Question on making Damascus

D

dalee100

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Mar 15, 2008
Messages
1,539
Hi,

I've been watching some videos of guys making damascus with hydraulic presses. And watching the press slowly squeeze the layers together, I thought about an old gentleman I knew as a young boy. He had gone to school in his youth to learn to be a blacksmith, (that would have been in the middle '20s according to him).

But when I watched him forge weld, he told me that you needed to hear a "crack" when you hit the pieces together with your hammer. Otherwise, it wasn't a good weld and wouldn't hold.

I never hear that "crack" when I watch one of those videos. Why?

dalee
 
i thought that crack was the flux popping ,from squeezing out of the billets inclusions/layers?? not guaranteeing anything but a bang.

try dusting the anvil with water or flux, then get your steel hot, and pound on it, it'll sound like a m-80 going off.
 
atakach said:
i thought that crack was the flux popping ,from squeezing out of the billets inclusions/layers?? not guaranteeing anything but a bang.

try dusting the anvil with water or flux, then get your steel hot, and pound on it, it'll sound like a m-80 going off.
Click to expand...

Hi,

I'll bet that's what I'm thinking of. The flux combined with the sudden impact of the hammer makes that M80 sound. Still, he did associate the crack with a good weld. I wish I'd been a bit older so I could have understood what he said and did. He had some amazing skills.

dalee
 
Dalee

I was under the impression that the loud crack meant that you were hitting the billet too hard. When I used to hammer weld, I had no problem making good welds with a 2 1/2 lb hammer on 1" wide material with 15 layers of 1/8" stuff.

If I really hit it hard, it would really crack as you said, but I found lighter more even blows (without the Crack) were more effective and you didn't send hot flux flying 20 feet.

With the press, the flux is pressed out of the gaps between the layers as the weld is made -- and no crack.

Brian
 
I agree, kinda, but i know i have welded even using a light ball pien to set the initial weld and just with light taps, it created the sound, i never noticed it was a thing with the pressure applied to the blow as much as it was related to a trapped pocket of flux escaping with heavy or light taps, it a sudden escape, where as the press may be fast, it gradual pressure being applied.

hell im no expert, what do i know??? all i got is theory
 
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