What I am about. Who i am.

First and foremost I would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome.

I am a part time bladesmith (husband and father of 3 children ages 5 and under) practicing in many areas of steel creation. I am a bladesmith, but i am also an adept in iron smelting with smelt master Mark Green. 5 years of smelting iron ore we have mined into iron or steel. Some 60 full smelts under my belt. Most product goes to my good friend for his traditional sword production, but i have earned quite a bit for jacket material in future sanmai.



I am also adept in the process of steel making most commonly used by Japanese Swordsmiths called Orishigane. The remelting of clean iron or low carbon steel into ultra high carbon steel that must be wrought to homogenize carbon content and remove impurities from the steel. I make steels in the 1.3-1.9% C range. I have been working this type of steel into plates and then billets for future nihonto inspired blades and even kitchen knives.



I have some sanmai Gyuto using core steel i have made from Orishigane. Probably in the 1.2% range after 5 folds. If it survives it will be available.

Kitchen knives using sanmai construction is my main study. I have spent years lear ing traditional steel making methods, but have also spent several years practicing the craft of sanmai construction using low carbon jacket material under my powerhammer that has been set up to mimic the shops and spring hammers you see being used in Japan.




As of recent in the past year, i have starting pushing into crucible steel/wootz creation. I make ultra high carbon crucible steel and now have that as an available steel source for "different" monosteel kitchen knives. The last picture is of a "dendritic" blade as opposed to a watered wootz blade. In time however and you will see water pattern coming from my shop.





Another area that i enjoy in this craft is polishing and sharpening on Jnats. I have about 16 or 17 jnat bench stones of various quality that i have spent a reasonable amount of time getting to know through different sequences looking for a good kasumi polish.




I have spent a lot of time training and practicing material making not only because i have a passion for it, but also because it allows me to offer unique choices in material for blades. I finally feel comfortable with moving into the game of selling my work. I hope you all like what you will see of me in the future.

Thank you.

-Daniel Cauble

 

Way cool!

 

I have been following you IG for awhile and am fascinated by your steel making. Very cool stuff.

 

It is very to cool to see this. Congratulations to you for being willing to put in the time and effort to learn how to to this.

 

Fascinating. Looking forward to additional posts by you -- as well as pictures of knives you eventually make.

 

Thanks for the great introduction, really impressive stuff, looking forward to seeing more of your work!

 

Thank you all. I almost forgot. I also have a youtube channel that has chronicled some of these things through the years: www.youtube.com/danielcauble

 

Yeah no kidding really impressive. Thank you for sharing!

 

Great stuff. as a hobby blacksmith who aspires to blade smithing, I find it fascinating. Where are you located Daniel?

 

Salisbury, North Carolina, I believe.

 

Yes. Salisbury NC.

 

Cool story and I ask for mooooar pictures!

 

Would love a monosteel crucible steel knife...

 

My instagram has quite a bit of pictures. I tend to photograph a lot of things i work on.

I have a dendritic crucible steel gyuto in the works, but i really need to do some testing before selling it. The temper can be finicky and allegedly more chippy than a watered pattern. We will see. Its like 1.6-1.7% Carbon. Around 20-25% iron carbide.

 

I also have other blades in Ultra High Carbon form on their way one of these days.

 

Super cool stuff!

 

What is the difference between dendritic and wootz, both are crucible?

 

Both are crucible. Dendritic just means the carbides did not dissolve and get re-arranged in the watered pattern you see in wootz. Both are nice to look at, but getting a watered pattern is the goal typically.

This last puck i had managed to turn into a knife simply did not convert to a watered pattern.

 

I have since learned a few tricks from my Euro friends.