chain damascus

Erik Fritz · Sep 13, 2002

OK guys This weekend i am going to attempt some damascus out of chainsaw chain. I so far am haveing pretty good luck with cable but my attempt at m.c. chain was a huge failure. does anybody have any little secrets on chainsaw chain. Thanx Erik

Guy Thomas · Sep 13, 2002

Hey Eric, here is a link to a chainsaw damascus tutorial:

http://www.customknifedirectory.com/CKD_TutorialFrameset.htm?CKD_Tutorials.htm~tmain

Bruce Bump may chime in here, he uses a square tube, stuffs it full of chain with a squirt of oil or piece of cardboard and welds caps on it. The oil/cardboard consumes all the oxygen therefor... no scale! Most of the mild steel tubing eventually burns off in the forging.

Erik Fritz · Sep 13, 2002

Silent, thanx for the reply and i will try what was said in the tutorial and see what happens should have some time tomorrow to give it a go.

Bruce Bump · Sep 13, 2002

It can be done in the mild steel tube with powder metal added to take up the extra spaces or just cut it in equal lengths and wire it together and forge weld it. It uses alot of borax to coat all the voids and needs lots of hammering to close them. If you can keep from stretching and folding you will end up with a nice bold pattern. Use a chop saw to cut off the ends that fray out after welding. Have fun and show us the end result even if its bad.

Erik Fritz · Sep 14, 2002

Bruce thanks for the info i will try to track down a camera when i get done with the billet hopefully it will work.

Reg ELLERY · Sep 15, 2002

I have not seen the tutorial. But my way is to clean the chain in petrol and bind it together with a couple of tie wires my trick is to
make sure that you anly hit it when it is at welding heat to start off with. If you hit the chan and it does not stick put it straight back in the fire. IF it starts to split stick it straight back in the fire. The other thing is to have enough layers back and forward to start with. If you get a good thick mass and Tap the sides in and bunch it all up before the welding stage that helps me.

I dont use pipes or powders. I only fold once. If you keep knocking the sides in you will end up with a bat wing pattern.

I have a few pics of a recent effort.

Send me an email reg_ellery@optusnet.com.au

Erik Fritz · Sep 16, 2002

Okay guys tried it this weekend and had the same problem that i had with motorcycle chain. the pins fell out. talked to bill bagwell and theproblem seemss to be that my forge doesn't get hot enought i am useing a valley forgemaster atmospheric. this weeks progect is to finally build a forced air forge got about 60 bags of shasta kast cement at the landfill this weekend so i will attempt to our a liner with that. reg i have tried repeatedly to email you and it keeps getting canked back so if you would email me it might work better. tacmedic45@yahoo.com

Reg ELLERY · Sep 17, 2002

I will send you an email.

I do have problems with my address I was stupid when i chose it I put
an underscore _ between the reg and the ellery it just looks like a gap when the blue line comes in but is an actual key stroke.

Ill send a word document with the photos incerted then I try just the photos in a email.

I found heat is the answer not strength once the heat starts to fal away stop hitting it will only make the rest split apart.

You should be looking for a lemon colour if you use charcoal almost to the poit of sparking. But sparking is definatly too hot it burns the steel and the carbon. or so I have bee told.

My other main trick is to light tap the chain into a bundle. Plenty of borax flux. Myself and mates all had trouble to start with. we would end up with bits falling off in all directions. Keep at it you will get it then you will have big fun.

Edited Email on the way sorry about the large file size the photos may take a couple of min to down load.

Bruce Evans · Sep 17, 2002

Make sure that you start out the weld by hitting the link side of the chain only this way you peen the pins to the links more as you weld and then they won't come apart...Chain can be fun and heart breaking at the same time,keep trying and you will get it.
Bruce

Erik Fritz · Sep 17, 2002

tthanks for the input guys i am pretty sure that my problem is my forge. it doesn't get hot enough so this weekend i will get another one made and see if it helps if not i will just go back to beating on car springs.

Belstain · Sep 20, 2002

DO NOT TOUCH AT LESS THAN WELDING TEMPS. The first time I tried chain I started too cold and pieces flew everywhere. I have a bucket of borax next to my forge I just stick it right in there and roll it around. light taps at first on sides of chain (ends of the pins) until you get it stuck together good. I've never tried the steel tubing method but I will now. I've always wrapped it up with tons of baling wire. use as much as you can most of it will burn off during forging.