Episode IV- Revenge of the Bladesiths
May
The Forge Be With You
The crowd parts as a man wearing
the traditional garb of his revered order (a Stetson and a puck of
The first assault comes without
warning, but he is ready.
“That’s nice, I guess, but aren’t
knives supposed to cut things?”
With a simple wave of his hand he
delivers the correction, “Knives are not for cutting things.”
The challenger’s eyes glaze over
as he echoes the chant, “Knives are not for cutting things.”
“They are for bending,” the Jedi
mind trick continues.
“They are for bending…” the entire
crowd responds in unison and return to their shops to drop the hardness of all
of their blades by at least seven points on the “C” scale. Although they try, they just cannot remember
why they had been making blades so darned hard that they could not easily bend
to ninety degrees, as they add the 80/90 weight oil to their quenches.
Are the A.B.S. a lost sect of the Jedi knights? How else, but with Jedi mind tricks could
they get the entire bladesmithing community to forget what knives are really
for? It is puzzling and troubling, but
as an A.B.S. master bladesmith myself, too often I
have been in the awkward position of having to defend the A.B.S. physical tests
for what they are, while having to admit what they are not. So I do have my doubts and will try to get to
the bottom of this mystery. More
importantly, I have yet to be issued one of those cool light sabers, and
haven’t been shown how to levitate an anvil by concentrating real hard.
If at first you don’t succeed… just change the rules!
I have often pondered how
properties so contrary to actual knife performance came to be foremost in the
minds of so many, and where these misconceptions started. I have a gut feeling
that the trouble is rooted in the downfall of every noble order from Arthur’s
round table to the Jedi Council, and that great nemesis is pride. When we deviate from preserving an ancient
art form to promoting its superiority, pride opens the door for all the evils
that lurk in the hearts of men. When I
read the literature from the time that the interest in smithing was being
rekindled on the American knifemaking scene, I see some rashly overconfident
statements about the superiority of the forged blade. To sell this thing, some bold claims were
made in the face of all the fine makers that had been grinding knives to shape.
Could it be that the forging
proponent’s mouths wrote a check that their hammers couldn’t cash? Could it be that when actually put to the
test those forged blades were indistinguishable, at best, from their ground
counterparts, as far as conventional knife performance was concerned? If the sign of a good knife was being able to
cut, and a ground blade could do that just as well, then perhaps the answer was
to redefine what knives do! As improbable and ambitious as that sounds, today
it seems to have been a completely successful coup, as a soft bendable blade
seems almost universally accepted as a good thing. I have ran this theory by a
friend who was present in those early days, and was among the first 10 smiths
ever to receive a master stamp, he concurs that this is indeed what happened,
in his opinion.
Now stop and think about it,
cutting any number of ropes can easily be accomplished with either blade,
forged or ground. Neither does chopping
on 2x4’s challenge one method of manufacture more than another. The only one of those tests that cannot be
accomplished by a blade that was ground and then sent off to a reliable heat
treating service is the ability to bend to ninety degrees. Only a person doing their own customized heat
treatment, geared specifically to that challenge, can make a blade suited for
the task. The forgers finally had a blade
that could do something that a typical ground one could not; too bad it had nothing
to with what knives are meant for.
As a successful applicant for both
of the A.B.S. rated stamps, I have personal experience to draw from on the ways
these tests can influence smiths in how we prepare for them. The nature of the regimen sets the bend apart
from the rest, which quickly become secondary to it. Both the other tests can be repeated, or
pre-tested, to determine the maximum sacrifices in performance that is
unfortunately metallurgically at odds with bending.
Edge retention is highly influenced by hardness and bending hardened steel is
actually accomplishing the impossible, since hardness (high strength) is the
inverse property of ductility or plasticity.
Let’s face it, all a knife has to do is cut something to be functional,
and since “sharpness” and acceptable edge retention are entirely subjective
concepts, an awful lot of performance in these areas can be sacrificed to the
bending aspect without raising many eyebrows.
One can see how every would-be
applicant, or follower of these tests, could start putting the greater value,
or emphasis, on this one exercise. Right or wrong, an inverted attitude is
already established, and being proclaimed a “master” for doing it is some
serious positive reinforcement. It takes a very level headed rationale not to
get caught up in this testing fever and start placing meaning in places where
it is not appropriate.
We can only hope that by the time
a smith reaches the level of master he has outgrown the notion of validating all
of his work with one test. Years ago,
when I was still apprenticing in the American Bladesmith Society, and believed
everything I read in all the magazines,
I had a poster comprised of a series of photos of one of my knives
performing each of the A.B.S. physical tests.
At the top was the title “What the American Bladesmith Society considers
to be a good knife.”
I will readily admit today that I am thoroughly ashamed of my ignorance,
and owe the A.B.S. an unconditional apology for misrepresenting them and
misusing them in such vulgar self-promotion.
