- Joined
- Sep 14, 2010
- Messages
- 288
Ed Marshal and myself were invited up to Dan Graves to learn to make some random welded billets. I was humbled to see Dans work up close and even more by how he welcomed both Ed and I and shared his vast knowledge as well as his shop. There is no doubt having spent the last two days with Dan and working the forge from 10-630 both days without lunch :grumpy: that it was time well spent.
Ed and I were the students and were beaming ear to ear so excited to working and learning but our enthusiasm paled in comparison to Dan's. The man has spent the last 15 years making billets and continues to do some at least once a week and still he was like a kid at Christmas! The look on our faces as we removed our billets, surface ground then etched them told it all. After that Dan presented me with a special billet so he said. He told me to do as I have been but focus on keeping the core centered. I knew then it was a billet of sai mai (sp) with a 120 layer 1080/15N20 outside that I had previously made and drawn out and Aldos 1084 core something I have been wanting to make for sometime. In the end I turned a 1"x6" billet into 1/4x1.75x12 with the 1084 core centered all the way!
Here are some pics from a few of the billets I made as well as a pic of Ed and Dan goofing off on my phone. I was so glad I got the phone back before they violated it as i suspect only Dan could lol! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy them as much as I do sharing them. I promise to get better pics soon.
This is a piece I made that will be the Tsuba on an upcoming project
240 layer billets
The rest of the 6 billets are 120 and have this patteren
Ed and I were the students and were beaming ear to ear so excited to working and learning but our enthusiasm paled in comparison to Dan's. The man has spent the last 15 years making billets and continues to do some at least once a week and still he was like a kid at Christmas! The look on our faces as we removed our billets, surface ground then etched them told it all. After that Dan presented me with a special billet so he said. He told me to do as I have been but focus on keeping the core centered. I knew then it was a billet of sai mai (sp) with a 120 layer 1080/15N20 outside that I had previously made and drawn out and Aldos 1084 core something I have been wanting to make for sometime. In the end I turned a 1"x6" billet into 1/4x1.75x12 with the 1084 core centered all the way!
Here are some pics from a few of the billets I made as well as a pic of Ed and Dan goofing off on my phone. I was so glad I got the phone back before they violated it as i suspect only Dan could lol! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy them as much as I do sharing them. I promise to get better pics soon.
This is a piece I made that will be the Tsuba on an upcoming project
240 layer billets
The rest of the 6 billets are 120 and have this patteren