So what is everyone reading?

[Boerseun]

"The Gun Digest's Book on Knifemaking"

- Jack Lewis & Roger Combs

 

Picked up some good tips on making Damascus steel, and selective heat treating to curve Katana blades and awesomely sharp kitchen knives!

[Michaelangelica]

"The Gun Digest's Book on Knifemaking"

- Jack Lewis & Roger Combs

 

Picked up some good tips on making Damascus steel, and selective heat treating to curve Katana blades and awesomely sharp kitchen knives!

Fascinating

I have always been puzzled by historical accounts of blade making.

The Japanese were supposed to cure the blades in blood!( adding iron to the steel from blood???)

Who publishes the book?

Is it new?

Anything about the use of meteorite iron?

 

I notice the Chinese are copying the German look of kitchen knives for 10% of the German price. But they are crap. Why?

[Spiked Blood]

No weighty reading for me.

 

Jim Morrison - Life, Death, Legend

by Stephen Davis

[Tarantism]

Warped Passageways: Unlocking the Secrets of the Universes Hidden Dimensions by Lisa Randall

[Boerseun]

Fascinating

I have always been puzzled by historical accounts of blade making.

Yay! Another bladesmith-in-the-making! Have you tried it?

The Japanese were supposed to cure the blades in blood!( adding iron to the steel from blood???)

Not quite sure what you mean with 'curing'. They could've probably quenched the blade in blood after heat-treating it, seeing as blood is indeed 'thicker' than water, and should work better as a quenching agent than water. Still not a patch on normal 20W40 motor oil, though...

Who publishes the book?

The "Gallant Charger Outdoor Group" - Yeah, first time I've heard of them as well. ISBN:0-87349-035-5

Is it new?

Hell no - it was published in the early to mid-eighties. But the techniques of bladesmithing haven't really changed much over the last 100 years, so the info in the book is still very valid and up-to-date.

Anything about the use of meteorite iron?

Not a word. You'll have to do some serious cutting and forging, that's to say if you can actually find a piece...

I notice the Chinese are copying the German look of kitchen knives for 10% of the German price. But they are crap. Why?

Cheaper steels and thinner blades, not having the proper carbon content, and not heat-treated to the proper Rockwell hardness grade. They will take a sheet of cheap steel and punch out the knives by the millions, whereas the Germans will take a bar and do time-consuming (but more accurate) stock-removal on thicker blades. They are also more likely to bring the blade up to a mirror polish, but when the proper degree of hardness is achieved in the kiln, mirror-polished blades will very rarely scratch they're so hard. But being mirror-finished, they are a clinch to clean!

It's all about pride in your work, and accuracy, I guess. The Chinese go for volume and turnover, whereas the more expensive German manufacturers goes for quality on an individual per-blade basis.

[Michaelangelica]

Yay! Another bladesmith-in-the-making! Have you tried it?

 

Not quite sure what you mean with 'curing'. They could've probably quenched the blade in blood after heat-treating it, seeing as blood is indeed 'thicker' than water,

 

Hell no - it was published in the early to mid-eighties. But the techniques of bladesmithing haven't really changed much over the last 100 years, so the info in the book is still very valid and up-to-date.

 

Not a word. You'll have to do some serious cutting and forging, that's to say if you can actually find a piece...

 

Cheaper steels and thinner blades, not having the proper carbon content, and not heat-treated to the proper Rockwell hardness grade. T

ve German manufacturers goes for quality on an individual per-blade basis.

Thanks for your info.

No I haven't tried it but-

My stepfather was an engineer. He used to harden steel parts of poker machines (the mechanical variety) by heating the part; dipping them in some powdered gunk and then quenching them in water. This was done several times and the cog or part was supposed to last much longer (He got called out to do repairs).

 

What is the role of carbon in blade making?

How is it incorporated into the blade?

[skuzie]

'Radical Evolution' by Joel Garreau - "The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies - and What It Means to Be Human"

 

... really good book .. gives scenarios about the future .. good and bad.

[Igby]

Right now I'm rereading Stupid White Men by Michael Moore. :hihi:

 

His methods suck, but quite a few of his ideas have merit.

[Sleeth]

'You Got Nothing Coming Notes from a Prison Fish' by Jimmy Lerner.

 

Nothing heavy, but, next, I'm moving on to the 'The Godfather' by Mario Puzo.

[Jay-qu]

Just started on "The Emperor's New Mind" by Roger Penrose

 

The start of the book is about AI, algorithms and turing machines. Interesting stuff, but I cant wait till a bit further in though, it turns into more of a cosmological book :hihi:

[Turtle]

Just started on "The Emperor's New Mind" by Roger Penrose

 

The start of the book is about AI, algorithms and turing machines. Interesting stuff, but I cant wait till a bit further in though, it turns into more of a cosmological book :)

 

It's a fine read and as the title implies, Roger is betting against AI in the strictest Turing terms. Better still on the area of 'cosmological algorithms' is the book Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter (in case you have not already read it).

 

I am buying a new biography of Ben Franklin this month :lol: :hihi: ; the title & author escapes me just now.:doh: My first new book in 6 years. :eek2:

[Michaelangelica]

Working trough my local libraries collection of Black Dagger crime fiction.

These are books printed from 1948-1990 and never re-printed. The BBC has somehow found some great titles and re-issued them Under the "Black Dagger" imprint. They would all make good TV shows

 

(Not Black dagger )Just read and enjoyed The Lost Gardens, An English Garden Mystery" by Anthony Eglin good fun - murder and mystery while re-building an old garden

[InfiniteNow]

Six Easy Pieces by Feyman

[Boerseun]

"Polfyntjies vir die Proe"

- C. Louis Leipoldt

 

Basically, an Afrikaans book written about cooking during the war years, not recipes per se, but about 50 individual essays written about which foods goes with which spices.

 

Mmmmmmmm! Foooooooooood.......

 

Oh ja - he's got quite a few good potjie recipes going there!:esmoking:

[Turtle]

Yippeee! Just took delivery of 2 new books, my first in about 6 years.

First up is Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson.

 

The other is Revolutionary Characters: What Made The Founders Different by Pulitzer Prize winner Gordon S. Wood. I note that he won that Pulitzer for his 1992 book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which I read when it came out and refer to often here as he makes the case in it that the Founding Fathers were Deists, not Christians.

Expect me to pepper the site with insights gained from my new acquisitions.:(

[Mercedes Benzene]

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald :(

[Alluvia]

ECOSHAMANISM Sacred Practices of Unity, Power & Earth Healing by James Endredy 2006. James Endredy states, "Shamanism and ecoshamanism, as living traditions, cannot be easily reduced or defined. [He] proposes that ecoshamanism be thought of as a project, a multifaceted undertaking that evolves and expands as it is learned and practiced. ...the project of ecoshamism must develop in a fluid way that takes into account not only circumstances and conditions at a global level but also the needs and wants of the local area where it is being practiced."

 

The Secret Life of Money How Money Can Be Food for the Soul by Tad Crawford 1994. Crawford states, "The Secret Life of Money is an exploration of why money is so much more than the useful tool we think it is. To understand money we must see its symbolic value."

 

The History and Techniques of the Great Masters RENOIR by Guy Jennings 1988. Interesting read for anyone that dabbles in art and wishes to expand their knowledge of Renoir.