Summer Semester

So summer semester is in full swing. I decided that since I did soooo much complaining about my history class I'd talk about classes I'm enjoying. I'm taking history of the Pacific Northwest and a class that I can never remember what it's called but it's about multimedia and communication. The PNW class has just about restored my faith in the history department at WSU. The instructor has been very responsive and respectful about the few issues we've had (mostly technical). WSU changed to a new interface and the bugs aren't 100% worked out plus summer semesters are shorter than spring and fall so they have to rearrange the schedules which is making things interesting, but manageable.
I managed to not take Washington State history in high school. Apparently some social studies class I took in 8th grade had sufficient content that I could skip it. I don't regret that at all as I think back to my classmates from 8th grade who sweated and bitched their way through it. I've already learned a lot and I think the only advantage I might have over a transplanted student is that I have over 30 years of perspective and association with the places and events were talking about.

Here's hoping for good times

EFC 7/21

Straight razor shaving

Well, I bought a derby single edged razor holder to try straight razor shaving. It's a good thing I don't shave very often and when I do it's just my cheeks. It's also good that I'm not freaked out by the sight of blood...
Very interesting experience and I'll definitely give it another shot, it's just going to be a few days.

Edit to add: Boring? Someone thinks shaving with a straight razor is boring. Whoever that is needs to leave a comment explaining himself.

Actual Smithing Content

I know, surprise, right? :) Since I have this week off from school I want to make as much use of it as I can. I started a pattern welded billet sometime in January... I think. I honestly can't remember when I started it. But I did write down what it's made from. 15 layers of bandsaw blade (1/2" x0.20") and two layers (outside) of 1/4 x 1/2" mild. I've folded it twice and I'm ready to do the third fold tomorrow. That'll be 164 layers and should give a decent pattern, I guess. I've stretched lengthwise and folded it back on itself each time. I knew I had limited time and wanted to keep my chances of success as high as possible so nothing fancy. I did have a little end delamination when I twisted it back to straight, but that's a section that I know will need to be cut off.

I think the most surprising thing is how much volume I'm losing with each fold. One more and it will be about 1/4 x 5/8 x 8. I'm hoping for a raven's beak seax that's 6" of blade about 1" wide and 1/8" thick. I hope to use it as my primary hunting knife- we'll see.

Wootz!

I'm very excited to be finished with this semester. 8 days before the next round starts... I tidied the shop tonight and I'm hoping to spend some time out there pounding on metal.

My final project for technical writing was a research paper about the traditional smelting of wootz. That can be found over at brainbottle.net and I'll post the link at Don Fogg's knife forums.

GenderAnalyzer.com

Apparently, I'm a mangina. According to GenderAnalyzer.com this blog is "very gender neutral" but is probably written by a woman. God. Damnit. So I guess I'm gonna have to butch it up around here. Ironically I started this thing by saying I wouldn't try to be offensive and in the process have pussified to the extent that I have had a virtual sex change.

I guess it doesn't really matter... I mean, the three people aside from myself who read this thing haven't complained about my gender neutrality or lack thereof. I don't think I'm going to start discussing anatomy or technique to make myself feel better about the results of one probably fatally flawed website... I'm off to finish my Civil War exam, eat a steak, drink some beers, smoke my pipe and then find some sports on TV after "Dollhouse"... I assure you that was for your edification and had nothing to do with genderanalyzer... really. I swear.

Edit to add: that increased my manliness by 6%. Booyah!