first try at cable damascus...

[oldold442]

started out as 3/4 inch cable......a little anhydrous borax, a little heat, and a little ferric chloride.......

 

[oldold442]

is it really that bad? i was going to put some scales on ot, but it felt good in the hand so i left it as forged...

 

[Salem Straub]

Hey man, I think that's a very nice little piece. Very charming with that brute de forge sort of finish. Cable is so fun to play around with, I like to leave a cable handle on sometimes, too. Then people can see what it was made from and really get a sense of the transformative power and nature of blacksmithing. It really trips some people out to see steel, which normally seems so unyielding, frozen in that process of change, solid (no pun intended) evidence of malleability at high heat. I really like Ariel Salaverria's knives which show clean cable texture even through the spine.
Good job.

 

[Allen Newberry]

Looks pretty cool. I'm gonna have to give it a try one of these days.

Allen

 

[steelshaper]

Good job. Looks like you got a good solid weld. Cable can be fun, can be a pain in the butt too

 

[oldold442]

thanks, i guess i needed a little boost. it was a lot of work, and the first one i tried ended with a big void where the handle end and the blade meet. didn't spot it until grinding. tried to gring it out, and oops, too thin. the second one(this one), i used a bit less borax, and used the wire brush a little more..

 

[canucthewind]

Really like it! I am getting my stuff together to make a forge. Hope my first comes out that good .

 

[oldold442]

here's a few pics of my forge, etc....

 

[chuckinohio]

I like how you can set your shop up outside like that and work where there may be a breeze going, and you can see the critters and such.

Chuck