The Secret Heat Treatment of Frank J. Richtig

Natlek said:
Well , if 99% from 8 billion like and use that crap from China and Pakistan .......is it still crap ? :)
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Most of the people I know that are really into cooking will be super proud of a knife that is something like the top henkel, shun. Maybe one in 20 is into Japanese knives or Japanese sharpening..
 
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Tom Lewis said:
Larrin, thanks for the information. I have been interested in Richtig's heat treating process for a long time.
On Bladesmith's Forum.com there is a page called "Old Masters". F.J. Richtig is listed and on the second page is some information provided by someone who calls himself "The Old Farmer". This person claims to have watched Richtig heat treat some knives. If you haven't read what he had to say you might find it interesting.
One thing I have never understood is how the back of his blades held up under hammer blows. The blade thickness on his knives was thin and it seems that repeated hammer blows would damage the back of the blade.
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Yeah I saw that, doesn't really say anything very specific.
 
DanF said:
You can only call it Vorpal if it goes snicker-snack.
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Just for the fun of it I will tell you guys what "snicker-snack" means.
While it is easy to think of it as the sound of a swinging blade, it is a type of knife.

In old dutch, the term was steken of snijden (thrust or cut). It referred to a heavy and large fighting knife. They had a standard edge and a sharpened clip or the spine sharpened about 1/3 the way back from the tip.
In Old English, snee was a tense of scnead (schneden), meaning to cast off, cut off, separate, or remove (shed).
That became in broad Scots snick-snee, or a snick-or-snee. Snick meant to stab or cut quickly (nick). Snee meant to slice off. The name was applied to the knife we call a dirk.
In the Ozarks in America ( Missouri and Arkansas, populated by Scots-Irish) the term snickersnee is what we call an Arkansas toothpick or Bowie knife.

Snack was a Scots term for a return cut (slice back?), usually using the sharpened clip/spine.

In Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, the verse is:
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

In Burns "Ode to a Haggis" the line goes:
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Translation"
Clap in his hearty fist a blade,
He'll make it whistle;
And legs, and arms, and heads will get cut off
Like the heads of thistles.
 
jdm61 said:
The "average American" would be very satisfied begin the flea market crap from China and Pakistan.
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They would, it would cut their vegetables and slice their bread just fine.

There is always a better flashlight, knife, watch, phone etc.

The reality is people do not need awesome stuff, but those of use who make awesome stuff are really lucky there are people who want it.
 
jdm61 said:
A lot more people drink MD 20/20 than Chateau Petrus, but the MD is still crap. :D
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It all kinda taste like crap until you are use to it, that is part of the fun :)
 
LOL. No, MD 20/20 only took one try for me at 17 and that was the purple version which seemed the least offensive.o_O Later, in life, I discovered that their were actually fortified wines like like port that didn't make you want to vomit on the first sip. :p
AVigil said:
It all kinda taste like crap until you are use to it, that is part of the fun :)
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jdm61 said:
LOL. No, MD 20/20 only took one try for me at 17 and that was the purple version which seemed the least offensive.o_O Later, in life, I discovered that their were actually fortified wines like like port that didn't make you want to vomit on the first sip. :p
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Oh even the best wines taste horrible to me.

I much prefer a good whiskey or a Guinness Stout
 
AVigil said:
Oh even the best wines taste horrible to me.

I much prefer a good whiskey or a Guinness Stout
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I’m definitely strongly in the camp of “if you have to acquire a taste for it, it tastes like crap and you shouldn’t eat/drink it”.
 
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