Mosaic Dagger- WIP

[B . Buxton]

This is an order I just started and I throught I'd try to show some of what is involved in its creation. This is going to be a mosaic tile dagger (hopefully) with a W pattern cutting edge and tip with a few stars down the center, elephant ivory handle, fluted with twisted wire inlay.


This is some of the materials I'm starting with. 1080 & 15n20 for the bar stock to make the W pattern damascus and I'll make 2 cans with stars to asure I have enough material. The can with the stars will use 4800 and 1084 powdered steel, the star shape is made fromthin nickel sheeting.

This is the billet tack welded together and 1 of the cans ready to be forge welded.

Here I'm welding up the billet for the W pattern.

I've welded the billet up and reduced it to 1 1/2" by 3/4", here I'm grinding clean the surfaces that will be cut, stacked and rewelded.

here's the billet cut into 5 equal pieces and restacked, I'll weld this up then cut,stack and reweld again.

here's the W pattern bar all welded up, I reduced it to a 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" square bar so I can cut a couple tiles off it when it cools, that will be the dagger tip.

Here I'm welding up 1 of the star cans, I like to use a stop gauge between my dies just to make sure I don't over squeeze the cans and cause a lot of distortion, the stars will get distorted as it is with all the manipulating I'll be doing to them so this helps me keep it as minimal as I can.

Here's the first star can welded up, I'll weld up the other can, then let them cool over night so I can grind clean the mating surfaces, cut and restack them tomorrow.

Thanks for looking,

Bill

 

[stabber]

Awesome Bill!! Great job on the Star Damascus!! Never saw this done before your pics, Thanks!!:thumbup:

 

[Charles Vestal]

Looking forward to seeing this knife come together.

The star looks like it came out great.

Thanks for letting us follow along.

Take care

Charles

 

[fivefold]

That looks fantastic, and I'm eagerly waiting for the next set of pics!

 

[supasuprab0b]

gonna have to follow this one. mosaic damascus has always interested me.

 

[xaman]

This will be a great thread, thanks for letting us have a glimpse Bill.

 

[Bruce Bump]

This is going to be good boys and girls! Go Bill!

 

[BrianThie]

Looking forward to see how this one progresses Bill.

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!!

Brian

 

[T.K.C.]

I look forward to seeing the progression of this!!!

 

[RogerP]

Pattern sounds interesting - can't wait to see it unfold.

Roger

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Thanks for taking the time, Bill.
Great thread - indeed.

 

[peterinct]

These threads are GREAT and this one looks to be another. The description sounds superb and it will be a pleasure to view the progression.

Thanks Bill.

Peter

 

[Robert Dark]

You go Bill. Thanks for sharing with us.

Robert

 

[Kevin Jones]

Thanks for making the effort Bill.
Very good photos. :thumbup:

 

[stewart]

Yep this is going to be a good one!! Cant wait for the next pics Bill looking great so far! :thumbup:

 

[canineforge]

Really enjoy these WIP threads. Coming along nicely, Bill!!

- Joe

 

[Dusty One]

Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to do this....

 

[lwrhea]

Lookin good Bill! I look forward to seeing this one. Lin

 

[B . Buxton]

Thank you all for all the comments and support, I sure do appreciate it.
I got an early start this morning since heavy rains are suppose to hit here again tomorrow and with my smithy outside, even though its covered with high winds and rain it makes forging a bit nasty, so I'm trying to get ahead of the weather just in case. So this is what I got accomplished today.

I'm slicing 2 tiles off the W damascus bar in this picture, so I can then go ahead and reduce the bar down to make the cutting edges.

Here's a pic of the W bar sliced open, this pattern will be the dagger tip.

Here I'm reducing the W bar to 3/4" x 3/8", I sure hope I didn't reduce it the wrong way.

Here I've cut, stacked and ground clean the mating sides of the stars and there ready to forge weld back together.

I got the stars welded up and reduced to a 3/4 square bar, and did a quick etch to see if I messed them up with the forge welding, not to bad since they were reduced from a 2" bar down to 3/4". They should look a little better deeper inside the bar also, the bar ends always get a little more distorted.

Here I ground clean the star bar sides and after grinding clean the W pattern bar sides, I've tack welded the W's to the sides of the star bar, time to forge weld it up.

I got in such a hurry I forgot to get a picture of the bar being welded, but here it is all welded. in the morning after it cools good I'll clean it up on the belt grinder and start cutting tiles with the bandsaw. I hope it doesn't rain, I'm getting excited to see how this mess is going to turn out.

Thanks again for looking, any questions just ask.

Bill

 

[Jos]

Interesting thread. Thanks for posting.

Kind regards,

Jos