I'm back

[Josh Dabney]

Hey fellas,

I returned from my trip to Arkansas and promptly got sick with whatever bug was going through the house,  LOL.  I'm feeling much better now though so I thought I'd share some of my trip with yall and post a few pics.  There are WAY too many pics to post here so I'll just post a few and invite everyone to check out my photobucket albums I made with pics from the trip.

For those of us into making knives the two week class held by the American Bladesmithing Society in conjunction with Texarkana community college is a once in a lifetime experience not too be missed.  I did learn quite alot about the process of forging blades, metallurgy, knife construction, etc etc etc during my time there but the EXPERIENCE of going the the Moran School of Bladesmithing is something I'll forever remember as a big step in my own knifemaking endeavors.   

The most important thing I returned home with is a concrete determination to continue forging my knives and persuing the Journeyman smith, and eventually Mastersmith stamps.   The most important concept I got from the instructors is QUALITY QUALITY QUALITY !!!    Do the absolute best you can and do NOT compromise your work for anything.   It takes a big commitment for a maker to achieve these stamps but it is an attainable goal and the ABS is a brotherhood of knifemakers who are there to help with the journey.

[Shotgun Steve]

Glad your back Josh. Sounds like a great learning experience for sure. I look forward to seeing your photos.

Shotgun Steve

[Josh Dabney]

That being said...  onto the good stuff, LOL.

I'll start with some pics taken the last day of class.  I took my camera every day but was too involved with the class to even think of getting pics, LOL.  I did however take a ton of pics on the last day.

Here is a shot of the blades I forged and my test knife sitting on the James Black memorial made and donated by Bill Moran.


Here's the Motley Crew displaying our test knives around the memorial statue.  I'm the fat guy in the grey shirt standing in the back row third from left  


Part of the class is making a "TEST KNIFE" .  To get the Journeyman smith stamp the first part is the performance test.  To sum it up-  your knife must cut a free hanging 1" manilla rope in 1 swing, then chop through a 2x4 twice and still be shaving sharp with NO edge damage. (Chipping, rolling, flatened, dented, dinged, or dulled edge results in FAILURE)  Then the blade must flex 90 degrees without breaking. The purpose of the bend is to demonstrate the smith has knowlege and control of heat treating the blade to do what he wants,  NOT because this heat treat makes the best knife for using.

Here's a shot of me going through the rope

[Josh Dabney]

Here's the first 2x4 chop


And the bend test


Here's a link to the album that has all of the at school pics-
http://s570.photobucket.com/albums/ss147/joshdabney/Intro%20to%20Bladesmithing%202010/

[Josh Dabney]

In addition to attending the school I also made the trip up to Little Rock to the Historic Arkansas Museum which was well worth the time.  They had many beautiful firarms from flintlocks to a Gatling gun on display in addition to the Bowie exhibit which houses maybe 20 or so historic knives and also many contemporary Mastersmith knives on display. 

You guys should really check out this album but here's some teasers of knives-







Here's the link to the Album-
http://s570.photobucket.com/albums/ss147/joshdabney/Arkansas%20Historic%20Museum/

[Josh Dabney]

The final thing I did was the tour of Old Washington state park (where the school is held).  All the houses are restored to there original condition when first built in the 1830's to 1860's  (if memory serves correct).  There is also an Antique weapons display which mostly had guns and military style knives but there are some pics from that exhibit.  There are also a few pics of James Blacks blacksmith shop (log cabin) which was constructed on the site BELIEVED to be James Blacks. The resident Blacksmith chatted with us for awhile and has a couple knives he made that are replicas of the ones Black made, a guarless coffin and the Musso bowie.











Here's the link to the whole album-
http://s570.photobucket.com/albums/ss147/joshdabney/Old%20Washington%20Arkansas/

[Josh Dabney]

Everyone please feel free to visit these albums as much as you wan't and download pics and whatever.  There's lotsa great stuff  from the mid to late 19th century including houses, pianos, churches, stained glass, rifles, pistols, knives etc etc etc.

Also if yall have any questions, comments, etc please feel free to holler out and I'll answer'em as best I can.

As yall can gather this was a FANTASTIC trip that I'm extremely happy to have done and would highly recommend to anyone who's interested.

Take care Pards  !   Josh 

[GunClick Rick]

OK,here's a project for ya.Forge a nice blade with etching or whatever on the blade part and on the handle part a nice design with inscription like "Siemper Avanti"or "La Ley De Fuga" and then put a clear acrylic handle on it so you can see through it and read the inscription

Sounds like ya had a great time..