Thanks Toxicavenger
The bone that I have been using is in a clear plastic package witha cardboard top on it with its name on itand hung on the wall...I am not sure about the bone that you are talking about,but if the bone itself is solid then it should work fine.The reason they feel chalky is probably from the way they sterilize and clean it.I would get one and cut some scales out of it and then sand them smooth and seal them with something and then buff them off and see what they look like and how they feel,The ones that I have been getting arent but $2-$3 each so you wont be out much if you can't use them.The bone can be stabilized if you want to send it off and then I know that it will work fine.
Crayola,I just get a kick out of making something Beautiful out of a pile of nothing,It is fun to look a a bucket full of old shop stuff and tell someone that you are going to make some knives out of it and watch the look on there face.You would really be suprised to see just how much steel is in some of the tools that we use everyday,And when you think about it,most tools are made from a hardenable steel anyway or they wouldnt hold up.So I just start welding a piece of this and a piece of that on a piece of that then say well I wonder if that piece will weld on to these and so on,I do keep adding in little and big pieces of steel that I know what the make up is that way I am pretty well asured that I will have a hard blade when I quench it.When you think about it they made the wrought iron from pieces and the old Smiths would weld up there scraps to make different things so Why cant we,Who says that Damascus has to be X amount of 1 type of metal and X amount of another and they both have to be the same size and thickness to work.As long as you smooth the pieces together as you go and not leave any voids to cause cold shuts you can have allot of fun making Blades this way,You never know for sure what the pattern will be untill you are done.I always start people off that I am teaching to make Damascus by having them just weld 1 small piece onto a another longer (this becomes the handle)piece then keep doing this untill they get used to welding the two pieces together,I have found that if you can weld two pieces together then you can weld a stack of any number of layers since you will hit the stack the same as the two pieces and just as soft or firm as you would the two pieces.
But no lead into gold yet,I can take the lead to the scrap yard and they take it from me and give me some silver and or colored paper for it though
Sorry I got long winded here...
Bruce
------------------
Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society
