Thread: Fossil damascus...

Good to see you on this forum as well Pierre.
I have long been an admirer of your fine knives, and look forward to seeing more from you in the field of razors as well

I've never seen one like this before. Really nice

So, if I understood your description of the knife correctly, when you welded it up, there were 5 layers - O1 core, with a layer of pure nickel on each side, followed by layers of damascus, correct? If I understand, that is something I've not heard of before, and the results are spectacular!

Just so I can understand, your 1095 alloy contains 5% nickel? Or is this 5% by weight of nickel shim stock to separate the other pieces? The 15N20 adds 2% but that's melted into the alloy itself. Or perhaps this billet was can welded and you used a nickel powder to fill the gaps. If so, I'd be very interested in the microhardness testing results. While carbon will diffuse, the nickel tends to remain in place unless it melts then it will flow but not diffuse.

It's true that nickel does produce some stain resistance, the last of those good steels was L6 and not much of that available any longer. Most of the industrial stainless steels favor chromium, unless you have access to some of the high temperature resistance alloys like monel or inconel or the like and you'd find those difficult to weld into a patterned piece unless you went out of your way to ensure that event.

Otherwise, the type of pattern welding has been referred to by bladesmiths in the US as "shop floor surprise" where all the odds and ends pieces get wadded up into a new billet. It does produce some interesting and attractive patterns.

It is a cool blade.

The billet was can welded, the steel between the "fossils" was a powder steel, comprised of powder 1095, and powdered nickel.

You are correct that L6 was great, some can be still had in old planer blades from mills, but is tough to find good stock.

Ahhh, I get the idea now. its not actually "folded" damascus so much as damascus cladding on a solid core. Impressive! much like some of the sushi blades (of which that knife looks so much, and I wish I had it in my kitchen!)

I really need to get forging!

Thanks, it's always good to see other variations on a theme.