip. Here are the Highlights"... I can not read the text... JPH How did you get that Coop guy to answer you to take pics..I have been trying for years to get him to take a photo of a coupe of my pieces and I never get an answer...

OK what I get hot about is when someone says that their entire family for 7 generations back were blacksmiths..like somehow that means something..and then never picked up a hammer before and they expect to know it all already. No one is born knowing this stuff .. I know I sure wasn't For the record in my field I am known as old, ugly, cranky and I scratch where it itches... JPH

ok now you dun dood it..I gots to make a rebar axe..all you own fault Steve...once RPFS is done...you'll see...

Frosty..when I cook beans..I cook beans..they will either cure what ails ya or kill ya..either way..they do the job... I was a bit concerned about the "overall" on this one..but everything worked out ,,,still it's a nasty bugger...I should of started on the sheath today but the War Department said she wanted slow roasted shortribs for supper so that took precedence over sheathwork...still I managed to get a couple of the last Japanese siyas lacquered and the grips ready for wrapping while the ribs were smoking...and we had laser beans along with them thar ribs..pig on a plate..!! JPH