Pattern Welding Pattern Instructions?

Deker, Fitzo's right. An hour talking with Delbert will be one of the most productive hours you will ever spend. bruce/birdog forge
 
Joe C, that was really enjoyable to look through that "mini-tutorial"! Very nice. A lot of skills displayed there. Thx!
 
I have taken a class from JD Smith on damascus patterning. He teaches how to deconstruct just about any pattern. His DVD runs $127 but he also expects phone calls to help you out. I also have Ed Caffery's DVD's they are really good. Any of the above mentioned books or websites are all great resources too. Just dive in. Go get some modeling clay and start to play. Stack and mash it twist it and cut it. You can do most patterns in lower layer counts with clay. Just have fun.

Chuck
 
So I got off the phone with Delbert a little while back. Quite a phone conversation! Del, I want to thank you again for your time and help. I've definitely got enough to keep me busy for a while. I guarantee that I'll run out of my current supply of steel pretty soon. I suppose I'll have to order some 1084 from Aldo and some 15n20 tomorrow...

If I understand some of the things I discussed with Del tonight, the 1084 from Aldo should etch nice and dark seeing as his analysis of it reported .90% Mg, and if I get my 15n20 as Uddholm bandsaw steel from Dan Gray (it's a lot cheaper per lb...down side is that I need to find somebody to shear it for me) I should be in business.

Either way, I've got a lot to think about, and some work to do. Now I just need more time in the shop, and more $$ for a press and about a thousand pounds of steel to screw up :)

-d
 
boy i have tryed to stay out of this thread but it calls me back to read whats going own . in the world of patteren develpment ,
first as we that have spent a lot of time in this stuff will say it will drive you nuts ,but the best that i can say is build off of the known patterens learn them first learning is understanding what you can do .
reading a pattern when you see it will be the payoff buy studing the standerd patterens , so you want be wasting your time .
then comes the day when you are no longer in the world as most know it you will if not allready mumble ,talk out loud to your self its fun ,crazy ,humbleingn but its worth all that time
but the real thing that drives it all is the words ( what if i did this or that ) then you have steped off into the unknown and its just plan old funnnnnnn
Boy i wish i could have been in own that phone conversation
Fitzo knows hes been their .hes trying to get you in easy so you want blow your mind all at one time
,
 
Bowie said:
boy i have tryed to stay out of this thread but it calls me back to read whats going own .
Click to expand...

I'm a newbie...I'm a pusher...I'm a newbie...I'm a pusher... :)

Bowie said:
in the world of patteren develpment ,
first as we that have spent a lot of time in this stuff will say it will drive you nuts ,but the best that i can say is build off of the known patterens learn them first learning is understanding what you can do .
reading a pattern when you see it will be the payoff buy studing the standerd patterens , so you want be wasting your time .
then comes the day when you are no longer in the world as most know it you will if not allready mumble ,talk out loud to your self its fun ,crazy ,humbleingn but its worth all that time
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that I can just start to get some of the basics. For example, Del explained how to get the W's pattern last night. Feather makes some sense now, and so do some other patterns (I think). Now, what other important building block patterns/operations should I investigate? I'll likely be busy w/ W's for quite some time, but I like to know where I'm headed :)

Bowie said:
but the real thing that drives it all is the words ( what if i did this or that ) then you have steped off into the unknown and its just plan old funnnnnnn
Boy i wish i could have been in own that phone conversation
Fitzo knows hes been their .hes trying to get you in easy so you want blow your mind all at one time
,
Click to expand...

Give me a little time to get rolling (I only get a couple hours a night in the shop if I'm lucky)...Don't worry, I'll ask when my brain wants more info :)

So Bowie, when's the 2007 hammer-in? I should start planning now

-d
 
So, I've finished the second billet with some more twisting at 112 layers, and a very quick test etch looks kinda neat. I just need to re-weld some twish remnants back in.

After that I started on a W's pattern billet to see if I understood what Del told me on the phone. It's to 56 layers now and will get 3-5 more draw/weld cycles before I call it done. One question I have on the W's though. When I'm "finished" with it do I need to switch the direction I draw it out on the final drawing out and go back to the original "top" of the billet to get the pattern on the proper side?

I was thinking about what happens inside the billet on this one while I was waiting for the billet to re-heat and it seems to me that I may need to rotate the billet by 90 degrees to get the pattern out...Am I right?

