The 1999 Batson's Bladesmithing Symposium was an exciting event with a full roster of major craftsmen demonstrating all weekend. My focus was on working with Michael Bell, Japanese trained swordsmith from Oregon. This was Michael's first trip east and his appearance brought swordsmiths from all over to the event.
During the course of the weekend, Michael made an initial few welds on a billet of traditional steel. He had carburized electrolytic iron in a crucible and then broke up the resulting bloom into piece and arranged them on a paddle and welded into a solid bar.
Of particular interest was his use of straw ash and clay for flux. He was using regular hay which he burned, using the ash to coat the billet after it was drenched in a slurry of clay and water. It was firey, smokey and a lot of fun to watch. The clay slurry and the ash provided silica which melted to form the flux for the weld.
Michael also forged a katana from a bar of welded cable. He is a careful craftsman and did
a nice job of shaping the blade. Of interest to me was watching him forge in the mune on
the back of the blade. This was done as he straightened the blade. He would tip the blade
on the anvil so it would put in the characteristic roof to the mune.
As a final demonstration, he heat treated a cable katana. The blade was heated by passing it through the fire until he had a nice even heat over the whole blade, then he quenched in water. He used the one forge in the opening photo for the welding, forging and heat treating. I made it up in preparation for his visit and it worked very well. The plans for this forge are shown here.
I don't have many photos from the hammerin and am hoping that some of the participants will send some in to me for posting. There were so many fine demonstrators and things to see that it would be impossible to take it all in. This is a major event and a wonderful opportunity to learn about the craft. I would encourage you to come.
Home|Bookstore|Available|Feedback|Back