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Went scrolling way back in my feed and look what I found. An experiment with tempering back in 2013 or so. Yes that's a toaster. Turned out not being the most effective method... 🤔
Yesterday I sanded it all up, decided it needed rounded joints instead of flush, so did that and resanded it all again. Sometimes you gotta redo things two or three times. Not complaining, this stuff is a pleasure to work. So far I might even do Japanese-style takedown.
@jj_simon Sent me this blade along with his bladesmithsforum KITH (Knife in the hat -a knife exchange) entry. Finally getting around to fitting it up, with paper phenolic from @shinbudoweapons . Kind of a Japanesque look maybe?
Final editing, getting the website up, prepping for a giveaway... yep, I'm excited. 92 pages, 72,925 words. Almost done!
I went scrolling back in my feed to the dark corners of history and found my past daggers; you can likely tell in which order they were made. I find each rendition of the same style tends to be a huge improvement on the last, due both to the time and experience of in between projects, as well as what I learned in the previous rendition. It's also a huge advancer to list the flaws that you did in the previous one, and so can and will fix in the next one. So hey why not do that now? Bottom Left: I made this one about 2013 I think, went a good ways on the handle too. The flaws are off the charts but you will particularly notice that it isn't exactly intact, yet you can tell by the colors that it's supposed to be tempered. I'm not sure exactly why, but I believe my method was either torch tempering (with the forge), tempering in the kitchen oven for about ten minutes, or a third possibility: I heard someone say toaster oven for tempering, so somehow I ended up using a pop-up toaster, trying to judge by color. The grain size was actually okay if I remember right. Top left: this was a custom gift for a friend. I misspelled "Chloe" (I realized but didn't bother redoing), didn't do much in the way of hand sanding, not much in the way of fit despite not having a bolster or guard, and yes that's elmers craft glue for the little jewel (actually a garnet: I did a lot of silversmithing and stone cutting in my tweens so I had a collection). Top right: traded this one to a friend for a shirt of maile. My first ever successful hamon. I'm still proud of this actually. The guard was not a seamless fit by far, the tang wasn't the straightest and I would prefer more meat on it, and the entire piece isn't very straight. The silver inlay is segmented so there's a large seam. The keyhole could be better (a good amount of epoxy filler) but pretty darn good considering I had only a hand drill and files. Bottom right: Again a gift, and because it's so recent, I believe the flaws will become more apparent with time. The pins could have been more uniform, the ricasso shorter, the takedown tang a little meatier, fit here and there isn't the best, and the sheath could've been better
Honestly I just can't wait to see what it'll look like when the coppers got a full patina
And that's the cover done! Finally set a launch date: I'm releasing this E-book on November 8, Election Day. I could make some political jokes but I won't (yet). BUT, I'm giving updates, freebies, future articles (books maybe) and the like until AND after the book is released, which you can get by signing up in the link in my bio. Early tomorrow morning I'm sending out a free chapter, so subscribe now before it goes out! Thanks for all the support and help guys, I'm real excited!

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