Undead

My workshop is finally back together, and I celebrated by finishing a little blade I forged months ago. Ni-mai low carbon-high carbon (A36 & 1095) higonokami fixed blade. It’s tiny and friendly.

I’m keeping this one because the weld is imperfect along the spine.

Small fixed blade higonokami

Nice to be back after so many months of writing.

A wee discovery

I do jewelry work on occasion, and I noticed that my #2 Nicholson pillar file is about kaput. Being Scottish (by ancestry), I went hunting on Ebay for a new one. I found someone selling Valtitan files for something other than an arm and a leg, so I got one.

Valtitan files are some of the hardest on the market, at 74 RC. They eat platinum and titanium for lunch. I am so glad I got one!

I just resurfaced my Chinese black waterstone with the file, and it performs so much better. I’ve also reset edges on knives with the file, and loved how well it performed.

Once the money side of my life is stable, I’ll be buying more of them. They’re way too useful, and I suspect they’ll last long enough to be worth the money (unless I use them on hard stones all the time, or HSS steel).

Hope you’re all well out there!

Proving that I still do things with metal

I realize I’ve not posted anything here in forever. I started on an Asian style kitchen knife, and I even have photographic proof! See!

Check out the new writing blog

Blood Soaked and Writing

Updating

I actually went out to the shop over the weekend and forged out a wee utility blade, using the massive hammer that my wife got me at Pennsic. I love that hammer, and I’ll love it even more when my arm adjusts to it.

Other than that, I’m writing quite a bit, posting it on my website, and publishing on Smashwords. If you’re a paranormal horror fan, check out “Blackest Shades” on my website. Sci-fi humor? That’s “Pon” on my site. My original “Blood Soaked & Contagious” storyline is being published on Smashwords, and the first three issues are available in a number of other places, too.

If you read it and like it, please let me know and tell your friends.

Next two issues

are up on Smashwords. The only metal that I’m currently messing with is an old silver coin that I’m flattening down to do repousse with, once my shop is back in order.

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/manscythe

Not metal related, but important!

Available at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/83992

HEY YOU GUYS!

I’m starting a craft link aggregation project on my other website. http://www.jamescrawfordcreative.com/index.php/metalcraft/79-crafts/96-craft-link-project

The historical blade

was not as significant as the Accountant’s family stories suggested. Mismatched fittings, an unsigned (but tamahagane) blade, and general deterioration seemed to indicate… well, not a whole lot.

The Universe puts you in front of things.

I may have the opportunity to examine a historically significant Nihonto tomorrow. The Accountant where I’m interning has a sword that his father (a General) brought back from Occupied Japan. The family story is that this Nihonto belonged to one of the important Japanese Admirals, but the Accountant doesn’t know anything more about it than that. The blade is engraved, and depending on the fittings of the sword, I might remove the handle and get a rubbing of the markings as well as the blade… Then I’m going to scan it and send it to a friend of mine in Japan for a little translation.

I don’t want to give the Accountant bad advice, whether or not this sword is historically significant.