Hypothetical damascus pattern question.

jdm61

jdm61

itinerant metal pounder
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
47,357
I know that when you are making the twisted W patterns like firestorm and explosion, you have to grind 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into each side of the billet to really expose the pattern in its full glory. I also know that if you ladder a straightW billet, you can get that cool twin lobe ladder effect, Have any of you guys tried to press a ladder pattern into firestorm or explosion? I am guessing that the high spots that are ground away would look like normal firestorm/explosion, but what do you think the low spots would look like? Do you think that it is worth the effort to find out?
 
Joe

It is usually worth the effort to try something new. The knowledge gained is always worth it even if the billet does not turn out as well as expected.

Brian
 
Joe, You'll get a sort of reversal of what you're used to. Instead of exposing the interior of the billet in the lows of the ladder, you'll get it exposed where the highs are once they're ground off. You will also get a little less lengthwise distortion of those sections since you're not significantly lengthening them with laddering dies vs. having to stretch them out with cut-in ladders.

If you're not used to forging in ladders, or if you're making new laddering dies, remember a few things:

  • Radius any sharp corners on your laddering dies or they become shearing dies...ask me how I know :)
  • Press ladders about 1/3 of the way into the workpiece. If you're shooting for 1/8" finished, go aboput 3/8" before laddering.
  • Get a 7" or 9" andge grinder and a cup wheel if you plan to do a lot of laddering. Grinding those ladders off is a real PITA.
  • Re-forging slightly after grinding to straighten things up is A-OK.
  • Remember to get pictures or it didn't happen! :)

-d
 
Out of curiosity, could you do something like layering different colors of Playdough or other modeling clay and then treat it like you would the billet (sans forge and powerhammer/press)? As in would this process give you a good idea of what kind of pattern you'll end up with, just for much less money and effort?
 
Destraal said:
Out of curiosity, could you do something like layering different colors of Playdough or other modeling clay and then treat it like you would the billet (sans forge and powerhammer/press)? As in would this process give you a good idea of what kind of pattern you'll end up with, just for much less money and effort?
Click to expand...

allot of guys have been doing this for years. I know the "Montana Mafia" guys have done this quite a bit for advance mosaic patterning.
 
Destraal said:
Out of curiosity, could you do something like layering different colors of Playdough or other modeling clay and then treat it like you would the billet (sans forge and powerhammer/press)? As in would this process give you a good idea of what kind of pattern you'll end up with, just for much less money and effort?
Click to expand...

Yup. If you use fimo or sculpy instead you can bake it in the oven to harden and then keep it around for reference or grind parts of it away to see how the interior of a billet looks (especially important for twists).

-d
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top