Pattern Welded steel problem or not...

F

Frontier Forge

Joined
Aug 25, 2002
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138
Yesterday I forge welded a little billet of alertnating layers of banding strap(1095 ?) and Industial band steel cutting band saw blade( l-6?) This was 70 layers. I drew it out to doubled length, hot cut in half, Made a final weld with thicker bandsaw steel between the two 70 layer laminations. All welded great billets is 3/8. I got the billet up to non magnetic, and put it in the hot box(vermiculite). This was to facilitated the offset grooves for the ladder pattern which was supposed to go as deep as the center piece of band saw steel. Now the problem is here: The weld was so good I couldent see the center so a ground an polished then etched...Pretty....But I expected the center stuff to be shinny silver not dull grey to black. So what happened. Did it etch oddly cause its not heat treated, or does l-6 etched turn black, I thought the cromium content steels stayed silver. And the 1095 being softer turned black. Ive used this material before for pool and eye and twist and modified ladder. And whatever pattern I got I was happy with.....Any ideas guys....thanks, Bob
 
I use 1095 and 15N20 in my damascus. 15N20 is the European equivalent of L6. I think the main difference is the amount of Nickel, 15N20 has a little bit more.

The L6 should be silver and the 1095 grey to black depending on your HT and etch. The Nickel and other alloys is what makes the L6 not as effected by the etchant, thus staying bright.

I don't know for sure what is going on in your ladder pattern billet, but are you sure the band saw blade is L6?

Was the bandsaw blade "shim" made out of the same blade material that was used in the initial billet?

If the shim was not the same material, are you sure it was L6?

Hopefully some of the others will chime in with more experienced advice.

Hope I helped some.
 
A lot of time this will happen when you are using steels that will harden but don't know exactly what they are. I had a friend that did some damascus that was about 250 layers. After all the folds and heat treat and etch, nothing. It turned out he was using 1070 and 1095. He made a batch of 1082 :).
If you have used it before, and are sure about the material, the higher nickel or higher chrome will show the least amount of etching and will stand a little higher. Only by sanding the high spots will it start to show. I will go to 400 to 500 grit hand sand before etch and 1500 after etch.
I would use a slower acid solution, maybe 5 to 1 of distilled water to ferric chloride and see if that would make a difference.
 
Was the last piece added the same size as the billet at that time?Could the piece you added just be covered with the 1095 on the edges, hiding the L6?
 
My billet was 1/8" 72 layer strip (made up of banding strap-1095??)and band saw steel from a rebar plant that cuts wide flange beams, The shop sharpener told me they were L-6 with cobalt teeth, I ground the teeth and first 1/8 of the blade there 2" wide. The cental piece is 1/8" band saw steel, followed by another 72 layer strip. I annealed it(for machinability) ground both edges and ends to look for cold shunt or imclusions with 60 grit then a quick 20 minute etch. Now in the past used the archer etchant 2-1 and it developed a nice black haze it even kinda smelt like a leaking battery. But on here a bunch of people mention a slower etch say 4-1 so I diluted mine to 3-1 its still rather dark orangr and still colors skin if contacted, its in the 30-40 degree range here. I m thinking of getting another pint of etchant and adding it to my batch. Right now theres two pints of etchant in plastic milk jug 5 pints of water. Now on my test etch i can see the patern(layers)conrasting but the central part etched black. My plan was to do a ladder pattern and to ground down to the cental core, the draw out to 3/16 to 1/4(which I did last night) I think this tech. is called san-mai ,but the end result looks better if the center is silver.....oh well thats what happens when you use junk steel. Unfortunatly the suppliiers out here get this blank look on there face when you ask for 1084-95 of 15n20-25 or L-6, 0-1. Im impatiant and dont really like mail order or the price...Anyone got a good source, besides admiral steel
 
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