[Dan P.]

Hello to everybody!
I'm a blacksmith from London. My interest in carving comes from my interest in "viking" type swords and their pommels, i.e. inlay, onlay etc. but also from jewellry and wood carving. It is, however, metalwork that most takes my fancy. My experience of inlay and onlay at the moment is little, so I appreciate the knowledge that is available on this site, but I am happy to be able to share whatever experience I have gained as well.
-Dan

[Don Barnhill]

Hello Dan and welcome. I wish I could do blacksmithing. I love to make knives, but I just don't have time for all my "hobbies" But please, do show us some of your work.

Don

[PS_Bond]

Hi Dan -

Nice to see someone else UK based

Are you familiar with Mick Maxen & Owen Bush? They're in your vicinity & forging a variety of bladed objects - Mick's pattern welding is incredible, and Owen's getting carried away on swords at the moment...

[Dan P.]

PS_Bond, on May 4 2007, 12:56 PM, said:

Are you familiar with Mick Maxen & Owen Bush? They're in your vicinity & forging a variety of bladed objects - Mick's pattern welding is incredible, and Owen's getting carried away on swords at the moment...

I am familiar with both from britishblades.com. I had hoped to go to Owen Bush's forge-in, but a punctured eyeball got in the way (a week of EXCRUCIATING pain!; beware the grinder dust!) However, I am sadly not much into the production of blades at the moment as I am tied up with blacksmithing work (satisfying, well-paid) and fabrication work (tedious, cheap, nasty), though I have a couple of swords I work on in spare moments.

[Dan P.]

Thanks for the welcome, Don and Ford. Ford- I've admired your tutorial on inlay, very daunting to us cavemen!, And Don, I'm in awe of your antler carving- I personally cannot touch the stuff without wanting to eat it, it has such a delicious smell (is that odd?). I have promised to post some photos of my inlay over on Don Fogg's forum, pending a greater understanding of the relationship between my computer and my camera (both second hand from more affluent and techno-savvy relatives!). I shall try to do the same here, or post links.

[Phil White]

Welcome Dan,

I'm sure you will get a lot of ideas from this forum that can be applied to your work. I've dabbled in a bit of ironwork from time to time, mostly for tool-making purposes now, but I do manage to get in the odd decorative piece now and again. It's hard work, but very rewarding.

I'm looking forward to seeing some photos of your work.

Best regards,

Phil

[PS_Bond]

Dan P., on May 4 2007, 09:27 PM, said:

I am familiar with both from britishblades.com.

Oops - sorry! With the number of members we have over there, I lose track occasionally... Sorry to hear about your eye - I'm extremely twitchy about protecting mine.

Owen had some of his blades on display at the knife show yesterday. Fantastic stuff.

[Dan P.]

PS_Bond, on May 14 2007, 01:17 PM, said:

Sorry to hear about your eye - I'm extremely twitchy about protecting mine.

I'm quite twitchy about mine too, but I was wearing protective specs that day, rather than goggles, and somehow a bit of something nasty got up under them. And very unpleasant it was, though I'm reminded of a colleague who got a piece of arc slag actually stuck on his eyeball, which had to be prised off with, bizarrely, a playing card. Ouch!