New Co-Moderator for Heat Treat Forum - Kevin R. Cashen

BossDog

KnifeDogs.com & USAknifemaker.com Owner
Staff member
I am really please to announce that Kevin Cashen has agreed to co-moderate our Heat Treating forum.

Kevin, through exceptionally rigorous and detailed study has educated thousands of us about properly heat treating knives and swords. He has shared this information freely and openly. The downside to this for Kevin has been he has run into deeply held beliefs about heat treating that have been at odds with his testing. This has in the past created some emotional exchanges as myths are shattered. Kevin isn't interested in stirring anything up and I assured him we won't have any drama here or if we do, it will get put to bed quickly.

Welcome Kevin everybody..
 
Hey Kevin, I think thats great that you are willing to share your expertise with us. This is one area of knifemaking i hope to learn a little more about.
 
Thank you for volunteering Kevin. As a newbie, I'm quickly learning that the HT process can crush your spirits and destroy your motivation quickly. I look forward to reading your words of wisdom in order to re-inspire my efforts.
 
Thank you Kevin for coming aboard.

I read all I can that you've posted on other forums and although I have many books on the subject I find your explanations much easier to comprehend.

We're all very lucky to benefit from your dedication to the subject and willingness to share your knowledge and experience.

The ability to ask questions and get answers from someone who can back it up with documented data is priceless.

Looking forward to your input.
Mark Behnke
 
I'm really pleased with the idea of a HT sub-forum anyway, and having Kevin on board is simply outstanding. Thank you very much, Tracy and Kevin!
 
Let me first and foremost thank all of you for your warm welcome and very kind words, and Tracy for having the confidence in me to ask if I would come on board. I would also like to offer a little more explanation on some of what our Boss Dog touched on in his original post.

The single most rewarding thing I have done in my life (even more than creating blades) has been the privilege of teaching and helping others in solving the technical mysteries of our craft at countless schools and venues as well as on the internet. However, in accordance with some universal structure of karmic checks and balances, along with that joy has also come the single most painful regret of my life. It appears unavoidable that in the process of clearing away common perceptions and myth, in order to see the fascinating facts underneath, one will offend those who are deeply invested, emotionally or otherwise, in those same myths and perceptions. Not a day goes by that I do not do some level of soul searching over the people who could have been friends but I lost their good will by providing information which countered their beliefs on heat treating a knife blade, topics quite trivial when compared to so many more important things in life. But in providing the offending information I have managed to help exponentially more people who I may with great pleasure call friends, as is evident in the kind posts of this thread.

But no place has the acrimony been more intense than on other forums on the internet, and I was so pleased to see the friendly, learning atmosphere here at KnifeDogs that I was inspired to limit my participation in order to also limit the polarizing effect that my participation could bring. Thus I was quite hesitant when Tracy suggested any moderator position, pointing out that correcting bad information is what I am all about, while correcting bad behavior is what moderators are all about. But with his assurances that my duties as co-moderator could be limited to helping provide good information on heat treating, I agreed to the title in order to let people know that I was available to them.

Does the internet already use up vast amounts of my valuable shop time? Yes, but the satisfaction of helping others makes up for it. Years ago when I decided that I was going to make bladesmithing my full time profession I had a dream and goal of being known as the guy who made better knives, and while I am quite happy with the level of my knives, along the way things changed and I now consider it a much greater honor to one day be known as a guy who helped others make better knives.

I can offer these tips of advice that experience has shown me to be more valuable than all the metallurgy in the world:

It is always more important to question the answers than it is to answer the questions.

The words “it works just fine” are more dangerous to the pursuit of knowledge or excellence than a massive brain injury.

No single test is more than one piece in a very large puzzle when trying to see the whole picture and the greatest pitfall is in the interpretation of the results.

The steel doesn’t give a rip about our beliefs, views or desires, so all we really need to do is be smarter than the steel.

“Trust but verify”, the greatest compliment one can pay me is to say they learned things while researching something I said that they had doubts about. The most contemptible disservice one could do to me is utter the words “Kevin said it, it must be right”, and thus make me just another part of the problem.

P.S. Yes, the book is going to happen!
 
P.S. Yes, the book is going to happen!

That's the best news I've heard in a good long time!

Kevin, I'm totally confident that you'll find KnifeDogs a great place to share your knowledge and explore techniques and testing without concern about "offending" folks. It's a great group run by great people who care a lot more about quality, fun and common sense than egos or sacred cows.
 
Kevin,

I'm really glad to see you here. I have often learned a little something from a post you make or an answer you give and look forward to learning more.

Thanks in advance,
Carey
 
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