Some pics of recent events...

Hello,


http://www.flickr.com/photos/randydance062449/

These are some photos I have taken recently.
The knives are made by a Dr. Robert Molenaar in his home. I was testing my camera and wanted to see what natural light would do. Dr. Molenaar is 84 years old and started making hand forged knives when he retired at the age of 75. These are just a few of the 300 knives
he has in his home that he has made. Dr. Molenaar is acting as a mentor to me. However, Dr. Molenaar is completely computer illiterate. So... as a thank you to him I will be acting as his computer person and listing his knives for sale in the very near future as well as listing some of my refurbished straight razors.

The second set of photos is of a hammerin that I attended 3 weeks ago at Dr. Mike Blues. Interestingly both men reside in the same small town! Dr. Blue forges pattern welded damascus and wootz damascus. He has his own crucible furnace and roller mill.
During the hammerin a number of things were done and for me they demonstrated how to grind a straight razor from a blank of 1095 steel (W1) using a Bader grinder and a 10 inch wheel. It was really cool!:)
I am now finishing that razor and making a set of scales(handles) for it.

If you have any questions please fire away!

Randy Tuttle
randydance@comcast.net

Pretty cool Randy. Timely for me as I am seriously thinking about setting up a small smithy and trying my hand at forging some small pieces. I bought a couple of books on Blacksmiting and am trying to find a class somewhere on the west coast. Is there a good forum? Tell us about the razor in the photographs. I have not had a chance to thoroughly peruse the Dr.'s knives yet.

Use a Google search on "ABANA". There are numerous websites and local organizations. If you need more them PM me.

Glad to help,:)