Hello!! I have no idea as to what he means it is "faster" but if the good Dr says it is faster then it is. I do know from observing him that while the pieces are heating he is off doing something else like filing or drilling, goes back to the forge when the pieces are hot and does whatever he needs ...

Hello!! On the coal vs Propane and Dr. H..I pop in over to his place on a more or less regular basis, even more so now that he is having such a rough patch but anyway... He works in propane, but from what he says he truly loved a coal forge but the county won't let him use coal. He really misses it,...

Hello: Damn I hate to see this happen but as someone who is on the "oustide looking in" as they say I can fully understand the frustration and anger. Still it is sad to watch, no, it isheartbreaking.... OK a word of advice here, Mr. Zicker is NOT in Las Vegas, he is in Henderson. Henderson is a diff...

Hello: Well I am afraid that I have some not so good news. I talked with Jim H. and he said there is really nothing he can do, as.... well ...as he put it "I have nothing to do with Mr Zicker outside of the fact that I bought all his spring steel sheet a couple of months ago".. Jim basically does NO...

Hello All: I know this isn't what ya all want to hear but I know for a fact that my dear friend Jim H. bought all of his spring steel sheet and he (Jim) is currently welding that up into knife and sword blades so apparently Ken Z is "out of the business" as they say as far as the spring steel stuff ...

Hello:

Hope no one minds....you might want to tryJim at Salamander Armoury..he has been making a lot of dies for his presses, some of which are punching dies...

he can be reached at

Jim@atar.com

Hope this helps.

Vegas Vic

Montecristo: Between the shape of the bone and the studs on the grip it's a very "solid" grip feel. Just "sits" well in the hand. All in all it's a beautiful piece made by one of the world's best smiths.... I pop over to Jim's about once a week or so, plus I see him at Drill as well and it always se...

Here's a close up of the blade pattern. The little black "dots" as oxidation that I didn't clean off prior to the photo.. A little semi-chrome and some Ballistol (Jim swears by that stuff ...) tooks care of that "problem".. All in all I love it..it's a very "dramatic" piece and the photos don't do i...

Here's a close up of the bone grip/hilt. It's natural bone (as I understand it he "stabilized" it under a vacuum using industrial cyanoacryalte..so it won't crack..) with bronze studs and mounts.
Vic

Hello!! I was over at Jim's the other day and he was finishing this up and I just had to get it...he gave me a killer deal on it too!! Here's a pic...OK I am not a photographer by any means but it'll give you a good idea as to what it is... 15" blade, two core twist/counter twist with shear steel ed...

Hello: If you want one that is welded with all those layered rods and all, be prepared to spend some serious money. If this is what you want, then get in touch with Dr JP Hrisoulas at Jim@atar.com . From what I understand he wrote his Doctoral thesis on pattern welding techniques of "Dark Age" europ...

Hello from the wilds of Las Vegas!! went over to Jim's the other day and played with something I never though he made..a couple of thwoing axes/tomahawks. He said these are two piece axes, soft iron body and tool steel edges. Slow rust browning that he said is a very old finish. Mentioned something ...

Hello again.. Just got back from Jim's. He is making dies for this press..was really interesting as to how he made a "rib" die.. I didn't really think you could do it that way but I learned something. All he did was heat up the die steel till it was orange, placed in into the press, put a blade "mas...

Hello: Just got back from Jim's...I took a quick photo of the press. I hope you all can make it out ok..my photography skills are minimal at best (if at all) but this should give the general idea as to what I was talking about. I think it would do a very good job of pressing out armour parts, as lon...

This is what I am thinking..He showed me how the dies just slide in on a 10" square plate that's like 5/8" thick..Both the upper and lower dies are arranged this way. I don't think it would be that difficult to make dies (well at least not for him anyway) that would do what was needed for this.. I a...

Hello: I was over at my mentor's yesterday and he finally finished that hydraulic press he has been working on for I don't know how long. It is a monster. 84 tons. He said he can now fuller blades, do center ribs and a whole lot of other stuff in like 1/10th the time. I watched him put in a piece of...

Hello: I know this is an odd request but does anyone know where I can get like 3 square yards of riveted mail plus about an extra 5000 of the same size rings/rivets? I need this for a project I am working on. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am in a bit of a time crunch here so... Thanks all...

Hello: Yeah Dr. Jim really has this stuff down as far as patterning goes. He's not one for all this high tech powdered metallurgy that is getting more popular, he is more of a traditionalist when it comes to welding. In fact I think his 5th book is about techniques employed in Dark Age Europe in mak...

Hello: Yeah, that's what I said when I first saw this one. Jim really knows how to do this stuff, I think he can do it in his sleep. I am planning on dropping over there this weekend after the Parade and seeing what he's got cooking..Maybe get another photo or three of some new stuff if anything.......

Here's another sword blade section that Jim did...this is what he calls a "classic" composite pattern in what he calls a "snake" pattern.

Materials are 1095, meteoric iron, wrought iron and shear steel for the edge.

Figured I'd share.

Vic

Hello: Spoke with the Colonel Sunday for a few moments after morning annoucements and he said he has two coming out, one of general subjects which will be out when it is out, as he says that is up to the publisher and the second one is on pattern welding techniques of Dark Age Europe, which he is fi...

Jamie:

I will be seeing him this weekend as we have Drill. If I remember I will ask.

Vic

Hello: I have a copy of said book in front of me...in regards to: <I think it was mentioned in his book about edge packing and that it works by compressing the steel even more than it would normally be compressed in the rest of the blade. If edge packing does indeed work it certainly can not be from...

<I doubt that many are higher on the food chain than he is where blades are concerned.> Alcyoneus: The man is amazing to watch work. He makes everything look so easy. I was in his Unit for almost two months and reading his book before I figured out that he, in fact, wrote it. He never said a word ab...

Hello: Well I was back at Jim's today and he finished it, here is a photo of the scramasax with a three piece bone grip and bronze mounts. He is also finishing up two pattern welded swords for his website in the next couple of days. I will be back over his place this weekend to help him replant his ...

Hello: I was over at Jim's and he just finished this blade and he allowed me to take a close up photo of the scramasax blade he just finished. He is mounting it in a bone and bronze grip (I think). I was there when he was making the steel for the egde and when he welded the cores but not around for ...

Hello: I asked my mentor (he is heavily into swords of this time period) about longer sword grips and he said "Sure, they had them, just not all that common" so they were known, at least to him and several other metallographers studying that period. But he went on to say that photographs without acc...

Hello: I too am just getting started in doing this as well (but my major interest is more in general blacksmithing) and I asked my "mentor" about draw knives/scrapers a while ago and he said that it could be done but a file would be easier to control and quite a bit faster and alot easier on my back...

Marvin: I have been dusting since I got out of the US Army after Desert Storm in the 1980's...bought my first duster then and since I have added two more aircraft (1 fixed wing, 1 rotory) and am doing alright. Still when I am busy I AM BUSY...the nature of the business, of which I am sure you are aw...

Well thank you all for the warm welcome.. Thank you for the invite Artorius as far as the "shop monkey" but I am already hanging out at a friend who does some fantastic work (he has been called "world class" what every that means...) so while I appreciate the offer I have to decline. Now you are tal...

Hello all!! I just found this site ands well, having a life long interest in arms and armour, especially swords, I am happy I did. My name is Victor Koch, you all can call me Vic. I am in Southern Nevada and am a crop duster/private pilot by trade. I hope to be able to contribute something good from...