My First, Damascus forging

[JTknives]

well as i was going through my pictures i came accross a bunch i took a a long time ago of the first damascus forging i had ever done and became very nostlagic (I think that is the word im thinking of). but i saw them and it brought back so many memory. so i though i would share them with you. i put the in order as best i could. i started with a horse file and ground all the teath off it and made it into bar stock. then i forged down rebar into bar stock and ground it till it was nice and shiny. then i stacked it, my stack onley had 4 layers but it was my first. here are the pictures and i will put little blurps between them to explan.

here is my first stack

I was so consentrated with my first welding that i forgot to take any pictures, but this is how it came out

I then cut her in half

and then took the 2 bars to my grinder. its home made can you tell

here thay are all ground, thay wher then restacked and wired

now its in my forge heating up with the forge off to pre vent any weld shears.

Then i dusted it with a little flux (borax)

It was a little windy

Then back in the forge

O looks hot, going to weld the end

 

[JTknives]

The end was welded and i removed the wire from one side and continued welding

Lay her on her side and give her a hard smack to see if she welded

Compleated the weld and ended up with this

I cut and ground it like befor. then restacked and wired.

Now back in the forge

welded the end and now cleaning off the flux and taking a look.

I contunied the above process till i got like 256 layer i think but who knows. then i forged her to a rough blade shape. by this time i had lost a lot of steel from scale and grinding and there was just enought to make a short blade.

there is my edge bevel.

Then to my grinder to get her to shape.

Now she is etching.

 

[JTknives]

After the etching i cleaned her up and she came out great.

To my amazement i could not see any cold shuts of slag inclusions. it was a deap etch as you can see.

I then made the handle. because the blade was so short i made a handle from aluminum and notched it on the end so the blade could set in. i then drilled 1/4" holes through the blade tang and the handle.

I then pined them togather with brass pins then peaned the heck out of it. and then filed the pins down.

did a polish and drilled some holes in the handle.


I think for my very first damascus let alone forging experance it turned out quite good. you should have seen me packing that, i felt like king of the world. and hear is the kicker, i still have her, she does need to be cleaned up as she sat in hawaii all by her self and got some bad rust on her but my family when thay came to visit brought her home. thanks for looking. Just to let you know i did try and heat treat her, i did not know what i was dooing but but it does hold an edge. but to me that is not the point, it was a very huge learning experance and i had so much fun. thanks for taking a peak into my past with me.

 

[David Loukides]

Thanks for the Post,
It makes me want to try doing it!!!

 

[J.S. Carter]

Looks great! I like the nessmuk shape, I'd never thought of doing half lap splice joint fitting before, It gave me an idea to use a birdle joint, (Tab A into Slot B) some time THANX FOR THE IDEA! :thumbup:

 

[SteelSlaver]

I like the joint idea too. Lots you could do with that. I bet JT puts a handle on his billets now too.

 

[Bruce Bump]

Thats a nice batch of old pictures. Thanks for sharing.

I dont think I'm tough enough to do it that way...bare handed on a sunny day holding the steel with slip joint pliers and no gloves. Hammering it out with flux flying and no leather apron or eye protection and all done left handed.

I love Newbies!
edited to say: I hope you use safety precautions now?