Well, I had to go to g-ma's and do some good son type of stuff, so shop time got cut back to nearly zilch tonight.
But since I realized there are some folks here that probably haven't seen the damascus process much, I'd add some more of the pics I already took.
Here is a pic of the billet right after it's been forge welded. It is solid all the way through now, and you can still see the layers. That bead of weld you can see is ground off before I do anymore forging so that it doesn't get pressed into my billet.
This is a shot of a billet drawn out to a little over 3x's its original length. There is another fresh, not welded yet, billet in the pic for comparison.
I like to grind the fire scale off between stacking. The power hammer is awesome going into this step, because it tends to blast the scale off rather than press it into the steel like the press can do. I rough it with the angle grinder. Note my handy, dandy clamp that I made that goes into my hardie hole.
This pic shows an end of the billet ground clean of scale and etched, just to show you the layers. The 1084 is what looks black, and the 15N20 resists etching and appears silver.
Here's the billet cut into thirds, and ground clean. If you're careful with the forging and angle grinding, it only takes a half dozen passes with the 2hp KMG and a 60X ceramic belt to get them this clean. The spots you can see are just little dings from the angle grinder, and NOT inclusions.
Here it is back in the forge. Keep in mind that the three layers you see MIG welded together, each contain 21 layers.... Sooooo... when this stack gets forge welded, we'll have 63 layers (not accounting for loss to scale/grinding)
Like I mentioned... these pics are back to basics... But if I look back about 8 years I didn't have a clue how this damascus stuff was done... I thought it was black magic and chickens and stuff
I'll get a buttload of pics this weekend of the Turkishizing of the billet, the blade forging, and some heat-treating and grinding.
All of my smart-ass-ed-ness aside.... I have been hanging around BF for a LONG time and really appreciate the comradere and learning that goes on here. Everything I posted about donuts and working out and pink string tank-tops was just me being a dork, which any of you that know me can attest to. All in good fun. :thumbup:
