Reaper.IWP

Sounds interesting, blade smithing has always been something I’ve enjoyed. I have had the luck of working on a solid range of blade types, from a Scottish Claymore to Japanese Blades (Katana, Wakizashi, & Tanto) plus a range of knives for different uses. I still don’t honestly believe I will master any of them in my lifetime, but doesn’t mean I won’t try! I will have to check this out, maybe it will have what’s needed for me to make at least one high quality Japanese set. I have trained in kendo, and Nito ryu the dual sword technique, and would like to make my own quality set. The weapon is extension of self, forging my own would be the best way to fully bond with that extension. I am new to the community so this may be something Everyone knows, but when I was learning in Japan the technique of strengthening the blade and creating the metal color variation. The use of extremely watered down fire mortar down the spine or mune, and than kinda drawing x shapes through it towards the blade side to create the tempered line once put back in the forge. Strengthens the blade and helps maintain its edge. Combined with setting up you cooling baths with a compass, to be lined up with magnetic north and south, Since the molecules are moving at an extremely fast speed when hot, the magnetic poles have a greater impact on them, so when they rapid cool they do so with a stronger result. Sorry, if this is nothing useful just wanted to increase site activity. OP: thanks for the info looking into book ASAP.

Thanks for all the tips, and glad I found the community.

I have been recently working on getting back to smithing, I started doing it when I was 12 a friends dad was a smithy & taught me. Continued through college, even when I did my final year abroad in Oxford & later with a blade-smith in Japan. So was pretty involved until my mid 20’s, unfortunately events around that time caused me to die on two separate occasions and the second had some time in a coma. I woke up and all my smithing gear was gone, and would have had to start from the beginning all over again to get going. For the following 6 years I wasn’t in living situation to rebuild a shop. I was too transient working as a millwright / industrial engineer. However, I’m now stationary, got married bought house, etc and haven’t gotten the idea of building a shop again out of my head. The major roadblock that I hit when looking was the cost, I had been really lucky in the past because of the relationships with the people I got to learn from. I used their shops for a lot of work in the beginning and they had gifted me gear later. Got my forge, anvil, a spectrum of tongs and hammers from my first master, and some specialized gear from those I worked with in Japan and Oxford. It wasn’t till later I found out the reality of paying for your own shop. I was looking into rail anvils and found this and was impressed at how functional and diverse it evolved as ideas where suggested. Previously, I heard that the rail metal wouldn’t be hard enough for any decent projects, and I lost some motivation. everyone here renewed my hope, so thanks and awesome work. look forward to getting more involved on the community, really glad I found it.