Quillon Dagger WIP

S

sculver

Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
196
I am currently building this custom ordered quillon dagger. The blade will be 12 inches long, of ladder pattern damascus. The fittings will be hot caustic blued 1018 steel. The handle will be spiral fluted interior mammoth, with twisted 24k gold wire inlays. I hope that you enjoy this WIP.

The damascus steel for the blade starts out as five pieces of 1018 steel and five pieces of O-1 steel, stacked in alternating layers.

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The stack of steels is soaked in kerosene. The kerosene acts as a flux for the forge welding process.

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Taking a welding heat on the stack of steel.

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Making the weld on the stack, using a 50 pound trip-hammer. The stack is now a solid billet of ten layers of steel.

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Drawing the welded billet out in the trip-hammer.

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A hydraulic press is used to flatten the billet into bar stock. Shims are placed between the dies to press the bar to a uniform thickness.

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The bar is straightened on the anvil, using a wooden mallet.

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The bar is heated to a low red heat and placed in vermiculite to cool slowly. This will leave the steel in an annealed state so it will be easy to saw later.

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Grinding the forge scale from the bar.

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The bar is sawn into five pieces.

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The five pieces are surface ground flat.

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The pieces are MIG welded together and the excess MIG weld material is ground away.

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Taking a welding heat on the stack of five pieces.

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Welding the stack. The billet is now at fifty layers. The billet is again drawn out into bar stock, flattened and annealed. It will then be cut into four pieces, restacked and welded to create two hundred layers. The two hundred layer bar will be cut into two pieces and stacked and a final weld will be done to make four hundred layers. The four hundred layer billet will be drawn out into bar stock and annealed as was done previously.

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Very much looking forward to this Steve - thanks for taking the time to document the process and share it with us here. I'm sure the guys testing for M.S. this year will be watching closely.

Quick question - for flux are you using just kerosene?
 
Steve's one top bladesmith. Looking forward to seeing him do his stuff.

Look at how cleanly and professionally that shop is arranged!

john
 
Your WiPs are always so well done. Looking forward to seeing the dagger unfold.

Your shop is immaculate. :thumbup:
 
Thanks for doing this Steve. Is this the one we were talking about? Also just curious as to the O-1 and 1018 instead of say 1080 and 15N20. Looking forward to seeing the rest of this one.:thumbup:
Brion
 
Thanks for all of the comments!!

This is a beautiful shop Steve.
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Look at how cleanly and professionally that shop is arranged!
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Yes, I have a very nice shop. It should be; it's the fifth shop that I have built for knifemaking. The thing that I like the most about it is that it is fully insulated and has central heat and air conditioning. I really appreciate being able to work in a shop that is climate controlled. I wish it were larger, but then it would cost more to heat and cool. I can't stand clutter and a dirty work environment. So, I try to keep the shop clean and organized. This habit was strengthened during the time that I was doing gunsmithing. I didn't want a customer to bring in an expensive gun and feel that I didn't have a clean place work on it.

Also just curious as to the O-1 and 1018 instead of say 1080 and 15N20.
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I chose the 1018 & O-1 steels primarily because this customer had previously purchased a dagger that I had made from these steels and he wanted a similar piece. Too, I am familiar with the finishing process for this mix to create the finish that I want the blade to have. This blade will have a tight ladder pattern with a mirror polished finish.

sure would've liked to have made it to your shop last fall for the ABS Hammer-In.
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Hey Dawkind!!! Thanks for posting the article. It was mostly correct. I'm working on teaching this writer about the art of knifemaking. She is interested in writing articles for the knife magazines. You're welcome to come out to my shop any time. We're having a KCKA Shop Tour at my place on January 22nd. Come on out!!

I'm sure the guys testing for M.S. this year will be watching closely
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MS applicants may be able to pick up some tips from this WIP. It is essentially a Mastersmith test style dagger.
 
As usual Steve, well done and clean work from a true professional. I always enjoy watching you work.
Like Wulf, I'm wondering if you use anhydrous borax at all anymore. Is the kerosene enough to reduce the atmosphere long enough to reach welding temps?
 
Hey Bruce,

I forgot to address Wulf's question; sorry.

I use the kerosene primarily for the initial weld of the starting stack of steel. The advantage of using kerosene is that it precludes the chance of trapping borax between the layers of steel. I always use light blows of the hammer on the first weld, but then do another (insurance) welding pass before starting to draw the billet out into bar stock. The kerosene is the only thing used as a flux for the first welding pass through the hammer. I then put just a little borax (20 Mule Team, straight from the box) on the billet for the second welding pass.

I use the borax on the second weld because I have heard from other smiths that they have seen dark lines at the edges of the billet if only kerosene is used. The thought is that the kerosene at the edges of the layers may be burning off too much to make the weld. A second weld with borax closes any open welds at the edges. Honestly, I have never tried omitting the borax on the second weld.

In restacking the billet, I MIG weld the edges of the layers. If the welds are tight, there is no need to use a flux on the steel. However, I always soak the billet in kerosene after grinding off the excess MIG weld material; in case I got too aggressive with the grinding and opened a MIG weld.
 
Milling grooves in the four hundred layer damascus bar to create the ladder pattern.

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The grooved bar is heated in the forge.

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The bar of damascus is flattened in the hydraulic press. It will then be annealed as before.

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The bar is surface ground to remove the forge scale.

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The bar has been lightly etched to reveal the damascus pattern.

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The damascus bar is heat treated. It is placed in an electric oven at 1550 degrees F to soak for 10 minutes; then quenched in oil. This photo was to be of me quenching the bar of damascus. Unfortunately, the timer on the camera was faster than me. After quenching, the bar will be returned to the oven at 500 degrees F to draw the temper.

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A paper pattern for the blade is glued to the damascus bar and is sawn close to the line on the pattern.

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Grinding to the lines on the pattern.

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Grinding distal taper into the blade.

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Surface grinding the riccasso area of the blade.

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The blade, so far.

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AWESOME Steve!!! :thumbup: :cool:

Your shop looks like mine would if I had a new concrete floor and three times the square footage I currently have!!! ;) :D

That is some very serious commitment to mill all the ladder grooves! :eek: I've been thinking about setting up an arbor for my horizontal mill so I could gang mill the grooves in a couple passes for an entire bar.

Really looking forward to seeing this unfold! :) :cool:
 
Steve,

Thanks for taking the time to do a WIP. :)It's got to be more difficult to do each step in front of a camera timer?

Looking forward to see how this one turns out.
 
This is another EXCELLENT WIP thread Steve. As mentioned, your shop is just AWESOME and the dagger is looking great so far.

I'll be waiting to see the reamaining process.

Peter
 
Thankyou for the kersene info Steve. I'm going to try now.
I cant wait to see how this dagger comes out.
 
I forgot to mention that my buddy Mike Quesenberry tipped me off to the kerosene trick, but I haven't bought any kerosene to try it yet! :o I definitely will though... Thanks again for sharing Steve!!! :)
 
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