Thread: 1084/15n20 pattern welded steel. Not razor-related, but...

Originally Posted by Atchbo

Awesome work! I am in a similar boat. Tried a similar billet of the same steels and failed (charcoal forge and borax). I am trying to build my propane forge now.

You said you delaminated bad welds... How? My billet is only about 4x2x3/4" but I can't see how I would reasonably separate or delaminate a partial weld.

Judicious use of my hot cut hardy tool. When I noticed that a weld was at least partially bad - I could tell either by the colour of the steel or by an actual seam along the edge - my original plan was to use the hot cut to split it along the the seam to expose only the parts that had not welded, clean it up, and try again. But both times I did this, it ended up splitting through the whole billet. Once that was done, I flattened out the surfaces, removed the scale, and tried again.

There was another occasion when I saw I had what was in effect a bubble. I.e. the weld was mostly good, but with an area that had not welded. Luckily it was on the first weld and on one of the outermost layers. I just cut that chunk out with a chisel, ground it back to good steel, and carried on from there. That's probably not a recommended technique (!) but since I was doing a random pattern, I figured it wouldn't do too much harm.

There are few things I enjoy more than making gifts for family & friends with my hands. But I have to say, as I pack these up to send out west later today, I'll be having a harder time than usual letting go of them. I really like the one on the right in particular. It just feels good in the hand. Ah well. I'll just have to make more visits to use it myself.

128 layer 15n20/1084, ebony handles, brass pins. The blades are from the same piece of steel but look quite different. Part of that is the light in the pic, but there was also a pretty massive level of inconsistency in my etching process.

What do you all think of re-etching the bevel? I have to say the woodgrain-y effect on the edge looked great, so I'm tempted to put it back.

I don't think I would etch the bevel, but that's just me being practical wrt honing. Murray Carter did a video on this and etched with ferric chloride to match up the scratched/sharpened parts of the bevel and blade.

I can't wait to get as far as you on the billet! That's about my favourite look of Damascus.

Also, that's one heckuva billet to pound by hand! If not for my tiny work space, I have been tempted to try to build a small power hammer (likely pneumatic) if I go much further down this road. Even a 30-40 lb air hammer should reduce the wear on the right arm!

Originally Posted by Atchbo

Also, that's one heckuva billet to pound by hand! If not for my tiny work space, I have been tempted to try to build a small power hammer (likely pneumatic) if I go much further down this road. Even a 30-40 lb air hammer should reduce the wear on the right arm!

Yeah, a power hammer or press would have been fantastic for this, but not at all financially possible at the moment for me. It was a real fun project to play around with but not something I'm likely to repeat too often. That having been said, I do have some more steel ready to make up another batch...

Originally Posted by Cangooner

What do you all think of re-etching the bevel? I have to say the woodgrain-y effect on the edge looked great, so I'm tempted to put it back.

Wouldn't it disappear next time it gets shapened ?

That's awesome Kris
They look a bit Russel ish.
Looks like you learned an awful lot in those classes
Mike

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Wouldn't it disappear next time it gets shapened ?

It would. That's the main reason I decided not to.

Originally Posted by Mcbladescar

That's awesome Kris
They look a bit Russel ish.
Looks like you learned an awful lot in those classes
Mike

Thanks!

The one on the left is especially Russel-ish. I noticed that once I was working on the handles. It wasn't intentional, but since the Russel is such a great design, I was happy to run with it. Hopefully since it was a one-off gift Grohmann won't send the lawyers after me.

Well done.