I want to make sure I finish this one right...

Thanks,

-d
 
Deker, a good thing to do as you work out the w pattern is to lop a small hunk off the end each weld cycle and take a peak at what you're getting. It will help you understand how the pattern is developing.

Something else to add on your "wishlist" for the well-equipped damascus maker may be an abrasive chop saw. It's the fastest way going for you to cut steel bars to length for billets and also allows you to chop up in-process billets that may be way too hard for any bandsaw. No bothering with hot cutting and deformed billet ends. A chop saw and angle grinder will be good friends.

That's a cool link, Chuck. Thanks for sharing with us!
 
fitzo said:
Something else to add on your "wishlist" for the well-equipped damascus maker may be an abrasive chop saw. It's the fastest way going for you to cut steel bars to length for billets and also allows you to chop up in-process billets that may be way too hard for any bandsaw. No bothering with hot cutting and deformed billet ends.
Click to expand...

I have a love-hate relationship with my abrasive chop saw. I'd LOVE to get it OUT of my shop because it's noisy and spreads it's cursed abrasive dust and sparks all over the place. The abrasive makes the place stink and you end up smelling like the burning abrasive for the rest of the day.

Having said all that, I just CAN'T seem to part with the darned thing. It's just too useful.
I have a hydraulic ironworker so angle, flatbar, rounds, solid squares, etc. I can simply shear. But hollow squares and tubes ... hardened material... you've gotta use a chop saw.
I also get good use out of trimming hard-to-get-at places on parts by locking the thing 'on' in the upright position and using it like a big, skinny grinding wheel.
For pattern welding, I use it to cut billets like Mike recommended. Sometimes the bar is still glowing when I do it.

Darned thing... I wish I could be rid of it, but it's just too useful.
 
JCaswell said:
I have a love-hate relationship with my abrasive chop saw. I'd LOVE to get it OUT of my shop because it's noisy and spreads it's cursed abrasive dust and sparks all over the place. The abrasive makes the place stink and you end up smelling like the burning abrasive for the rest of the day.

Having said all that, I just CAN'T seem to part with the darned thing. It's just too useful.
I have a hydraulic ironworker so angle, flatbar, rounds, solid squares, etc. I can simply shear. But hollow squares and tubes ... hardened material... you've gotta use a chop saw.
I also get good use out of trimming hard-to-get-at places on parts by locking the thing 'on' in the upright position and using it like a big, skinny grinding wheel.
For pattern welding, I use it to cut billets like Mike recommended. Sometimes the bar is still glowing when I do it.

Darned thing... I wish I could be rid of it, but it's just too useful.
Click to expand...

These are exactly the reasons I've been avoiding one, but oh well...We can't be in love with EVERY tool we have right?

-d
 
You know I make quite a bit of damascus and I don't have a chop saw. As for abrasive dust my angle grinder does a good job of that.(its a delta 4hp 8000rpm model) I would LOVE to have the ironworker, I just took in 4 5-gallon buckets of sawdust from my bandsaw to be recycled.
Del
 
The big dust maker in my shop is a 4" hand held side grinder from hell . i was using it the other day and it desided it needed something diffrent to eat other than welding slage -- it was wearing a twisted wire cup at the time ,a must in my shop /
satin took controll and ran it over my arm , 6 day later im still felling the pain .
I have my chop saw outside
as i think about it dust is my biggest problem . each day i clean my shop with a leaf blower ,it works great .
I have learned to put a paint mask on to clean the shop and after cleaning alow about 30 min, to settle.
O im sorry to get off subject but the arm telling me to tell you how i abused it we need to take better care of ourselfs and work smarter dealing with dust is a big problem ,did you know it can explode -- dont ask
 
Guess I need to say that failure is the best teacher, and boy do I fail ! Just reworked my press to work with three presses, so much better than changeig hoses all the time,,, now to the hard part, puting steel in them and seeing what I can get. Would one of you guys show some pics of what you mean by "radial pattern ?" How do you cut thebillet...how to re-weld ect...could really help me out...
 
fitzo said:
Somewhere there's a "demo" Cashen did as he did a reverse-twisted viking pattern sword. It may have been patterned after Sutton Hoo, I just can't remember. Maybe mentioning this will jog someone to put up a link.
Click to expand...

I believe this is the thread you're referring to:

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=13809


One of my favorite threads of all time. I wish it had pictures of the finished sword.
 
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