ianinsa Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 This seems an interesting idea, to my mind the body is merely a vessel so 'wth'. And I'm advocate of cremation. However there are many others who will think this use of human remains macabre or worse. Mexicans have nighttime parties in the graveyard every year yet Europeans avoid graveyards at night. Same religious beliefs yet differing cultural interpretations. The idea of using the ashes of beloved pets is great though. Just my $0.02 worth. Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheoRockNazz Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 I was confused by the grey appearance of the blades when I took them from the pipe. A quick wash revealed a bunch of small divots in the edge and bevel and little bit of flux-looking material - probably impurities from the calcium phosphate in the bone in the ash. When I ground them out the shape changed a little depending on the flaw size. I had left the edges 1mm thick, perhaps too thin and responsible for the numerous burns. Blades still need a lot of shaping, which I may save for after HT to avoid thinning any more and causing warping. I did a test etch on one revealing a darker edge material, which I take for higher carbon content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swords9023 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 I can think of no greater honor than to be crafted into a weapon that i've loved my whole life. This is a truly inspirational thing you've done. Kudos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheoRockNazz Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 Thank you Swords :) I misspoke earlier - the edge material is not darker; there was a dark border before the edge material (when I did those initial acid tests). There are three different hand sizes to contend with, so each handle is a little different. Zebrawood for my tall aunt, wenge for me mum , then there's some mysterywood (cedar?) and ebony for my uncle. The uncle was a tough one - he's a metalworker and tinkerer, and knows knives fairly well - so I gave him a little more to hold on to, and etched his blade more to reveal the "hamon" . My makers mark "N" I fear I imparted more carbon than intended. It was just a sixish hour soak in the back of the forge while I worked on other stuff, but the blanks were quite distorted when I removed them, impacting some of the final shapes. I of course made a fourth knife to break. I had heat treated like mid 10XX series, and was happy to see a nice grain, although it was an uncomfortably easy snap at a meager 15 degrees of bend. I'm still happy with the results. At some point I will forge similar works for my friend who passed away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vass654 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I don't mean to necro a post, but... Okay, so I do. This thread is the only place I can find on the internet with any kind of discussion on using ashes to make steel. I had a friend pass away recently and was able to get a hold of some of his remains for a project; a group of his friends and I are looking at making steel using his ashes as the carbon. We originally looked at sets of dice to be made (He was an avid tabletop RPG player) and haven't found a single company willing or able to use his ash for the steel. We found a smith that's willing to create dice out of aluminum, brass or copper with a small cavity to place the ash, but that's not quite what we're looking for. At this point, we're looking for a smith, or someone, that's willing to either use the ash to make blank steel billets, or finished product for us. Product being sets of dice, or just 20 sided ones, small trinkets, a few knives, maybe a longer blade or two depending. Not sure where to turn besides calling local smiths and just asking? Hopefully someone can point me in a direction? If I should have put this elsewhere, please let me know and I'll move it. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 you are not going to have any luck, Steel isnt made that way. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 No carbon in bone ash. If you know a glass lamp work artist you can have some embedded in the glass. I have a couple glass hearts with Buran's ashes in them, Buran was our first Great Pyrenees Mtn. dog. A good friend made them for us. Think glass or perhaps ceramic dice. Steel is a no go. Just because Theo used ashes or almost most anything as part of the process of bladesmithing doesn't mean it was a component it was part of the process. You need to have a handle on what's being talked about to even be able to ask good questions. This goes for any skilled craft, not just blacksmithing, what you think someone says isn't likely to be what they actually said. Eg. Upsetting isn't it? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Bone charcoal would be a source of carbon that could be use to make blister steel; but bone ash nope. Now cremation often leaves chunks of bone that are not fully ashed that are crushed and added to the "ashes". If you could get ahole of that before it's mixed you might have something to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vass654 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 (edited) Didn't think of glass, actually... We got stuck on metal. I'll have to pitch that idea to the group and see. All the replies to this has been very helpful though. Honestly, it doesn't have to be part of the process, we'd just like him to be in there somewhere. I'm sorry I'm ignorant on the finer points of blacksmithing, it is a topic I'm interested in though but haven't quite gotten around to going into the finer details. Thank you. Edit: Looks like we were not. In the pictures I have, it's all uniform powder... This all came up after he was already cremated when we wrongly figured ash was carbon, and thus could be used as carbon to make steel... Whoops. Edited January 18, 2016 by vass654 Replying to ThomasPowers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 might look at reliquary swords then. A wheel pommel could hold some even in a dagger size, get a couple of sapphire watch crystals for covers.... Some pyrex 6 sided glass dice with ashes inside could be neat; but might be loaded... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Don't apologize for not knowing the craft, nobody was born knowing this stuff. As Thomas says bone black would work to make steel but it's char, not ash. Ash is the mineral content that won't burn. I've seen ashes in resin castings, some classy some incredibly tacky. Now I wish I hadn't remembered one of those really REALLY tacky ones. I need brain bleach!! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I suppose you could incorporate it in resin and make handles, but it would take a good bit of experimentation to get "cremation micarta" to be aesthetically appealing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 8 hours ago, Nobody Special said: I suppose you could incorporate it in resin and make handles, but it would take a good bit of experimentation to get "cremation micarta" to be aesthetically appealing. Crematcarta? