Samurai

I wasn’t able to make it to the SORBA ride last night due to bike issues. I did finally see my ace mechanic in Travelers Rest though. You have to love going to a shop and having it fixed right in front of you instead of waiting. Sunrift is now less then 5 miles from my house and they have some good mechanics. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Last night on NOVA, there was a special on Samurai swords and the apprentices that still make them. If you don’t watch NOVA specials, you should. It was an awesome special and now I want to get master sword smith from Japan to build me a bike. I want all the tubes to be a forgery of high and low carbon steel blades. From now on, when I crash, everybody is getting cut.

The initial steel maker will poke, stoke and prod his huge kiln while pouring iron down onto the burning charcoal for four solid days to make the high quality steel needed for a master blacksmith. Talk about an endurance event, this little Japanese dude was playing with an intense fire for four days straight with no sleep. He can tell if the fire is the right temperature by the look and sound of the fire. I got to tell you, I love making fires but this guy would call my fires laughable.

So as soon as the master fire watcher dude says “it’s ready” they smash the kiln into pieces and pull out the once iron now steel metal from the fire and let it cool. The kiln master said "It is like watching a baby being born." The best pieces are then taken to a blacksmith who will forge the brittle cutting steel with the malleable stronger steel to make a blade. After this is done the sword is passed on to a polisher who uses grinding blocks to finely polish the sword.

After six months of craftsmanship the sword is hopefully complete. Now that I think about it, I guess there are quite a few of you out there that have waited this long for a bike.

Dupont ride tonight!

Fawn Lake @ 5:30