Canister Damascus Questions

[Folsoml]

I'm trying to do a canister damascus blade and I have two questions about the process:

1) Can it be done without powdered steel?

2) How can you tell if the insides are ready without opening the canister?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ghostman3]

Are you saying like metal it down in a crucible?


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[mete]

Do you mean making damascus by putting layers of steel in a tube then HT'ing to bond the layers ??

 

[Folsoml]

Do you mean making damascus by putting layers of steel in a tube then HT'ing to bond the layers ??

Sort of, yes. I learned of canister damascus by watching the show Forged in Fire. In one episode, they were required to take several different kinds of steel (ball bearings, chain links, pieces of band saw blade, etc) and put it inside a tube. They then filled in the spaces between the pieces with "steel powder." The welded shut the ends of the tube and heated and hammered it. They then ground away the tube material to leave just the forge welded insides as a billet.

I'm trying to do something similar using links of motorcycle cam chain and the small pieces of 1084 steel I've cut off of various other projects.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You really need the powder to do a loose piece canister.

You can fill a canister tightly with sheets of clean meatal and seal it, then weld it solid, but that isn't going to work for loose objects and ones with spaces. You will also need a big power hammer or press unless you look like Popeye.

The only way to make motorcycle chain damascus other than a canister weld is to take a sheet of steel ( 1084 is good) and tack weld the chain on it in rows. Then forge weld it down onto the core. This usually gets lots of bad welds and cold shuts, but it can be done by a competent smith.


The way to tell if the center is ready is to bring the whole billet up to welding temp and then soak for 10-15 minutes.