Newbie here,who sells good damascus slabs for blanks?Getting into knifemaking.Advise?

In his second post he said he didn't want to use "PCBs".
I got the impression he may have confused that with polychlorinated biphenyls.
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
In his second post he said he didn't want to use "PCBs".
I got the impression he may have confused that with polychlorinated biphenyls.
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Matt R said:
If damascus is what you want then go for it. Folks are just trying to save you some hard earned money and heartache. I have built everything from hot rods to fine furniture and I threw my first 10-15 blades in the trash. It really is tough. You probably won't find good damascus for $50 but if you just want the look and are not worried about edge retention and stuff like that you can find some cheap stuff on ebay. Alabama damascus, which is good damascus, is anywhere from $120 and up. I tried the whole jig/sled thing and as bad as I was freehand, I was worse with it! Take your time and make it right. Do you have a mill for the fuller or just a drill press? I'm not sure a drill press and milling vise is going to work. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
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Lu1967 said:
Mirror polished damascus on a K-bar fighting knife,now we're talking.I like the way this guy thinks.You just don't see a lot of that nowadays.
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Will do. I am planning on buying my equipment within the next week. I am fairly certain that a milling vise will work for a fuller. Before I would etch the blade, I would have to polish to at least 2000 grit and flitz, then wash with warm water... When I speak of etching agent(s) I am referring to Polychlorinated biphenyl and safety of the user(s) if I or a buyer use/uses the blade for food or dressing game.. I did a quick search on the forum about Ferric Chloride. Interesting stuff. Thanks for the information, this will be helpful. This is what I read and I think I will try a few controls of this when the time arrives to do so.
Justin.Mercier said:
Something which I was told here works well, and what i've used for all my etching so far and which DOES work well is a 50/50 solution of FECL from radio shack and 5% distilled white vinegar. FeCl is an etchant but it's actually a base, and the vinegar which is an acid neutralizes it a bit, the result is about the same strength as 1 part FeCl to 3 parts water. It can be hard finding distilled water in places to mix with the fecl, but distilled white vinegar is pretty common, and then you can use the rest of your vinegar as the neutralizer comming out of the etchant before rinsing it off in water. (believe me you want to neutralize it or you end up with bad rust spots on your blades the day after you etched
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This is a grind job I did on a Cattaraugus Quartermaster 225Q.
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Exfoliated the black oxide pits with naval jelly (phosphoric acid) and K1 kerosene as a penetrant. Abrasives were brass brush and steel wool. Sno Seal'd the handle. Will start on a blueprint tomorrow. Maybe a theatre type handle would be pretty cool. I am thinking about some scrap plane metal and plexi. Maybe I can score some F16 metal or circuit board. Ideas.. ;)
 
Well Justin Mercier is wrong about ferric Chloride, its not a base. Its also not quite an acid. Its called a lewis acid because it takes up a pair of electrons
 
Zemapeli said:
This is a grind job I did on a Cattaraugus Quartermaster 225Q.
S7300569_zps0ba7e3b9.jpg

1008-182825_zpsd1d66c1f.jpg

Exfoliated the black oxide pits with naval jelly (phosphoric acid) and K1 kerosene as a penetrant. Abrasives were brass brush and steel wool. Sno Seal'd the handle. Will start on a blueprint tomorrow. Maybe a theatre type handle would be pretty cool. I am thinking about some scrap plane metal and plexi. Maybe I can score some F16 metal or circuit board. Ideas.. ;)
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That's not grinding, that's cleaning.
 
Go for it! I'd love to see a picture of your first attempt using Damascus. Please post pics when you are done!
 
kdogmcg said:
That's not grinding, that's cleaning.
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He doesn't need our help on grinding, he just wants to know were to find some $50 damascus billets. He's confident in his grinding ability, didn't you see how he stripped the paint off of that blade!? No no, I think he's got it from here. Hell, he'll probably be able to teach us a thing or two when he's done. Side loading a drill press with a mill vise is a good test for a drill press. Makes sure it's not wimpy.
 
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