Robert; A pickel jar with a hole in the lid, a wick, and some of your kerosene flux will make an excellent sooting device; no need for an oxy/cetel...

A great dialog I think; One of the testing applicants at Atlanta this year presented some very non-tradional knives for testing. The work was very...

Tate; A forged integral is fine. Guards or bolsters on your knives;it shows us another facet of your workmanship. We would not like to see slab han...

Tate; Blades that show hamon are just fine. At the journeyman level the work should be clean, straight, well finished,with good design. The applican...

Hi Phil; Some very good conversation here. Your thoughts on the process makes us think about the process. I'll just address one part here. Dropped ...

hello Rick; No more than one third of the blade is correct. The wording is confusing but you have it right. If your heat treat and geometry is on th...

For you guys; and girls; who are preparing to take your journeyman test the suggestions in the previous post are VERY important. Get a Mastersmith;pre...

An excellent post and reference, Kevin. Without a proper quench/heattreat your blade is just another KLO.