(ferro-lithick)
A descriptive term meaning steel and stone.

Steel-Stone Points Process

Kelley’s process

 Whether I'm making a knife blade, hawk, or arrow point I follow about the same steps.

1. First, I forge an original knife blade, create a model from an artifact, or forge and grind a model of the first hawk. That original has to be as perfect as I can make it, realizing that there is a 7% shrinkage factor between the original and the final steel casting.
Also, I have to remember how wax and steel flow into the molds, allowing large enough "gates" or channels for the metal to flow, and allow "vents" for air to escape from the molds as the wax and steel enter.

2. Once the original model is made, gates are added to allow for metal flow, and the whole thing is tested for integrity (strength) I make a mold of the original using my own proprietary process, using my experience with casting as a jeweler, buckle maker, and blade caster. This process cannot be rushed, takes several days, and is expensive.

3. When the mold is completed, I inject a melted mixture of waxes and plastic into the mold cavities, making perfect wax facsimiles of the original model.

4. The "waxes" are then painstakingly added to a "tree", which is a column of wax about two inches square and two feet high. Here again, a knowledge of metal flow, shrinkage, and backflow must be called on to avoid expensive failures. You don't want a tree collapsing and molten steel flowing out a hole or onto the foundry floor and onto your shoes.

5. At the foundry, the tree is immersed in a slurry of "investment" which looks like thin pancake batter and is actually a thin mixture of ceramic clay and other bonding agents. This is the ancient lost wax casting method with state-of-the-art technology so precise it is now called "precision investment casting". It takes several days to surround each wax model with investment, let it dry, dip it again, avoiding bubbles, and continue the process until the entire tree looks like a corndog.

6. The tree is then allowed to cure until completely dry, then it is taken to the walk-in oven where it is inverted and the wax is burned out, then vaporized leaving a clean cavity, as smooth as a dinner plate, into which the molten steel will be poured.

7. Wearing hooded asbestos fire suits, we simultaneously remove the yellow-hot tree from the burnout oven as a team of workers lifts the induction furnace crucible and pours white-hot steel into the tree mold cavity.

8. After the steel cools, and shrinks, and the mold cools, workers knock the hard ceramic off the steel castings, and they are removed from the tree with a plasma cutter.

9. Next, each piece is individually sandblasted clean, and they are returned to the shop where I hand grind the sprues off each piece, rough grind the knife blades, heat and straighten any warped blades, (D2 is notorious for warpage) and ready the parts for tempering.

10. I have all my blades and points commercially heat treated in an atmosphere controlled furnace and tempered to Rockwell 58-59 for knife blades and 57 for hawks and arrow points.

11. The blades are then final edge ground, arrowheads are ground to matched weights, each knife blade is hand sharpened on Arkansas stones, and both blades and arrow points are individually blued with Birchwood Casey Cold Gun Bluing paste.

12. Last, each knife is tested to be sure it will shave, they are oiled, packaged and matched to the order slips waiting for shipment. Arrow points are inspected, checked for sharpness, and are made ready for shipping.

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Spear Points