I strongly urge anyone interested in knifemaking to be at Indian George's for this event. George is a great guy, and he has a great set-up for doing just about anything related to knifemaking.
We can only go so far working alone in our own shops and hiding our "secrets." The hammer-in is precisely why the guys in places like Arkansas and Montana are so good--they all get together and share information! If you are thinking of saving a few hours and a few dollars, think again. One mistake on a knife or piece of damascus will cost you more hours, and one good knife will make you more dollars.
Since George was kind enough to have me over on Saturday, I will be able to do a sort of double damascus demo. We already brought one billet up to 57 layers, turned it 90 degrees, and flattened it, drew it out, cut it into three parts, rewelded it and drew it out into a billet. At the hammer-in we will continue working that billet to get a pattern called "crushed W's". From there we have a few choices as to where we want to go (laddered crushed W's, firestorm, or explosion, to name only the simplest). And of course I will simultaneously demo constructing a damascus billet from scratch and bring it up to around 300 layers.
We are thinking about donating the steel at the next New England knife show, or maybe even the one in NY on 11/1. With two billets we could leave one a bit oversize for the forgers and take the other one to George's surface grinder and make a nice billet (or two) for the stock removal guys. What do you think?
John
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