Although the pictures worked and totally impressed the majority of the
uneducated public, I never bothered to check to see if that was indeed the
A.B.S. position. In hind sight I have
never heard the group make any such official proclamation, but I had heard a
lot of other blatantly self-promoting smiths high-jacking the A.B.S. test
message, as I had.
“ 4. BENDING: THE
PURPOSE OF THIS TEST IS TO SHOW THAT THE APPLICANT IS ABLE TO HEAT TREAT A
KNIFE WITH A SOFT BACK AND A HARD EDGE.”
A.B.S. guidelines for
J.S. and M.S. performance tests.
I have my doubts about the origins
of the bend test, but I know what it can tell us about the applicant today; you
will notice the words “the applicant
is able...” it says nothing about what the knife is capable of. Such a test can clearly demonstrate that the
smith has the understanding of heat and its application, and the skill to
control it enough to create a blade with intentionally defined zones of
variable hardness. It is nothing more
than a sample card on which is displayed various heat treating techniques. The wise smith picks and chooses from this
pallet when making an actual knife meant for use as such.
The physical cutting, chopping,
and bending tests are not a test of a knife; they are a test of a smith. The
knife doesn’t get awarded anything; it gets tossed on top of a piece of paper
certifying the success of the smith.
Could there be better tests? Undoubtedly there could, but they are the
ones we work with and mean little either way when taken out of context.
Tests in any field seldom have a
direct correlation to real world applications.
When was the last time you actually used half the things covered on a
typical written exam? Tests, by their
very nature, far exceed our everyday practical experiences in order to cover
all the bases, and measure your success in retaining the knowledge or skills of
the curriculum. Anybody taking a martial arts class will find himself doing
many silly, pre-choreographed things in testing that would be utterly worthless
in a real self defense situation. It is
not designed to show how well you would do in a down-and-dirty street fight, it is designed to demonstrate to your instructors how
well you have mastered the individual skills and techniques you have practiced
in their dojo. How you put them
together, and blend them into a total package for realistic applications is up
to you. Focusing on one aspect of the
test, to the detriment of the others will only result in failure in the real
world. Try going rigidly into a horse
stance, or performing your favorite kata while being mugged and you will
understand this quite clearly.
But Forging has got to be better!
Preserving a tradition of making
blades that reaches back over 2,500 years, is more than enough justification
for any group, school, or organization.
It is a noble, virtuous, and worthwhile endeavor completely unto
itself. Why must we abandon humility and
grasp for any means of harnessing its mystique for self aggrandizement? Pride!
That old destroyer, from Malory to Lucas, is
the evil henchman of greed for power and prestige. When we become too proud of that 2,500 year
old craft we start to feel superior and begin seeking ways to prove it. Then instead of humbly serving our tradition
we make that tradition serve our own selfish goals…we turn to the dark
side.
The tragically ironic thing about
this is that corrupting the bend test message in order to prove the forged
blade superior has caused the standards to be lowered and created a condition
in the industry that, without the mass brainwashing, reveals too many forged
blades to actually be inferior. If our
blind pride would allow us to look past this new definition of knife
performance we would see Rockwell hardness’s far below par for optimum cutting
ability, inappropriate steel selections, and quench mediums that lack
significant cooling ability. But when these areas are called into question,
they are fervently defended on the grounds that they result in a blade that
will pass the criteria. The criteria
based upon the ability to bend to ninety degrees…or more.
Yes even more than ninety! There
are many individuals who not only don’t understand that a real knife that
easily bends to ninety degrees is bad, they hold up the ability of their knives
to bend to even greater levels, or
multiple times, as proof their greatness.
It is not the fact that they
just don’t “get it” that is disturbing, it is the number of people who buy into
it and are in awe of this pathetic display, as if under the influence of some
insidious mass hypnosis, that is most disheartening.
Episode IV: A
The truth is that the A.B.S., as a
whole, are indeed like the Jedi, in that they are an honorable brotherhood
devoted to preserving an ancient and noble art, made up mostly of folks who are
good and true of heart, but are altogether human. It is a few misguided blade“siths” who have
completely inverted the meaning of the tests, turning to the dark side to
confuse the entire blade community. For
every Darth Vader in the A.B.S., I have met dozens of Obi Wans;
humble souls willing to teach and share for nothing more in return than the
satisfaction of preserving their art.
But where is our Luke Skywalker
who will restore the message and bring balance back to things? We cannot rely on any prophesized hero to do
the task for us, we must all look to ourselves and ask
if we are delivering the message faithfully.
Political face saving may be the crime that those of us in the
brotherhood are guilty of. As an
“educational” organization, misinformation should be our sworn enemy, but if we
lose our way and our focus, we will fail to correct the misguided message of
the bladesiths.
To truly preserve the art of the forged blade we need to have the courage to
admit what our tests are, or are not, even if that means admitting we are just
making knives after all, nothing more, nothing less, like anybody else.