Recommendation? forging thin (.092") stock

S

Skiller1nc

Joined
Jun 27, 2016
Messages
302
Recently purchased a piece of damascus that is .092"x3"x10". I want to make a knife out of it and need it to be more like 13"x2". IME lengthening thin steel is very difficult as the billet tends to just curve and form a C. Are there any tips or techniques that will allow me to lengthen this billet?
 
Skiller1nc said:
Are there any tips or techniques that will allow me to lengthen this billet?
Click to expand...
That's going to be tough, if not impossible to turn that 3" into 2" with pieces that thin. Instead of upsetting, it will just want to bend (the "c" you mentioned). Add to that, when drawing out the billet to length you will thin the material and then you have to take into account how much you'll lose due to scale....
I just finished making 2 pieces of damascus for someone who requested that the final billets be between 0.090-0.080" thick. I forged them under the press using a 1/8" spacer/kiss block and they ended up at 0.088" after grinding off all the scale and divots from forge scale.
 
I planned on doing a full tang knife and obviously, this isn't optimal, would it be ok from a strength and performance standpoint to cut some steel out of the blank at the tip and mig weld that to the end to provide enough length for the full tang? Can you butt weld to a full tang to add more material without sacrificing overall quality?
 
I have no experience forging but sounds like it could be easier to shorten your blade a bit and make it a hidden tang that’ll save some length as well.
 
Skiller1nc said:
Can you butt weld to a full tang to add more material without sacrificing overall quality?
Click to expand...
Yes, you could, but it would might be hard to hide this. You would have to finish it so that the spine and tang would be sanded and not show the patterning, which isn't too terrible. I sometimes do this on my knives.
Or, depending on your budget and timeframe, I might be able to make you a billet and you could save this one for another knife...
 
weo said:
That's going to be tough, if not impossible to turn that 3" into 2" with pieces that thin. Instead of upsetting, it will just want to bend (the "c" you mentioned). Add to that, when drawing out the billet to length you will thin the material and then you have to take into account how much you'll lose due to scale....
I just finished making 2 pieces of damascus for someone who requested that the final billets be between 0.090-0.080" thick. I forged them under the press using a 1/8" spacer/kiss block and they ended up at 0.088" after grinding off all the scale and divots from forge scale.
Click to expand...
I agree with weo weo and will add that your finished volume is so close to your starting volume, that once you factor in material loss into what will be a very slowly progressing forging session with a lot of heating and tapping, you will be short on useable material when you're done for sure.
 
If you've just got to have full tang, make it a frame handle. If needed you could then weld a short section of steel to the tang to make it long enough if needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top