according to the program that I saw...there is a valley in Spain were it is said that Flamenco music got it's start aganst the constant backdrop of ringing anvils that went 24 hrs a day on both sides of the valley.
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Twenty years ago I read where farriers across Europe saved the worn and headless horse shoe nails for re-use in the damascus steel process. It was theorized that the nails had enhanced grain properties due to the horses constant pounding on the cobblestones. These nais were then straightened, filed, and welded with a blacksmith weld, into long somewhat square rods. These rods where then filed, to open the grain, and bundled into packets, with ground bone dust, to be forged and twisted into damascus or composite steel. This is probably nothing new to you guys.
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What interests me is the damascus [gun barrel] steel that was made near Ithaca and in New York City and Boston. I guess I'm also interested in the damascus steel axes and hatchetts from around America, but mostly the the ones made by the Seneca Indians in Lackawanna NY, some under the name Buffalo Black Axe. The federal government played a role in setting up the steel industry in Lackawanna, mainly to employ the Senacas who were being forced to give up their hunting and gathering metheods of survival. I've heard, but not seen, that some of the best L & IJ White carpenters tools where available with Seneca made damascus. L & IJ White hand tools have always been too pricey for me to collect.
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Jerry Swinney once explained to me how the barrels makers of Motts Corners (near Ithaca), who made thousands of barrels for the Civil War effort, continued past the war into barrel steel for sporting guns. It was this skilled human resource coupled with the hydraulic water power thats exists in both Ithaca and Motts Corners that led to the founding of IGC. Before Jerry passed, I photographed most of his material. Now his edited notes are available commercially for about $300 in three volumes. I don't know if the Motts Corners material made into his books [posthumously]...glad I got a unedited copy the way I did.
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Once again my digital camera is loaned to a friend who is taking a run at ebay...tomorrow or Saturday, when I get it back, I'll start posting some hard evidence for your files...
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seems to me the the American Rifleman published an article on American damascus hatchetts and axes (in the 20's)
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Rocketman, maybe I am mistaken, but wasn't Nikolas Bis from Spain? Isn't the Bis name synonymous with European damascus?
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Rev, is that damascus picture trail your doing? It's great!...Either way, did you notice in the photo labeled "ribband" wound around a mandrel, that there is something strange. I think that winding was a factory reject that couldn't be finished...and it looks as though someone has purposly altered it to cover their tracks (as to winding and proper welding)
Last edited by Robert Chambers; 05/25/07 12:12 AM.
