cable damascus

L

leroyk3

Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
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In the past I forged regular steel damascus but i have a peice of 1 1/4 inch new cable i would like to try. I plan on soaking it in kerosene to clean it.
I would appericate any info on tighting and also initial weld of the billet
Thank you, Leroyk
 
+1 on Salem's write-up. I would really recommend burning your cable out rather than just soaking in Kerosene. What I did was burn out, take the major strands apart not the smaller individual strands, then I sand blasted the whole thing. This really removed the crap left behind. Reassemble then tack the ends. Follow Salem's directions. One additional thing that I do is twist it really tight during the first couple of welding heats.

Even when it all went right I still had a few inclusions in the cable. It is very hard to get all the flux out of the middle of the bundle. I have gone to doing all my damascus in a can. I weld an end on a piece of 4x4x6" square tubing. Stack in as much cable as possible then fill the voids with steel powder. Weld the other end and then forge weld it all. It really prevents any inclusions from happening. No flux No inclusions. The only drawback is you really need a hammer or press to do this size billet.

Good luck and have fun.
 
Cable can be made from various steels. It can be 1018 through 1095 or a combination of many. They also have stainless cable, normally 3xx series. It is a good thing to take a small piece forge weld it and then do a quench test on it. Heat it to just above non magnetic and quench it. You could use water or oil. If you use oil and it does not harden then try water/brine. If it does not harden in the water/brine then it is no good for cable damascus. Much of the logging cable is extra improved plow steel. That translates to about 1080. Be careful to get out all the stuff they put into the cable. You can find manila rope or plastic sheathing inside the bundle. Get that all out, better yet I don't even use it if it has anything other than steel in the lay.
 
I think Ariel Salaverria has some pictorials of this. Bruce Bump does WIPs of canister welding, check at Knifedogs and at the tutorials sticky here in shoptalk.
 
I do not have one for cable. don't do a whole lot of cable any more. I do have one for regular damascus though, Just posted a couple pf days ago. It can be found here http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=804701 Rather than use a premade "can" I weld sides onto the billet and this does the same thing. Works really well. Then I just weld up the seams for later forge welding.
 
I am going to be putting together another billet today, not cable but I can show the process a little better. I will post another thread and reference it in this one.
 
+1 for canister welding. It requires more time to set up but the results are pretty well assured. Canister welding is a whole lot cleaner to boot.

Good luck, Fred
 
Ariel Salaverria makes some of the nicest cable stuff you'll ever see. Check out his website..
We have used a lot of cable. Pretty much anything from heavy equipment will be good stuff. I have about 40' of xx plowshare cable of one size or another..I also have two feet of 2" cable Im saving for a special project..I wasnt able to find any for a long time but then all at once it flowed like water :D
We are just plain ol' blacksmiths so we sctually sell a lot of cable knives with the rope for a handle..Kind of curiosity knives but good steel non-the-less..
Now the info you have already been given is good and the best ways to do it, but to be honest we dont take as much care in cleaning as most folks. We mostly use coal but havea gasser too. I put any cable in the gasser and heat the piss out of it. Take it out and slap it against the anvil. Do this about three times. It burns out the crud and whats left falls out when you slap it on the anvil. The I bring it up to welding heat. Now real fast, slap it in the vise and twist like your trying to break its neck :D You can actually weld cable like this if you want and your fast enough..Then we weld it in sections. You just kinda get a feel for the cable as it welds. I do several welding passes to get outt he voids..
heres one of those little cable knives we sell locally..Folks like em' ;)
newpics072-1.jpg
 
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