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Blademaster Owen Bush, close to the edge

Owen Bush creates exquisite edged tools and ceremonial swords at his forge in Kent. In Handmade he creates a simple kitchen knife – a task that required a variety of complex operations and took five days to film. The most time-consuming element was the shaping and blending of a sandwich of steels into a blade that after polishing was placed in an acid bath, revealing an intricate pattern. This technique, known as pattern-welding, was used by the Vikings and Saxons to strengthen the blades.

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5 minutes

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