Making a big twisted damascus dagger, lots of pictures.

[ArielSalaverria]

This is something I've been working on between orders. Once I fullfil some I have delayed, I'll keep working on this one (and on the other chain damascus tanto)


Distribution chain from a car. I'm filling the spaces with "steel wool" we use to remove crusty food on dishes.

Chain with a 4mm thickness 5160 plate wrapped around. What you can see on the center are 1070 and 1010 steel plates.

Once I welded it a steel bar for easy handling, I placed it on the can, with two stainless 304 plates on top and bottom to allow easy retrieval of the damascus billet later (if I don't add this two layers, it welds against the can inner walls)

Off to the oven it goes (old picture, but It depicts exactly what I did with this one)

I took the already welded steel out of the can/capsule. (It looks funny, but it is properly welded)

Twisting the steel after heating it again.

Hammered flat again.

 

[ArielSalaverria]

11" blade, with grinding and heat treating still missing (this latest will make the damascus patterns/differences more intense)

That is all for now

Regards,

Ariel

 

[rebeltf]

Wow that is cool , I cant wait to see the rest of the pictures , this is like wating for a movie sequel

 

[Mark Williams]

Always thinking areant you. I bet you have trouble sleeping at night with ideas swimming in your head.

Very cool Areil.

 

[misque]

Dude, you are the most inspired knifemaker I've ever seen. We need to find a way to preserve that imagination of yours for the future good of knifemaking mankind.

That is a really nice looking blade you've forged up. I can hardly wait for the next series of pics!

 

[dfarmerknives]

That is great. It is turning into a beautiful piece. I can't wait for the finished pics.

I am a newbie, how does the 304 keep the billet from welding to the mold?

 

[Whit]

Thanks for posting those pics. Always great to see the stages of your work. I'm curious about the steel wool. Do you regularly use that when making damascus? Does it work well for filling in the gaps? Do you place it by hand into each and every gap while preparing the material?

 

[ArielSalaverria]

Mark, misque,

I don't know what to say... Thank you!


David,

When you try to weld different stainless steels together using the traditional open flame forging method, you get the stainless steels to get a chromium oxide deposit on their surface, which prevents a proper welding, as the regular fluxs, like the borax can't dissolve it / get mixed with it.

To prevent this is that you encapsulate it (put it inside an almost hermetically sealed tubing) with a piece of paper inside, to reduce the ammount of Oxigen inside the can. (You can also put stainless steels fluxs inside)

Once you have this, you take it to a higher temperature, not because it welds at a higher point, but because it doesn't conducts temperature as well.

So if I add some layers of stainless steel there (304 in this case) they act as a barrier from the weld and the container inner walls


Whit,

I use it to fill in the gaps/holes of the chains or other holed materials I might use. I only do it when I make a canister damascus, and it works pretty well.

I do it by hand, hole by hole, getting it inside the holes with a screwdriver tip or somethign similar.

Sometimes I also use powdered steel from the shop mixed with some borax.

Regards,


Ariel

 

[RDT]

nnnnnnnniiiiiiiccccce!!!!!!