Matthew Gregory
Chief Executive in charge of Entertainment
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2005
- Messages
- 6,673
Last night, I had a great opportunity to attend a presentation by Shawn Houston, aka Big Brown Bear aka
DeadboxHero
arranged by the American Society of Metals, and sponsored by Niagara Specialty Metals
nsm
The title of the talk was “The Real World Differences Between Particle Metallurgy Steels and Conventional Ingot Steels for Knives at the Edges"
Shawn is an eloquent and dynamic speaker, who commenced his presentation by outlining the importance of regimented and structured testing, utilizing a variety of standards including but not limited to BESS testing, mircoscopy, goniometer testing, and hardness testing. The scientific acumen and hygiene he displayed was thorough, and remarkable.
I especially appreciated some of the microscope imagery, and his metallography. It was his metallography that finally got me to reach out to him, as not only were some of them exceptional demonstrations of the microstructure of the representative materials, they were beautiful in an artistic sense. It’s a rare thing to have something that is not only technically illustrative but also aesthetically appealing. I would gladly hang an enlargement of his metallograph of Magnamax in my living room.
Of course, I’m a sucker for fine, hard carbides with nearly perfect distribution, so maybe it’s only beautiful to me.
Perhaps, for me, the microscope images of the edges of his test blades after the testing was the most telling. Truly obvious disparity from ‘real world’ use:
The evening closed with a brief Q&A, where Shawn continued to show the depth and breadth of his knowledge by answering some tricky questions on the fly, managing to keep the answers pertinent while cutting through to the meat of the topic. Tim Gelnett, Vice President of Niagara Specialty Metals, presented him with a plaque in appreciation of his efforts.
On a personal note, I got to meet Shawn in person for the first time, and found him gregarious and approachable. Definitely a driven young man with a great sense of humor, and aptly nicknamed. I also had the chance to catch up with some of the old guard from Niagara, had a good chat with former Crucible metallurgist and now Erasteel metallurgist Bob Skibitski, as well as a couple of the Erasteel reps. Overall an enjoyable and informative evening.
If the opportunity presents itself, I would strongly suggest attending any demonstration or presentation that Shawn offers.
DeadboxHero
arranged by the American Society of Metals, and sponsored by Niagara Specialty Metals
nsm
The title of the talk was “The Real World Differences Between Particle Metallurgy Steels and Conventional Ingot Steels for Knives at the Edges"
Shawn is an eloquent and dynamic speaker, who commenced his presentation by outlining the importance of regimented and structured testing, utilizing a variety of standards including but not limited to BESS testing, mircoscopy, goniometer testing, and hardness testing. The scientific acumen and hygiene he displayed was thorough, and remarkable.
I especially appreciated some of the microscope imagery, and his metallography. It was his metallography that finally got me to reach out to him, as not only were some of them exceptional demonstrations of the microstructure of the representative materials, they were beautiful in an artistic sense. It’s a rare thing to have something that is not only technically illustrative but also aesthetically appealing. I would gladly hang an enlargement of his metallograph of Magnamax in my living room.
Of course, I’m a sucker for fine, hard carbides with nearly perfect distribution, so maybe it’s only beautiful to me.
Perhaps, for me, the microscope images of the edges of his test blades after the testing was the most telling. Truly obvious disparity from ‘real world’ use:
The evening closed with a brief Q&A, where Shawn continued to show the depth and breadth of his knowledge by answering some tricky questions on the fly, managing to keep the answers pertinent while cutting through to the meat of the topic. Tim Gelnett, Vice President of Niagara Specialty Metals, presented him with a plaque in appreciation of his efforts.
On a personal note, I got to meet Shawn in person for the first time, and found him gregarious and approachable. Definitely a driven young man with a great sense of humor, and aptly nicknamed. I also had the chance to catch up with some of the old guard from Niagara, had a good chat with former Crucible metallurgist and now Erasteel metallurgist Bob Skibitski, as well as a couple of the Erasteel reps. Overall an enjoyable and informative evening.
If the opportunity presents itself, I would strongly suggest attending any demonstration or presentation that Shawn offers.
