forge or grind damascus from bar

J

JasonByers

Joined
Feb 10, 2010
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106
This may be subjective but what is the recommended technique to get the best look out of a random pattern? After getting the billet to a flat bar I have used a bandsaw/grinder to profile, forged the stick tang then beveled with my grinder. These blades turned out pretty good but I hated to grind off all that hard work forging the billet! My thinking is that if I forged the bevels then after finish grinding it would appear to have more layers as I got closer to the edge. Is this correct? Once I forged a tip in trying not to waste too much and the pattern there distorted from the rest of the blade and seemed like the layers were too close to stand out after the etch. That may have just been my bar too since I'm pretty inexperienced and still don't know really what action will affect the pattern afterward. I will eventually experiment more but for now I figured I'd just ask. I'd appreciate any advice you might give me.

Also I'm planning on making some ladder pattern Saturday, enough for one small 5" blade and was wondering here too if I should grind or forge with this pattern. Thanks again guys.
 
Most of the pattern is contained within the layers. If you forge, forge rough shape and grind down into the pattern. Just my .02...
 
It's a hard fact of life that you'll waste material when you work with damascus. Some patterns can lead to as much as 80% material loss just to get the patterned stock. That said, with a random pattern you probably won't notice a significant difference.

With your ladder, how are you laddering? Will you be grinding or cutting in your laddering and then forging it flat, or forging in your ladders and then grinding off the tops? If you are going to cut them in, do so with a very thick, slightly small rough forging of your blade shape and then forge down close to your final shape. If you're forging them in, forge a full-sized version of your knife profile 3x as thick as you need. Forge in your ladders to 1/3 of the thickness if your piece, and then grind off the tops.

-d
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I plan on grinding the grooves in so I will follow your technique on that deker. And I will continue to grind through the layers. Thanks again guys and have a good weekend.
 
JasonByers said:
Thanks for the tips guys. I plan on grinding the grooves in so I will follow your technique on that deker. And I will continue to grind through the layers. Thanks again guys and have a good weekend.
Click to expand...

Don't forget, only grind 1/3 of the way through from each side, and make sure that your ladders are offset from each other from one side of the billet to the other.

Take pics so you can show us how it goes!

-d
 
I have been told by folks with a lot more experience than me that you should at least hit a random pattern blade a few times to knock some more "randomness" into the pattern, so to speak. This is the one time when being a sloppy forger can come in handy because when you grind away all of those dings and mishits, it can look pretty cool.;)
 
Ok my ladder pattern is probably going to turn out to be another random. I just don't have enough hammer control to get good even layers. I have a couple more folds before I grind in the ladders but I’m thinking I may not and drill shallow holes randomly instead. Don't really know what will happen but I'll post pics of the knife when I get done. Thanks guys for the help again and have a good Memorial Day.
 
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