Feather pattern question

weo

weo

Joined
Sep 21, 2014
Messages
3,115
Hello all. I've been wanting to do a feather pattern billet for a long time now, and for some reason was waiting until I got a hydraulic press. Today on my walk around my property with my dog, I decided to try it with my latest damascus billet I welded up yesterday by welding a stem to put in my hardy hole and then chiseling down. I think it went good and I've no got 2 feather pattern billets, one of which I started to draw out into a blade before I wore out.

My question for those who've done a number of these is: after chiseling down through the initial stack, do you immediately close the gap and forge weld the billet? Or do you (like I did) let the sides cool down, grind off the scale and make the surfaces flat, tack weld them back together, then forge weld the billet?

Thanks

as always
peace and love
billyO
 
I've done a few... much better to let it cool, grind scale and flatten, mig weld up fully for a dry weld. Then you don't run the risk of a bad weld or borax lines down your center weld.
 
Salem Straub said:
... mig weld up fully for a dry weld. Then you don't run the risk of a bad weld or borax lines down your center weld.
Click to expand...

Thanks Salem. I only have an AC stick welder and, although I'm getting better, I'm no expert, so do I run an equal risk of getting a welding rod flux line?
 
I also don't have a tig but it's on the list. What I use is a cheep wire feed that has hardly any penatration. I bought it second hand for just this kind of thing. It makes an ok bead but does not really penetrate the surface so it's perfect. After welding just grind the weld off and you don't have to remove much of the good stuff. If I'm welding on a stub or handle I use the stick welder and weld prep the stub and fill it up.
 
Just run your stick welder dc electrode negative for the least penetration. ETA nevermind I didn't see he had a buzz box.
 
Another thing you can do is tack your billet, then wrap it up in heat treat foil. I've not done this but Mike Tyre swears by it, might want to ask him if that sounds interesting.
 
Thanks all. I've started to draw out the billet into knife making stock, and I'm pretty stoked as there's no splitting and the pattern looks good so far (IMO the feather pattern is one of the best looking patterns there is...). I'll post pics for feedback on if there's a flux line. Do y'all want a pic of the billet or wait until it's a knife?
~billyO
 
I would love to see the billet! I really want to give damascus a try. I have never seen a feather pattern done before and am interested to see. And I agree, the feather pattern is one of the best patterns of damascus
 
Salem Straub said:
Another thing you can do is tack your billet, then wrap it up in heat treat foil. I've not done this but Mike Tyre swears by it, might want to ask him if that sounds interesting.
Click to expand...
I use to wrap all my billets in heat treat foil when I first started dry welding. Works rather good as long as you do enough wraps to hold up to the time needed to soak in the forge.
 
Salem Straub said:
Both!
Click to expand...

Well, I was planning on backtracking that last question, as I didn't want to have to do any extra grinding, but you may have talked me into it....
I've got 4 other knives I'm trying to finish before the holidays, but I'll try to get to this in the next week.
If not, have a good holiday season all!
~billyO
 
Well, didn't want to start grinding a new blade with the short time left in the day, so I thought I'd go ahead and get a look at one of the 2 billets. I didn't get the cut straight down on this one....

XWpONOp.jpg
 
AlaskanHunter said:
I'm guessing there can be such a thing as "too sharp" in this case?
Click to expand...

I'll take some advice on this, too...I used my normal hot cut chisel for the first couple of heats to establish a slot. Then I used a rounded fullering tool, not the one with the tightest radius I have, but not the biggest one either.
 
I was just curious because the easier the tool cuts the less deformation you get to the pattern. But heat and billet size/shape can affect this too. Yours has a very sharp arc to center with the lines being almost perpendicular half way to the edge.

Not good/bad/right/wrong just wanted to know what you used to get that amount of arc.
 
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