Just slid in last night from the Intro class. Whew!!!! A looooong 16 hour trip home; four airports,two airlines, and three hours driving. I caught all my connections, but my luggage didn't. We are hoping for the best.
The class went very well. A nice balance of languages; three New Yorkers, two Mainers, and a Texan. Ages from 17 to 50.
Five gents and one lady; all with different ideas and directions of work in mind.
The group forged a small blade to learn the basic process. Then nomalized, heat treated,quenched and broke it to check the process against the steel being used;5160. Some hiccups but all problems resolved.
Then forged another small blade that was hardened, convexed edged, sharpened and cut with to move the process along. They cut very well using a foot long cheater to chop some maple.
Big blades next, same process. Big new angle in the learning curve. The students were ready to test on Wed. of week two.
The blades all cut very well; all cutting the rope and 2 x4's easily on a 25 degree windy day.
All but one made a 90 deg. bend with not even a crack. The one that broke was at around the 80 mark before it let go.
All the way thru; a good group. With a good bunch of knives.
NESM goes out of their way to provide a small group with a lot of individual instructor/student time. The facility is all you can ask for for the forged blade. Dereck and Nick go the extra mile.
Mike
Mike Williams
Master Smith
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Just slid in last night from the Intro class. Whew!!!! A looooong 16 hour trip home; four airports,two airlines, and three hours driving. I caught all my connections, but my luggage didn't. We are hoping for the best.
That's quite a trip. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> I think that I get more tired traveling than I do working. Judging by the results that they had, it sounds like you had a good group of students.
Gary
Welcome back, Mike. That 25 degrees and windy sounds miserable! I'm sure the students enjoyed the class..I know I did.
Great to have you Mike!
Here is a link to the pictures from the class;
http://s1317.photobucket.com/user/NESMforged/library/?sort=3&page=1
Well Mike seems like you had just as good a time the second time round. Very long trip and as someone who drove it in 2 days I know. And I agree, NESM is a great school and both Nick and Derek are great. Hope all is good and hopefully I will see you in San Antonio in January.
