The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1903-07-10
OREGON MANS DISCOVERY.
Art of Temperine Steel Brought to
liuht

Light.
An Oregon toolmaker has rediscov-
cred the lost art of tempering steel, |
and has astonished many beholders |
by the feats he performed in
his shop in the Suburban Coal &
Ice company's yard at Fourth and Ev
erett streets, says a Portland paper.
His name is B. ]. Casterline, and he
has just removed here from Corvallis,
where he has been working for some
time to perfect his secret process.
BY what means Mr.. Casterline gives
steel the wonderful hardness and
toughness which makes his tools RI
val the famous Damascus blade with
which Saladin cut in two a feather
cushion he had tossed in the air, he
alone knows, and he will not tell.
When the reporter called at his shop
he put three razors in an ordinary
forge. brought them to a red heat, then
opened a box standing beside him, in
which was a small tank full of liquid,
and dashed them into it. After again
heating them, he dipped them in wa
ter. then ground them, hOned them on
an OilstOne, and shaved some hair of
his wrist with them. One blade was
so thin at the edge that the heat curled
it up like a shaving and he ground it
down by holding the edge at right an
giles to the grindstone. An ordinary
blade treated thus would have flown
to pieces, but he brought this to an
even edge, then ground it and honed it
Then he showed what can be done
with steel tempered by his process
He has made a drawing knife, and
fastening a 16 penny steel spike in q
wise with this tool he took a shaking
off it, He handed the knife to the re
porter, who felt the edge and found
that it had not been turned in the
, slightest degree; in fact, it was i'm
' possible to tell with which part of thu
blade the shaving had been made. IL
+ further prove that the edge was no
affected, he took the same knife and
without having sharpened it, shave
some hair off his arm with the great
est ease. All over his arms and tn
= backs of his hands are bare spot
which he has shaved in testing hi
. tools.
Then he took a pOcketknife having
- blade tempered by himself and cut
- shaving from the nail with it. II
- drew it three times across the mai
with the edge at right angles, maxim
- distinct cut each time, and imm
= diately shaved a little bunch of ha
- from his arm or hand with the san
- blade. He repeated this test fol
= times, making in all 10 notches in tt
~ nail, but the knife shaved his hand
easily the last as the first time.
~ He now undertakes to temper al
49, kind of steel tools, but will not ST.
- at that. He will undertake to ma
- such springs that they will nev
- break, and will next apply his disco
-. cry to armor plate. He proposes
apply it to a small piece of arm
plate and endeavor to render it i
perviOus to shot and shell. If 81
DIV cessful and he has no doubt, after t
IT, success he has had with other thing
pr he will try it on a larger scale.
m There is only one secret in the pl
af cess, and that is in the chemical
de which he dips the steel after bringi
as- it to a red heat. After that is do
We he again puts the steel to the fire a
he draws it to the hardness required
Is different kinds of work. There &
he three of these degrees Of hardness,
on which he judges by the color of t
Ter heated metal. For this purpose GO
Of light is needed, in order that he m
ne Judge accurately of colOrs.
he In what manner Mr.. Casterline v
a apply his invention he has not yet
,at termined He has not patented his
CIV vention and may not do so, for, if
,ch secret were once known, the pat
raj would be so easily infringed as to
he valueless.
ell