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheoRockNazz Posted January 19, 2016 Author Share Posted January 19, 2016 HA! Frosty you made me laugh out loud - spot on product name Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 6 hours ago, TheoRockNazz said: HA! Frosty you made me laugh out loud - spot on product name Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Quint- Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 I've tried throughout the day and I cannot get a reply to stick to Theos thread, so I'm giving this a shot. If it sticks, I'm sorry mods, maybe you can move it into Theos thread. I had a less spectacular, though similar idea recently. A good friend of mine passed away Jan 1 last year, he was part of a very tight crew of friends, within that crew there were a half dozen of us who have really stuck together over the years. We walked the tracks a lot. We rode the subways a lot, like back in the days when the subways looked like they did in The Warriors... He LOVED knives. He didn't have a great eye for quality, he was an artist, he just loved the concept and the designs. But anyway, that's all back story, we cremated him when he passed. I handled the funeral arrangements and held on to a significant amount of the cremains, part of which we are planning to use in a private ceremony for just the core of the crew, and part of which I intended to use to make a memorial gift for each of the inner circle guys. My plan was/is to make RR spike knives (an homage to our train history as well as his love of knives) but somewhere in the steel of the hilt, a small recess filled with some ashes and sealed in with some epoxy. Visible, like a little capsule set into the steel. As far as the legality of it all, I know this is an old thread and I'm sure you've worked that all out already Theo, but aside from scattering in a public place, you can do anything you like with cremated human remains. And I swear one of these days I'm going to get to your shop (it's me, Cliff)... the 3 or 4 miles away from me that you are has seemed like a vast desert lately, but I'll get there as long as the invite is still open! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Quade Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Man that is some interesting timing. Just the other day i told my wife that if i died i wanted this to be done with my ashes. Interesting to see it in practice. Sorry for the loss of your friend though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 I told my wife to grit the walk with mine next time it got icy; but they will probably spread them on the family land in the Arkansas hills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 This may be insensitive to some (BTW, I plan on being cremated, for the record). Just the other day on the news they reported that a funeral home caught fire and burned. I wonder if that would qualify for a free cremation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natenaaron Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 A friend of mine's son passed in a pretty bad way. After the cremation lots of his friends wanted ashes to be used tattoos. This sounded weird but apparently not out of the ordinary. I have also seen them cast into clear resin and a desk pen made from it. Too bad the images have disappeared from this thread. I would have liked to have seen them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Quint- Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 12 minutes ago, arkie said: This may be insensitive to some (BTW, I plan on being cremated, for the record). Just the other day on the news they reported that a funeral home caught fire and burned. I wonder if that would qualify for a free cremation? One night, a lady funeral director friend of mine who helps me out occasionally was doing a transfer for me. I got a panicked phone call from her a little while after giving her the job, "THE VAN IS ON FIRE!!!" she was screaming, I made sure she was ok, calmed her down and then asked her to PLEASE take the body out of the back lol. I heard nonstop "free cremation" jokes for quite some time after that! Also, until recently I used an extended Ford E350 as my main service vehicle. Thanks to all of the additional space in that tank, I was able to keep all sorts of emergency type stuff handy. One of those things being a 5 gallon gas can, which was normally hidden in the van, since it's not very classy to have a family see a gas can in the vehicle you're placing their loved one in.... One day I was unloading a body from my van at one of the funeral homes that I do work for and the gas can was in plain sight for whatever reason. The guy who came out to assist me saw the gas can. He said "do I even want to ask what that is for?" I said "yeah, I'm now offering free cremations right here in my van as part of a package deal". So, even after 25 years of enduring all of the tacky funeral jokes, I'm guilty myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheoRockNazz Posted January 20, 2016 Author Share Posted January 20, 2016 Cliff, get yo butt over here Too many good jokes goin on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 At least no one has stated an accidental coffee story. "Sugar only please, no cream" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vass654 Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 4 hours ago, natenaaron said: A friend of mine's son passed in a pretty bad way. After the cremation lots of his friends wanted ashes to be used tattoos. This sounded weird but apparently not out of the ordinary. I have also seen them cast into clear resin and a desk pen made from it. Too bad the images have disappeared from this thread. I would have liked to have seen them. That's actually what two of the group are doing... They are getting tattoos done in memorial. I see it, and may get a small 1d20 done on me still. Really would be easier if we weren't scattered to the four winds. Be kind of nice if someone started something on the side. We had a hell of a time trying to find anything beyond diamonds, shotgun pellets, or... That's really it. you guys have been a ton of help though and I thank you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 I"m not too fussy about what's done with my cremains I just don't want to go to a taxidermist. Before the accident when we had free money I told Deb if she wanted to do something special to donate a nice picnic table in a local park in my name. something reasonably permanent, granite would be nice but . . . Anyway, I wanted a simple inscription, donated by, blah, blah, blah, born, x died, x. "Have lunch on me." Then some night when nobody was looking dig a hole under it dump my ashes in and cover it up. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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