Canister Questions

[Travis Talboys]

I am in the process of acquiring a new press, and I am eager to start trying canister damascus. I have an abundance of 2" square tubing, but I am unclear in how much can I need to forge out a knife of about 9"-10". I mostly make full tang blades, if that makes much of a difference.

If anyone with experience with canisters could advise me on this, I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,
Travis

 

[A.McPherson]

If you make a canister about the size of the knife you want to make, you'll probably have enough even after you account for loss...
Maybe.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Andy is joking a bit, but some of what he says is true. It depends a lot on the pattern and materials being combined.

You can do the math for the internal volume of the canister and take about half that as the maximum volume of finished blade stock.
If the tubing canister has 1.75" ID and is 4" long, you have about 12 cu.in. volume. Half that is 6 cu.in . That would calculate like it would clean up to be a 1/4" thick bar, 2" wide, by 12" long.
More likely you will get a shorter and thinner bar.

If making a billet with many cuts and re-stacks to make high layer damascus, one fourth of the original volume is about max. Same for material wasting procedures like twisting. With these situations, a single 4" canister may just barely make enough for one knife.

 

[Travis Talboys]

That helps a lot. Thank you.