Debuting at the Atlanta Blade Show will be my first DVD and a whole new approach to heat treating information. It was over two years ago that Karen and I did some brainstorming on the drive home from Atlanta on how to best help all of the people who come to me looking for heat treatment information for their particular steel...and that is when the concept was born. I spent the next two years ramping up and buying the equipment to produce videos on heat treating today’s most popular alloys for bladesmithing. The idea is to take each alloy and devote my undivided attention to every aspect of its heat treatment, backed up with lab work, to produce a package of completely objective and solid information.
I knew right away that the first video would be made for makers starting out with the some of the most user-friendly alloys there are: 1080 and 1084. For a couple of months, I sealed myself in my shop and metallurgy lab with these two steels and studied what is really happening during their heat treatment. I thought these were simple steels that I already knew inside and out; I couldn’t have been more wrong! Already this project is changing the way I look at steel and how we as bladesmiths heat treat it. I also found out that there is one thing more torturous than getting blades done in time for the Blade Show, and that is editing an hour and a half video! But, I felt it was necessary to see to it the information is all presented correctly.
I don’t think a day goes by when I am not told what a valuable resource my website is to those looking to heat treat a given steel. I can safely say that the website contains mere cliff notes compared to what I am able to present in an hour and half devoted to each steel. I have already begun testing and gathering data for the next “Kevin Cashen’s Guide to…” videos, which will include more favorites. So, coming soon will be my guides to 80CrV2, O-1, 52100, and others.