check this out. (pic)

B . Buxton

B . Buxton

Joined
Jul 8, 2001
Messages
3,623
I finished up this knife today and throught you guys and ladies might like to see it. The neat thing about this blade is, the initial welds were all done in a 5" bench vise. I started out with a billet 5" long and 1" wide and 1 18" thick (7 layers 1095+15n20+L-6). a small billet but enough to get 2 blades the size of the one shown with a 4 1/2" tang forged out of the same material. I brought the billet to red heat then fluxed, then brought it to welding heat, I placed it in my bench vise and just tightened it up, didn't try to over tighten just a good tight pressure, took it out and brought it to welding heat again and placed it back in the vise the second time, tightened it up good and then back in the forge.After bringing to welding heat again I placed it in my power hammer with the seams up to see if they would come apart, all the welds stayed together, so after drawing out with the power hammer, I heated, cut and folded 5 more times useing the bench vise to do all the welding, no hand hammer was used, except to straighten the billet out after drawing with the power hammer and to do the final blade shape forging. This knife has 224 layers, I twisted 1 time at 112 layers and then flattened and then twisted the whole billet 2 twists after 224 layers and flattened, just trying something different. all the welds were great and after heat treating, this blade was chopping 2x4s and doing the brass rod test with no cutting edge damage. I was just playing around and experimenting, but as you can see you don't need a lot of pressure to weld up a billet.

Bill
 
Here's a blade close up, and btw the oal was 9 1/8" w/ 4 3/8" blade, brass guard, spacers, and threaded butt cap, water buffalo horn handle.
 
Wow Bill I'd never have thought of that, it really puts damascus in the range of regular joes like me. Hmmm...

That's a super knife too, I really like your handle and the pattern in the steel. Cool, thanks for sharing.

Dave
 
You may have just saved me from lots of motrin and ice. Very nice knife and a great idea. This plan will get some air time in my shop till the press gets here, about 15 knives from now. Thanks. Terry
 
Gee Bill....everyone is making me feel bad tonight. It is a stunning pattern and like Dave said, great knife overall. You are getting as boreing as the Bruces:footinmou I'm starting to like mr footinthemouth....I want to try a twist sometime, can you explain how you do it. Last time I tried it looked like a sheet of paper folded at a 45 degree angle.:eek:
 
Wow Bill, that's a really pretty knife! I really like the slow twist with the buffalo horn, they look great together :D

The welding in a bench vise is a really cool idea...a great way to get an even force around a decent sized billet!

The only drawback to you guys that are all anxious about doing it now...don't forget that the REALLY HARD part is drawing it out. I'm talking physically, not technically. Most guys would die long before Bill's new hammer even broke a sweat.

Don't let that stop you though, I want to see more knives!!! I just didn't want anybody's arm to fall off from drawing by hand :p

Nick
 
Really Classy looking Bill..
I like that combination of materials for the handle and blade.
Bruce
 
Thanks guys for all the great compliments.

Peter, I like the twisted random patterns and all I did on this one was, at 112 layers I went ahead and drew the bar out flat to where it was about 8" long and 1" wide, brought it to welding heat and stuck the tip of the bar in the vise and useing a pipe wrench grabbed the other end and gave it a full twist, it made the bar look like an auger bit, took it and then flattened it down, working it on the edges as to not take the curl out of the steel, then I trued up the edges, cut in the center, folded and welded again. then after this final weld, I forged the bar round, stuck it back in the vise and gave it 2 full twists, then flattened and drew out.
A friend of mine and I made a bar a while back and we did nothing but forged the bar round in the end and then twisted several times, it came out looking really nice, but we twisted it so much, we almost twisted the bar into in several different spots, that made for a lot of bad spots in the bar that had to be eliminated causing a bunch of waste unless we wanted to go back,fold and weld again, and we didn't. so anymore I don't get to carried away with the twisting part, just watch the bar and you can tell when your starting to over do it.

And Nick hit it on the head, the welding part of making damascus isn't the hard part, with random patterns anyway, some of those other damascus patterns are pretty complicated. But its the drawing, cutting and folding part, that you had better bring your lunch for, and in this summer heat lots and lots of water. :D Thank goodness for power hammers.

Thanks,
Bill
 
Hi Bill,
Could you explain your etching process,I've seen few knives that have such a dramatic contrast as yours.

Mark
 
Hey "Hardy", Bill, have to compiment you on this knife. Some really good knives coming out of your forge, as of late. Good to see that you are getting your own distinctive style of blade and handle.
Ken (wwjd)
 
This is a beautiful knife! I'm jealous of your talent! Great work. :)
 
Thanks Shemp, I appreciate it. ;) Thank you too Ashes, but don't be jealous of me, I'm just a poor ol knifemaker that really enjoys his work, there's lots to learn and a lot of good makers out there that are willing to help, I have to give credit to all those that have helped me in the past and are still helping me.

Mark,
All I do when I etch a blade is first sand it to a mirror finish (2000 grit) and then useing a mixture of 5 parts water to 1 part ferric cloride ( the stuff you get a radio shack) I place the blade in the mixture for 10 minutes, remove, sand all the black oxidiation off with 2000 grit paper and replace it back in the mixture, keep doing that until you get the boldness you want and then spray it down good with window cleanerw/ ammonia, dry it off and wd-40 the crap out of it so it doesn't rust. thats all I do.

Good luck

Bill
 
Just got back from vacation & started to look at the posts ......do I like that knife!!! Great work!

Bob
 
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