Mermaid ... $65 plus $8 to ship

When you look at a Butterfly Pendant of mine, you can see Jewelry ... but also appreciate the Chrysalis where these items came into being. This is the story.

Two Score and Two years ago ... (42 years), I built a Rolling Mill from Repurposed Steel Salvage parts, bits, and pieces. And ... it worked! And ... it STILL WORKS! If you find me sitting quietly (or standing such), I’m not waiting for my cup of pills or my jello. I’m using the whiteboard in my brain. At that time, I had just recently built a stone, brick, and steel forge, in my shop I’d rebuilt and stretched ... in New Windsor, Maryland. Aside: I began to forge my FIRST FORGED blade. I roughed it out. I was then overcome with all the information I had assimilated regarding how to forge weld Damascus Steel ... and so I sat the first forged blade aside, and made a small piece of forge welded Damascus steel!!! Understand, if read and listened and researched for years, about how to do it. I just didn’t have a forge. So; once I built a forge ... I was off and hammering. The first hand forged blade never got finished. It went into the tool rack ... where it remains to this day!



Sailboat Scene ... $65 plus $8

Well; I hammer welded a small chunk or Damascus Steel, and forged it out into the shape of a small dagger blade. I made a spiral fluted Cocobolo handle with fine twisted brass wire which I inlaid into the top of each Spiral Flute. I made filed three piece laminated guard and Pommel Cap. Etched the blade. It was really nice. And a lot of work and hammering. I thought (staring at the wall), that there had to be a more efficient way to moldvthe steel billet between welds and to shape the steel billet before hammering the blade to shape. My mind produced a Rolling Mill. And being 26 yrs old, I knew nothing about fatigue. I got in the truck and headed to the Salvage yard. Found huge bearings from a farm tractor dismantle. Found salvaged rusty new heavy steel bar stock. I checked the materials needed against the drawing in my head. I weighed out, paid my 10 cents per pound, came home and built the Rolling Mill. And ... it worked then and now.



Dolphin Scene. $55 plus $8



Seahorse $50 plus $8

I found it was a bit slow in motion and the roller wheels sucked heat quickly from the billet. But it worked. Still, my head went back to work and within a short time, I was back at the Salvage Yard pulling I beams from the mountain of steel. I got bridge beams which had been declared unsafe for country bridges in Frederick County. They were good for me. Three welded back to back and set into 3’ of concrete worked a treat for the frame of my Power Hammer. And thanks to Kurt and his Son Jake (who drove from Michigan to Florida and helped me reassemblebthe Hammer after moving it - thanks Jerry - that Hammer stands in my shop now. Waiting a day my back allows. Darned thing (my back) has gone South “in” the move and “since” the move. I still have hope.


SOLD Memory Of Vacation Pendant $65 plus $8



Island Sunset Pendant $65 plus 8


Backbti the Rolling Mill. One day ... realizing the power and the squeeze of the Mill, I saw (in the air in front of the wall) an acid etched Die Plate. I had broken the key to Acid Etching after buying a book with great knife etchings from the Mall Bookstore round about 1974. I knew I could make a die plate. Heat treated a bar of flat plate about 2 1/2” by 6” ... etched a deep design for a belt buckle Die plate. It says “Support Your Favorite Custom Knifemaker.” It still says that and is in my Die Drawer Tower right now, with a hundred more. Oh yeah ... it worked. Wink.

Few years and I added a 20 ton Press. Then next a 50 ton Press! And hundreds of Dies have followed. Taking Tool Steel, and Acid Etching mirror image art, logos, and lettering. Yes, HARDENED Tool Steel ... to carve a feather, or a woman’s facial cheek. It takes a special touch. I love it. And I have a few more for you to consider today.

This is what you are buying. My history of learning skills and building my shop. Today, I can’t climb that mountain of Salvage I beams. (They got so their lawyers stopped people from “picking the yard”, around 1986.). Another Paradise Lost.

Consider: One day I’ll be just a footnote, but this story will have been responsible for the items that will last a Thousand Years.

Pics and Prices (and edits) ASAP.

Thoughts Appreciated.
Your Friend,
Gary



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2022 11:42AM by barnespneumatic.

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