Whiskey Barrel San Mai Auction Knife

There's so much to say about why I do this. Waste not. Tell a story. Preserve yesterday. Love people. Eat well. Build community. I can't really put my finger on one reason.  But, one thing remains the same, when the opportunity arises, I am always thrilled to have a new opportunity to give back to my community. In this case, I put my head together with Get Comfortable & United Way of Northeast Georgia to auction off a knife - benefiting those in need in the Athens community. To create this knife, I partnered with Creature Comforts Brewery, founders of the Get Comfortable campaign/organization and I wanted to honor their efforts - highlighting the positive change they are bringing to our area.  We are truly lucky to have Chris Herron (Creature Comforts CEO) in our ranks of local business owners. He's a force to be reckoned with and after hearing him speak at a recent My Athens Go Getters event, Lee and I were moved to take action. 

Ill let the photos below speak for themselves.  We acquired part of a damaged whiskey barrel that Creature Comforts was using to age a project brew - which included an iron strap/hoop which I used for the san mai cladding & two oak staves that I used for the handle. 

San mai is a Japanese laminated steel - the cladding is a softer, more malleable alloy, sometimes it's pure iron and many makers are using stainless steel. The point is that the cladding remains soft throughout the heat treating process and protects the very hard core steel, allowing you to harden the steel to a higher HRC without risk of cracking or breaking. It's a beautiful process that master bladesmith, Bill Burke, taught me about while in Idaho this past winter.

Check out the photos and be sure check out Creature Comforts' Get Comfortable campaign and United Way of North East Georgia.

old steel damascus san mai

Damascus/Random Pattern Welded Steel made using old saw blades: the lighter is a high nickel alloy bandsaw steel from central Georgia while the darker alloy is a mid carbon 10-series steel from a homestead sawmill, dating back over a century. The co…

Damascus/Random Pattern Welded Steel made using old saw blades: the lighter is a high nickel alloy bandsaw steel from central Georgia while the darker alloy is a mid carbon 10-series steel from a homestead sawmill, dating back over a century. The core steel is US made virgin 52100 with a pure nickel liner (the brightest line).

As part of my personal journey as a craftsperson, knife maker and artist, I have been chomping at the bit to push my creative boundaries in the new year. The reality is that I love what I do, but I must continue to grow through creative exploration. Perhaps that's why we have a newly renovated website, a shop addition in the works and a even a class (to attend) on the schedule for late/early February. 

I've always been intrigued by pattern welded steel - largely accepted as damascus steel - a process of combining multiple alloys &/or iron to create an improved homogeneous steel with better performance but more know for its display of a beautiful pattern.  Though, with so many amazing modern alloys available today, this process never completely made sense to me.  In modern times, it seems a purely aesthetic endeavor that puts a ton of demand on our most valuable resources - time, labor & fuel - and I just couldn't justify it!  However, after collecting countless saw blades over the past 6 years, it is time to figure out what to do with some of this excess steel. Even I have been known to even cull the library of steel from time to time as some retired lumber mill saw blades just aren't good for making skinny, hard cutting tools.  

Giving in to my creative itch, I've decided to experiment with making damascus / pattern welded steel out of the steel that isn't reserved for chefs knives. It seems to me like the perfect outlet for too much steel.

The revealed core along the edge on the right side of this chefs knife turned out very even. It means the thickness of the jacket steel (damascus) was even in terms of what I had to grind off for the geometry I was going for.

The revealed core along the edge on the right side of this chefs knife turned out very even. It means the thickness of the jacket steel (damascus) was even in terms of what I had to grind off for the geometry I was going for.

 

In addition to damascus, I've also had an urge to learn more about san mai, a Japanese lamination of steels - a jacket or cladding and a center, core steel. Usually, this is a very high carbon steel core that might be brittle on its own, sandwiched between two pieces of softer, stainless steel or pure iron that protects the core steel from damage and provides a soft metal to grind away when sharpening. Furthermore, the majority of the exposed surface on a san mai blade will be the jacket material and if this happens to be stainless steel - while you still need to prevent your cutting edge from rusting, you essentially have a lower maintenance knife.  As typical in all the Japanese traditions I know if, this is a sensible approach one can't really argue with. Everything about it makes sense - from the method of creation to the end user's experience, really get the best of the best - benefitting from multiple alloy's characteristics in a single knife. 

Because I'd like to start using the portion of my recycled steel that is non-perfect to making damascus and still make a high performance knife, I decided to laminate my pattern welded / damascus steel to a high performance cutlery steel, in this case, I chose virgin 52100. I feel satisfied by this approach - though labor intensive in my shop, entirely hammered and folded by hand with a 1500 gram hammer and an anvil, it's rewarding work with a natural beauty of its own. 

 

On the opposing side, there's a less even distribution of the jacket steel - higher and lower spots from the hand forging process (and my own shortcomings!) - create a variegated core reveal. Acceptable, but not desireable.

On the opposing side, there's a less even distribution of the jacket steel - higher and lower spots from the hand forging process (and my own shortcomings!) - create a variegated core reveal. Acceptable, but not desireable.

Stay tuned for more on damascus and san mai from Heartwood Forge this year!

best,
Will

the new heartwoodforge.com is here

We've been hard at work behind the scenes with some amazing artists and are excited to announce the launch of the new website! Hope Hilton was at the helm and did a thorough revamping - focused on the tiniest details to the most intimidating goals and overarching vision. A few of our favorites are the PROCESS GALLERY (w/ photos by both Rinne Allen and Kristin Karch) and the new revamped SHOP! 

We love being in the shop more than anything else and while having a fully functional website seems to be a real luxury, hopefully it will give us a few extra minutes in the shop each day so we can continue doing what we love most.

 

 

CLEAN OUR POND, YOU CARP.

in ,
 
 

For anyone who has lived near a body of water, you know the magic feeling of serenity and peace that come from them and the depth they add to any change of season. In the summer, it offers a cooling break. During a drought, it serves as a barometer of just how dry it is and serves as a supplement of life to a thirsty garden. In the winter, you get double the cold when it ices over and during storms, you get to watch the wind. It brings added color to life, but also an added responsibility and demand for respect. 

As part of living and working on a small rural homestead, our next project is to make the small pond more healthy, attractive and productive.  It had been neglected for a few years before we moved to the area and we're starting to work it out of the forgotten state and create a fishery that is also inviting for summer swims. The initial cleaning crew, six grass carp, just arrived recently and Lee, the dogs and I welcomed them to the neighborhood with a small parade across the dam.