Pattern welding appearance question-

[Paul Sherman]

Hello-
Looking for some input as to why my damascus has this ragged look to it between the layers. I’d like a smoother transition. Am I just drawing too far and stretching those layers too much?
1084/15N20
Gas forge
Sand up to 800 grit then into the ferric chloride at about 3:1 with water, short dips with scrubbing oxides in between.

thanks!

 

[JTknives]

It’s very course damascus with few layers so your going to get that. Also did you make sure to heat treat it? Damascus etches much nicer once heat treated.

 

[Paul Sherman]

Thank you. I like the low-layer look, but maybe I’ll double the count to get it a bit smoother.

 

[weo]

I can't see the picture.

 

[DevinT]

I can’t see the pic, welding at too high a temperature or too rough of a surface finish on the mating layers is usually what causes fuzzy lines.

Hoss

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

One thing that can help is surface grinding the bars all in the lengthwise direction and with the same grit. 120 is usually good.

As you suggested, using two or three layers of the same metal per strata can help - AA-BBB-AA-BBB-etc. It will give the low layer colors with a higher layer hada.
Chris Marks used to layer up billets for me with 15 layers of 52100 as the core and then san-mai the sides with a coarse random damascus made of three 1075-two15N20-three 1075-two 15N20 ... to make seven color layers per side. He put a .020" layer of pure nickel between the cladding and the core. This created a wonderful faux-hamon effect when forged out to make the blade. The total package was very Japanese. The core had a lovely hada.