Forged blade textures?

C

cooks 7

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Jan 27, 2005
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153
I was just spending some time on Don Foggs site, which pretty much leaves me speechless with wonder.
This time I was most fascinated by his "textured" flats on some blades, swords, sickles, ect.
How is texturing done? i have seen "hammer marks" on some other custom blades but his textures are more organic looking...
Can somebody clue me in?
thanks
jon
 
you could design tools to punch textures in, or grind them, or mask and sandblast, or etch, or engrave.
i think sand blasting would give some interesting designs. ive done a bit of this on glass. mask off the area you don't want cut with vinel contact paper like you get for lining shelves, or for very deep cuts a product called buttercut, its a resist material gravestone makers use. you could get a little bit from them , probably their scraps would be enough. you want to blast the deepest parts of your design first. then work to progresively shallower cuts.
 
I have an old hammer head and matching fuller for some of my texturing.

A small ballpein for other textures, there is also etching depends on what you want.

One of the most fun textures was draging an item down a gravel road on a chain. :D

then there's the press....
 
Don forges it in with special texture dies he's made for his press.

You can do it with hand hammer, but it's really difficult to hammer one side and not be flattening the other side at the same time (since the other side will be on the smooth anvil).
 
i think for anyone working in a home shop without presses and dies the sand blasting is the way to go. you can finish it with very fine sand and ready to polish.
 
John I do agree, that you can get some really interesting/pleasing contrasts with sand blasting. However, I think you're on a bit of a different page than cooks 7 :)

The texture like Jon (cooks 7) is referring to is very deep and not something you can accomplish with any blast media. I could be wrong though... if what you're talking about will engrave stone.

Not AT ALL comparing my work to Don's, but this is an example of forged in texture with a texturing die.

K03244-WheelerNick-003.jpg
 
Stippling is another interesting technique for texturing forged.Have a Jerome Anders that the exposed thong hole tang is stippled as well as the ferrule. :thumbup: :cool:
 
Thanks for all the ideas guys, I guess I'll just have to start experimenting with different techniques,
So is a texturing die pretty small and just randomly applied while forging? It seems pretty random and not a die in a rolling press or anything that would repeat a set pattern.
I think with my limited resources, I might have to start with trying to etch some texture randomly.
Could a strong ferric mix etch pretty deeply in O1? I am going for more of a prehistoric knife that got dropped in acid kind of look, if that makes any sense. Kind of forging marks meets flint knapped feel, hopefully that will make sense to someone.
Again, thanks for all the suggestions, now I just need to get off my butt and start making more knives.
jon :)
 
If that's the look you are shooting for, I would first rough cut the texture in with the edge of an angle grinding wheel or the corner of your belt grinder wheel.

Then mask off the areas you DON'T WANT etched with finger-nail polish, and etch the steel very heavily in ferric chloride.

You can get rid of the finger-nail polish with Acetone when you're done.

:)
 
would you still use a diluted ferric mixture or straight? i can't remember what i mixed to for a light etch...
 
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