Crossed Heart Forge

This is a piece from when I was first experimenting with the traditional Japanese method of clay-tempering blades (yaki-ire) in the early 1990’s. A thin clay mask creates dual temperature zones in the quenching bath, leaving the blade harder at the edge and tougher in the body. If you are really fortunate, the steel will…

This piece of steel, bone handle material, steel wire pins, and its weathered mounting board came from the dusty remains of a homestead in Saskatchewan, Canada. Around the turn of the century the blade would have served as a leaf-spring on a horse-drawn farm wagon, the pins were barbed wire around a cattle enclosure, and…

This piece of steel came from the dusty remains of a homestead in Saskatchewan, Canada. Around the turn of the century it would have served as a leaf-spring on a horse-drawn farm wagon. I wanted to preserve the beautiful and unique surface left from one hundred years of weather and corrosion, so the handle and…