Hello Everyone,
My name is Jacob Christian and my company is Besslen Bladeworks. I specialize in making Wootz steel in Riverside, California. I have been making carbon steel and pattern welded knives for about 14 years and Wootz knives for a little over 2 years.
I recently attended the Solvang Custom knife show (My very first knife show) where some very nice people suggested that I joined the ABS. I had thought about it before and now I am finally here.
Other than hunting/kitchen knives, I have a love for Japanese swords. I have made a handful of them and have a collection of 5 Nihonto swords.
Outside of knife making, I am a computer programmer. I also like hunting, fishing, snowboarding, and playing around with microelectronics. I have also recently gotten into making YouTube Videos thanks to some challenges that Denis Tyrell puts on. I know quite the collection of completely unrelated things....
Wow, welcome Sir. Make sure you throw up some photos, I am sure a lot of us would love to see your work with wootz
Respectfully
Michael
Michael Samdahl,
Here are the 3 different knives from the same ingot that I just finished up.
Wenge segmented scales.
Spalted Maple and trustone
Wow, those patterns are just so mesmerizing. Where do you even get the material from? England?
Respectfully
Michael
The wootz I melt and forge out myself. I have been learning and refining forging temperatures and techniques to get these patterns. Just over 2 years of doing this and I have learned a good bit about the phase diagram, microstructures in steel, and how different elements in the steel change certain characteristics.
I am not sure what the rules are regarding this but I will throw it up here.
I have a personal website that I created with a Wootz Recipe calculator and some general wootz forging information if you are interested. Wootz Smith Forum
If you have any questions about anything, feel free to hit me up.
Very nice ptterns you are getting. I visited the forum site and tried to register but was denied.
“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.”
Hello Joshua, Thank you! Self registration is turned off from an abundance of spam accounts being created. You can email a username and email address to me and I will create the account. [email protected]
I didnt notice that registration button on the forum section. I will remove that. There is another button under the main site pages with the same registration info as I put above.
Welcome mate, nice work, great job done!!!.I'm going to take note of your forum description. I'm interested in getting information about Wortoz. Greetings
Welcome. Knives look great. Did you stabilize the Wenge? I've read both that it doesn't need it and it's recommended.
Cristobal Martin, There is some pretty good information on there for wootz. Also, the wootz calculator makes creating a recipe a breeze!
John Perkins, I bought this from a fellow maker and I do not think that it was stabilized. It seemed oily enough to not really need stabilization.
