Nice deal~!! Did you start with iron ore? Did you melt and pour raw cast
iron out and crack it into little chips to begin the laminating? Or did
the class start with lengths of tool steel bar stock? I learned the
"planing" operation as "shaving."

Adriaan Gerber wrote:
> Gentle Galoots,
>
> Short version: made and cracked a sword
>
> Long version:
>
> Last week I attended a class at the New England School of Metalwork.
> It was an Introduction to Japanese Swordmaking and we each forged out
> a complete sword and did the heat treatment. The class was given by
> Don Fogg who is a great teacher. Don posted some pictures here:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfogg/sets/72157608474758004/
>
> That's me:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfogg/2983498265/in/set-
> 72157608474758004/
>
> We started the class by forging a sen which is used as a hogging tool
> to get rid of lots of steel, fast. After adjusting the bevel to a
> steeper angle, mine started cutting nice curls, a revelation, you can
> plane steel! The next day we forged the sword and the day after we
> scraped and filed it flat. Then it was coated with clay, heated and
> quenched in water. Unfortunately the first two blades cracked, I was
> first. The rest of the blades survived after a small adjustment to the
> quench time. I actually attempted a quench twice and both times lost
> the tip of the blade, so now I have two small tip-shaped knives and a
> funny-looking small sword :>
>
> Even with the cracks, the class was fantastic and I highly recommend
> it=2E No affiliation, etc., etc..
>
> Adriaan
>
>
> "This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals,
> despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the
> stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate
> tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward
> the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any
> man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and
> with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in
> the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all
> you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss
> whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great
> poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the
> silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes
> and in every motion and joint of your body." - Preface to Leaves of
> Grass - Walt Whitman
>
>
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