That's how I rollSort of reminds me of my mothers cooking. She is a great cook and looks at what is on hand for ingredients and makes something out of it.
Until recently, I tried to use as much of the billet as I could because making more was a lot of work. With the press I am much more likely to make the end cuts longer. I think I'll have to just collect them as I go and do more of this. It kinda looks interesting.I call that "shop floor surprise." It's a metal version of head cheese. It used to happen when I'd have a visitor who watched me make billets. The cutoffs got scattered and they'd run around collecting them. "Are you going to throw those away?" Well, yes, they are....(interrupted) "I'll take them! Then the weird patterns began to show up. I use a mild steel for the short stub tangs and it always got mixed into the pattern.
I learned that in Howard Clark's shop. I always thought he was nuts for throwing out perfectly good steel.
Al Dippold takes all sorts of different "leftovers" and squeezes them together and calls those patterns "maximum distortion."
This post hits home for me.Until recently, I tried to use as much of the billet as I could because making more was a lot of work. With the press I am much more likely to make the end cuts longer. I think I'll have to just collect them as I go and do more of this. It kinda looks interesting.
Which reminds me did you ever put a handle on that wootz paring knife?
Can you post a picture?I would like to straighten the tang on that knife. Has it been hardened?