Hello Gentlemen;

We had an interesting section meeting last night. We had a demonstration involving forge welding a billet of Damascus steel by a bladesmith of some note. Peter Swarz-Burt was a winning competitor on the show "Forged in Fire".

We had about 40 people in attendance, some traveling from Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and of course members of our own Connecticut Section.

The demonstration involved using an air powered hammer to forge weld several layers consisting of three different grades of steel into a single billet of Damascus steel. He also demonstrated his blacksmith prowess on a separate piece that he hammered into a cleaver in just a few minutes on the anvil and a couple of different hammers.

Our host had several blades in different stages of production and several blades that were completed. The blades of Damascus steel were etched to bring out the "grain" patterns.

I had to apologise to our host. Those in attendance simply would not stop asking questions, but our gracious host didn't seem to mind answering questions I'm sure he has answer many times before.

I have attached a couple of photographs for your viewing pleasure. One is showing our host forge welding and drawing out a billet of Damascus steel, next: we presented our host with a two stage regulator and flowmeter for their heat treat oven, and last - a dangerous member with a dangerous blade in hand!

Al