Pattern Welded Sword WIP

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NickWheeler said:
Great stuff Phillip!!! :thumbup: :cool:

I was going to ask before how your shop would be this time of year without insulation, and I see you've got quite a coat on. How cold is it in your neck of the woods right about now?

I love the alternating twists, and you've got them laid out REALLY WELL!
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Yesterday it was in the upper thirties, I think. I can stand pretty cold temps, if there's no draft, and thankfully my new barn is a lot less drafty than my old shop.

Thanks! The twisting was not too hard to keep uniform. Consistency is the key, but I'm sure you know that already. :)


blad5 said:
Thanks for the explanation, Phillip.

Another question--approximately how much time do you have to make the twists before you have to reheat the bar?

Paul
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I'm not sure. Probably around 10 seconds. :confused: I can do 3 complete twists in around 5 seconds. Of course, I've never pushed to see how long I can go. Let it get too cool and it'll twist off into two pieces. Not good! ;)


Well, yesterday I tried to straighten one of the bars cold, and it broke in two. :mad: Apparently they air hardened some. So I ran an annealing cycle on the remaining bars, and today I made a replacement for the one that broke. This afternoon I might weld the three cores together.
 
Wow! Only 10 seconds and 3 complete twists in 5 seconds. I counted 16 twists in a section. So each section must take approximately 3 heats. Correct? How long does it take to heat?

Paul
 
Well, I decided to take the pieces of the core bar that broke, and use them to do a dry run, for practice before I do the sword. Since it's not really part of the project, I'll save the descriptions for when I do the sword, and let these pics speak for themselves:

wip041.jpg



wip042.jpg



wip043.jpg



wip044.jpg
 
I just got through forge welding the three core bars together. I think it went well. :crossfingers:

Once the pieces are ground clean on the mating surfaces, then I tack weld the three pieces together on one end. The reason for not doing it on both ends is that the outside pieces tend to stretch more than the middle piece, and if they don't have a place to go, will start bending out, which could be a problem.

wip050.jpg



For the practice piece I posted earlier today, I used wire wrapped around the pieces to keep them lined up right, and it was a real hassle. They kept coming loose. So for the sword, I made some "clips" to do the job instead.
They worked much better.


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wip052.jpg



Here the end has been heated and fluxed:

wip053.jpg



Here's some shots of the welding process:

wip054.jpg


wip055.jpg


wip056.jpg


As I work my way down the bar, I tap the retaining clips down also, until they eventually fall off the end.


Here it is all welded, flattened, and straightened:


wip057.jpg


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It's about 3/8" thick, 1-1/8" wide, and 26" long. I think it stretched 2 or 3 inches in the welding process.
 
blad5 said:
Wow! Only 10 seconds and 3 complete twists in 5 seconds. I counted 16 twists in a section. So each section must take approximately 3 heats. Correct? How long does it take to heat?

Paul
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What you're counting there is actually the corners of the bar, so you have to divide the number of ridges by 4 to get the actual number of twists. Each section has 5 complete twists.

In fact it took 2 heats for each section, plus one for squaring and flattening.

I'm just guessing about the times, because I've never timed any of the steps, but I would say about 3 to 4 minutes to heat up the first time, then 45 seconds to 1 minute to reheat.
 
What a project! Good looking welds on that "dry run", in fact good looking short sword or dagger or...you are gonna finish that out and show us, aren't you.

John
 
Phillip Patton said:
What you're counting there is actually the corners of the bar, so you have to divide the number of ridges by 4 to get the actual number of twists. Each section has 5 complete twists.

In fact it took 2 heats for each section, plus one for squaring and flattening.

I'm just guessing about the times, because I've never timed any of the steps, but I would say about 3 to 4 minutes to heat up the first time, then 45 seconds to 1 minute to reheat.
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Not sure I entirely understand, but my main interest was the time element that you answered. It does not sound like the process was as time intensive as I would have expected.

Under one of your pictures, you wrote, "As I work my way down the bar, I tap the retaining clips down also, until they eventually fall off the end."

Don't you heat from the bottom of the bar to the top (the rebar end)? If so, aren't the retaining clips moving toward the rebar end ( this would be "up" for me)? Your use of "down" has me a little confused. Please don't take as criticism; I'm very interested in seeing how this is done and trying to understand.

Incidentally, I, too, like the pattern.

Paul
 
Phillip,

I've wondered how "risky" welding in sections is. I assume you flux on past the heated area to prevent your cleaned surfaces from scaling up. Can you comment on the process of welding something too long to be welded in one pass?

John
 
blad5 said:
Not sure I entirely understand, but my main interest was the time element that you answered. It does not sound like the process was as time intensive as I would have expected.

Under one of your pictures, you wrote, "As I work my way down the bar, I tap the retaining clips down also, until they eventually fall off the end."

Don't you heat from the bottom of the bar to the top (the rebar end)? If so, aren't the retaining clips moving toward the rebar end ( this would be "up" for me)? Your use of "down" has me a little confused. Please don't take as criticism; I'm very interested in seeing how this is done and trying to understand.

Incidentally, I, too, like the pattern.

Paul
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Are you talking about the dagger blade or the sword?

Right now, which end of the sword blank is "up" or "down" is totally arbitrary, since the edge wrap isn't welded on yet. Either end could become the tip.


John White said:
Phillip,

I've wondered how "risky" welding in sections is. I assume you flux on past the heated area to prevent your cleaned surfaces from scaling up. Can you comment on the process of welding something too long to be welded in one pass?

John
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I had wondered about that too. I guess the answer is that you have to keep it hot, and keep it fluxed. I overlap the sections I'm welding, so each spot gets at least two welding heats on it, just to be safe.
 
Phillip,

The pattern welded sword has always fascinated me as the "Grandfather" of our Damascus work. Your documenting this creation is really great. Can't wait for more!

Thanks,

John
 
John White said:
Phillip,

The pattern welded sword has always fascinated me as the "Grandfather" of our Damascus work. Your documenting this creation is really great. Can't wait for more!

Thanks,

John
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What he said. :thumbup:

Roger
 
Phillip- just when I thought I'd seen the coolest wip thread ever, along you come with this one. Phenomenal!
 
Phillip That is some cool stuff your doing I have learned a lot from this thank you.
 
i am enjoying the thread immensely and would love to have that kind of skill... (and TIME!)
thanks so much for sharing!
~Chris
 
Lorien said:
Phillip- just when I thought I'd seen the coolest wip thread ever, along you come with this one. Phenomenal!
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Well, thanks. :) I'm certainly not trying to one-up anyone. I've actually been planning this project for a couple months, and decided at the last minute to post the process here. Not too many swords around here, and I think that's a shame.



Knifemaker87 said:
i am enjoying the thread immensely and would love to have that kind of skill... (and TIME!)
thanks so much for sharing!
~Chris
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Well, Chris, I think you do have the skill. I wasn't sure I did, until I decided to just try it. And it's turning out not to be as difficult as I thought it would be. It's a lot of hard work, but not real difficult technically.


johngalt said:
Phil, is your damascus similar to the Serpent pattern damascus that was used in the picture in this link?

http://ejmas.com/jwma/articles/2004/...shore_1004.htm

Great thread! Today 04:53 AM
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No, it's more like this one:

http://atar.com/old/index.php?modul...m_id=1&PHPWS_Photo_op=view&PHPWS_Photo_id=133

There's a better picture on page 72 of Hrisoulas' book on pattern welded steel, for those of you who have access to a copy.


I'm glad to know some people are enjoying this. Thanks for saying so!
 
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