san mai WIP.............maybe

[jdm61]

So in the 13 plus years that I have been messing around with hot steel, I have made a fair bit of damascus but only attempted san mai once before this week. The first try like 4 years back was 416 and CruForgeV and I got it down to about 1/4 thick and then one side totally delaminated. Looked like something out of a cartoon. I am sure that it even went BOING!!! This past week, I was rooting around my odd steel pile where I keep things like cable, 416 for guards and such, my cut 15N20 stash, wrought and odd cutoffs. I came across a piece that I had forgotten about. It was a 7.5 by .20 by .80 inch piece of twist damascus that I had done from a leftover piece. I think that I had planned on using it for guard material but never did. I also found a 1 inch by 4 inch by .110 scrap of 115W8. Th only time that I tried to forge weld that stuff, it didn't go all that well. So I said what they hey. I cut the damascus bar in half, wired the three together with baling wire (wire welder broke down)and stuck it in the forge. It appears to have stuck and what I ended up with was a 6.5 by 1 by .22-23 inch bar and the core is relatively centered. I have been checking out some knives by Jimmy Fikes and James Helm of late and am thinking about turning it into a cord wrapped blade in the size range of a Fikes Cabin Boy, but with double bevels instead of the chisel grind. Here are some rough pics. The billet has a bit of a curve for now, but I soaked it in vinegar and you can actually see a bit of the pattern.

 

[Willie71]

Keep going! Looking forward to how this turns out!

 

[erik markman]

115w8, must be good.

 

[jdm61]

Erik, as we discussed a while back, I had issues with cold shuts and with getting that stuff to move under the press the one time that I tried to forge weld it with 15N20. On the other hand, I had very good luck with it as a monosteel, especially with the couple of kitchen knives that I made out of it. This little project appears to be doing okay which is good because I had saved my last 150 mm long piece of the 5mm x 37mm bar stock for a project just like this. If this one works, I figure that I can get 3 knives out of the bigger billet using the same proportions or maybe 4 if I use more "cladding."

115w8, must be good.

 

[erik markman]

Good job Joe!

 

[jdm61]

Well, it is in the vinegar now. I got close to a 4 inch blade and the blade is like 1 1/8 or so wide and about .165 thick with a full taper. The handle is a bit over 4.25 inches. I forged it pretty close to shape so the core is MIGHTY thin at the edge even though it is centered. Not much of it will be showing because I have done the rough grind and none it showing up from the edge now. Good training though.