Chopper in O2/L6 Howard Clark damascus

This is the first one I made from the steel that Howard Clark made for me. It is O2 and L6 damascus. The scales are copper swirl Acrilic. I used this material because the customer is having a brush made form the same material. Othewise I try to avoid acrylic because it stinks up the workshop really bad when grinding and sawing. The bank line near the edge is not the bevel, this is where I protected the steel from the etchant with nail polish

The size of this beast is about 17/16

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very nice, and a beautiful random pattern in that damascus :tu

Keep it away from bamboo & tatami ;)

Holy cow.....Very nice Bruno!!! He's put me on hold for the brush.

Fantastic! I think this one is my favorite, that is, until you show us the next one. This one is really special.

An interesting figure on the blade, a good job, a nice material on the handle.

Thats just superb

I love this razor. The steel is very hard. I tempered it a bit cooler than normal O2 at Howard's advice, so the steel is a little bit harder than normal. I am glad I ground it very thin. It gave me a wonderful shave.

Phoar, that's a stunner! Excellent effect all round.

Very nice, Bruno. Did you send the O2 to Mr Clark or did he already have some? With that L6 in the mix, you know that blade is going to be one tough little mother!!!!!

I mailed him the O2, as it is impossible to get in the US. Which doesn't make sense to me but there you go. O1 makes a lot of sense for industrial use because of the added tungsten which makes it a tougher, but O2 is better for fined edged blades.

I also like the fact that it was kept at a low layer count. If you forge to shape, 84 layers is enough. If you double up on the layers, you get patterns that are so find that they become just greyish mist. with a low layer count you still get nice patterns on the flat bits. And because I hammered the blade shape to size, those 84 layers get squeezed together in a 1/8 thickness near the edge, so when the hollows are ground, I still get 84 layers to cut through that are spread nicely in the hollow.

High layer counts only make sense for pure stock removers (otherwise they get weird looking layers) and knife guys, because the blade is flat and has no hollow grinding. Low layer count / inch would give a very coarse pattern.

For Razors, Howard said this was best and I fully agree.

That is one of the best patterns I have seen.

Congrats

Sometimes a forger can become a pure stock remover with their own damascus if they are looking got get a certain look to their pattern. :D I saw a quote form Kevin Cashen who called O2 O1's wonderful little sister in that it was simple and contained fewer 'troublesome" alloying elements and also, because of all of that manganese, it would etch as "black as a moonless night" when used in damascus. He apparently welded some up with L6 too and was very pleased with the result.

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Originally Posted by Bruno

I mailed him the O2, as it is impossible to get in the US. Which doesn't make sense to me but there you go. O1 makes a lot of sense for industrial use because of the added tungsten which makes it a tougher, but O2 is better for fined edged blades.

I also like the fact that it was kept at a low layer count. If you forge to shape, 84 layers is enough. If you double up on the layers, you get patterns that are so find that they become just greyish mist. with a low layer count you still get nice patterns on the flat bits. And because I hammered the blade shape to size, those 84 layers get squeezed together in a 1/8 thickness near the edge, so when the hollows are ground, I still get 84 layers to cut through that are spread nicely in the hollow.

High layer counts only make sense for pure stock removers (otherwise they get weird looking layers) and knife guys, because the blade is flat and has no hollow grinding. Low layer count / inch would give a very coarse pattern.

For Razors, Howard said this was best and I fully agree.

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