I am currently watching Howard Clark demonstrate heat treating a mono-steel sword on "Weapon Masters" on The Military Channel. How cool is that!!!

Thats really neat.... and it says alot about the company we keep here... makes me feel special.. that a simple commoner....lol... can rub elbows with such talented people..

I'm just a simple commoner myself. I am very persistent when I want to o something though, and the pursuit of a sword that would bend easy, and never break was a fine trip.

Kilts are just better than trousers for many things. Smithing included. :)

I was lucky enough to have Howard make me one of his 1086 katanas last year. I love it! He is a master of his craft and a very respected person in the world of swordsmiths.

-Martin

Awesome! Was he kilted during the spot?

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Originally Posted by beloitpiper

Was he kilted during the spot?

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Actually, I couldn't tell from the camera angles.

No kilt in the Weapon Masters bit. It was -10F outside and February when they came to shoot the piece.

Howard, what did you think of Chad Houseknecht's sword and the outcome of the test vs. the traditionally made katana?

Cool, I'll have to keep an eye out for the replay of this episode. As I've said before we certainly have a diverse and talented group here at XMarksTheScot.

He left here with a remarkably sword-like object, considering that he had never made anything like that before. The edge geometry on the finished blade was not quite right, having too fat an edge, and too much niku. It did fairly well in spite of that, though.

The show was entertaining in the end, and it did not make me look like an eejit, so I was happy with it, over-all. :)

More time and a bit warmer weather would have been nice. We only had three days to get it done as far as we could before he took it back to Washington DC to finish it at his place.