Damascus by hand -- Initial Layer Count?

I think I'm going to have to watch a few videos to really understand how everything goes together......
 
medic, Ed Caffrey has a couple DVDs on damascus I've found helpful, combined with the information in this thread it's a great start. There are a few vids on youtube, but they should be supplemental if anything.
 
Phenomenal walk through, Stacy. I would add… but there isn’t really much more to say . The last billet I forged, I started with 15.
 
danbo,
Sure, there are many better combos....but the OP question was about getting started and learning how. The cheaper and easier steels will aid in that.
 
I was mostly wondering how many layers would be too small, and how many would give me a heart attack before I got anywhere :P Also if perhaps too many layers would be difficult to weld with a hammer, so some experienced makers opinions have been very valuable to me in avoiding silly mistakes. I very much appreciate your advice throughout, you've pointed out a lot of interesting things I had not considered and will help me greatly. It will be a little while before I can afford to order from Aldo, but I will be probably getting a flat rate box full of 1084/15n20 and trying some more billets, and I'll be trying your method Stacy.
 
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mgysgthath said:
medic, Ed Caffrey has a couple DVDs on damascus I've found helpful, combined with the information in this thread it's a great start. There are a few vids on youtube, but they should be supplemental if anything.
Click to expand...

I will try to look those up. I have to get my forge built first. Now, to find a good source for a small amount of insuwool and ITC-100......



Stacy, I will probably end up working with what you suggested, O-1 and 1084, just because it is cheaper and I love working with O-1 for some reason. I would bet that Aldo would even cut it to length for a person if you asked nicely enough.
 
MedicEVANS, Wayne at High Temp Tools, or Wayne Coe for the Inswool and ITC.

This thread really gets the blood boiling. I'm tempted to get some 15N20......
 
The good news is that you can get .125 1084 and .72 15N20 from Aldo, so you can not only start off with more layers than with 1/4 inch stock. That means you have to do one less cut and fold/stack for the same target layer count, but you also will get nice high contrast with the thicker 15N20 and thinner 1084.
 
All the above advice is true info.

But to answer the Original Poster's question -
Seven layers of equal thickness, of metals that weld together well ....is a good starting and learning billet.

Once one has done a few of these, they can easily move to billets with different thickness layers, higher layer count, complex materials, etc.
What I was getting at in my explainations is that even though a good damascus maker with a power hammer/press can weld up a 6" stack of 40 layers, that doesn't make such a billet a good learning tool for hand forging (Unless you want to learn to fail).


Moderators note:
It is a regular issue on these forums that a person will post a question and some advice will be issued. Then others will come in and post questions to that answer. Soon the thread is more about those questions than the OPs need for advice. Often ,the reason for the question gets lost in the discussions.
If there is a question about some posted procedure or other issue, sending a PM or email is a better way to get your answer than side tracking a thread.
This particular thread was not so bad, but in some cases, a reader could never guess the original question by the last twenty posts.
 
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