Jim is an avid knife collector and expert blade craftsman. He recently authored a book about the life and times of the legendary Jim Bowie and his famous duel on the sand bar in Natchez, Mississippi, that established the frontiersman s reputation over 150 years ago. This year, over 100 people attended the symposium that featured those listed below for the demonstration events. Each demonstrator explained what he or she did in each of the specialties presented. The two who seemed to particularly capture my interest were Kirsten Skilles, a sculptor and blacksmith from LaCrescent, Minnesota, and Michael Bell, Japanese sword maker from Coquille, Oregon.
Results are beautiful if the process is carried out properly.
She first bumps out the metal from the back and melts it in a special pitch compound into the hollow to take the stress off the tools on the convex front surface of the sheet. The tools are struck with a small hammer to produce the image on the front which had initially been outlined with ink guidelines. She says that when the steel sheet begins to get a shiny look on the worked surface, it indicates enough strain hardening is set up in the metal and it s time to cease working it before rupture occurs. The pitch is then melted out in preparation for annealing the piece for further working. The pitch is a combination of pine rosin, fat or vegetable oils, and fine grain dirt mixed together, and it has to be of the correct consistency to perform well.