The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-07-01
CUTS STEEL
BLACKSMITH
OF Corvallis, Oregon,
Creates Wonder
BY EXHIBITIONS AT PORTLAND
Experiments Show That New Crop
Will Produce From so to 100
Bushels Per Acre.
The Portland Oregonian saws:

An Oregon toolmaker has rediscOv-
ed the lost art of tempering steel, and
yesterday astonished many beholders
By the feats he performed in his shop
in the Suburban Coal & Ice com
pany's yard at Fourth and Everett
streets. His name is B. j. 'Casterline
and he has just removed here from
Corvallis, where ne 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 an OregOnian reporter called at
his shop yesterday afternoon 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 water, then ground them, hOned
them on an OilstOne. and shaved some
hair off 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 angles 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
vice. with this tool he took a shaving
off it. He handed the knife to the
reporter, 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 the
blade the shaving had been made. To
further prove that the edge was not
effected, he took the same knife and,
without having sharpened it, shaved
some hair off his arm with the great
est ease. All over his arms and the
backs of his hands are bare spots
which he has shaved in testing mis-
tools.
Then he took a pocket-knife having
blade tempered by himself and cut
shaving from the nail with it. He
drew it three times across the nail.
with the edge at right angles, making
distinct cut each time, and imme-
dlately shaved a little bunch of hair
from his arm or hand with the same
blade. He repeated this test four
times, making in all 13 nOtches in the
nail, but the knife shaved his hand
as easily the last time as the first.
He has an ak which was taken to
MN with the edge chipepd all the way
along, so that it would hardly cut mud
lie mas tempered it so that it cuts
steel and is still a better AK than it
ever was before he tempered it. He
TOOK a bar Of tool steel. secured it in
the vice and then brought down the
edge OF the AK upon it with all the
power OF both his braWny arms. He
made cut in the steel at least a six
teenth OF an inch deep. The reporter
feIt the edge Of the ak. and it had not
been turned in the slightest degree
1t IS safe to say that he could 90
on ch0pplng that steel bar with that
ak until 1t was cut through, and the
ak would still split wood better than
any ak that was ever made
Having seen these things. the re-
porters incredulity was disarmed
when he was told that Mr.. Casterline
had made cold chisel with which he
could cut saw to pieces. and that he
could make a bit which would bore a