Blades From Homemade Steel

[Darrell]

A guy fashions two knives from scratch, including making his own steel Japanese style. Interesting article with lots of pics. Found via Say Uncle:

http://www.themysteryworld.com/2011/02/ ... ut-of.html

[Combat Controller]

That was fascinating, thanks for sharing that.

[blackeagle603]

<a moment of awed, envious silence>

we are not worthy.jpg

Yes. I must allocate a spot for a forge.

[Darrell]

I saw some show on the tube where Japanese were making steel from scratch in traditional manner, similar to how it was done in the linked article above. They did it on a much larger scale, though, building the oven around the heaped iron and carbon, maintaining the firing process overnight, then tearing it down and retrieving the (very slaggy looking) steel a day or two later. It looked very inefficient, though one certainly couldn't argue with the results.

[Denis]

Wow. That was fantastic. The linked website is a deadly time-sink, though.

[gandalf23]

That is veryvery cool!