Spring and file Damascus?

S

sugarworm

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Sep 1, 2012
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I've been doing basic blade making with some old railroad spikes and thought about upgrading to Damascus (cause all the cool kids are doing it :rolleyes:) and I've got the idea of making an 8 inch facon type knife with a drop point which'll be my largest blade yet. So would a coiled garage door spring and file work and do I need to pound out the coil into a billet for folding? And if so what ratio should I have for spring to the file?
 
Wow, going from forging RR spikes to making spring damascus is a huge leap.

Coil spring damascus is doable, and I suppose you could use a file as the core, but this is not a stater project and will require some advanced equipment and skills.

I would get some 15N20 and 1084 from Aldo and start with simple twist damascus. He sells them pre-cut into 2X6" pieces for damascus makers.
 
First,have you ever forged welded anything? If not the take 2 pieces of the spring and flatten them in to bars,clean them up,flux them and weld them to gether, then forge a small blade from that to see if your weld will stick.
Walk before you run.
Stan
 
If I may offer some advice. 1) listen to the above advice. Its pretty correct. 2) it is safer to use known steel than it is unknown. Experience has taught others this. Avoid that part of the learning curve. 3) Fill out your profile. You may live close to. Great smith who is willing to help you. 4) Have fun.
 
SBuzek said:
First,have you ever forged welded anything? If not the take 2 pieces of the spring and flatten them in to bars,clean them up,flux them and weld them to gether, then forge a small blade from that to see if your weld will stick.
Walk before you run.
Stan
Click to expand...

I've forge welded together a blade or two without any ill effect when they cracked during careless heat treatment, but that took all my skill in cursing and hammering. I know damascus is much more difficult to make than welding the same pieces of steel together, but will I need to upgrade my charcoal forge to a gas one or would it be fine on it's own?
 
That really depends on your charcoal forge's size/quality, your skill at controling it's heat, and your materials.

A well designed charcoal forge can easily reach welding temps, and higher, but many of them don't, or are too small or poorly designed to be useful.

Propane is usually more convenient and requires less operator skill to reach even accurate temps. I love using charcoal for forging, but I use a vertical blown propane forge for damascus.

You could pretty easily make single knife sized san mai in a small washtub style charcoal forge however if you're adept with it, or low layer count twists.

As mentioned though, save yourself the headache and heartache, and just buy some 1084 and 15n20, if you want to be rewarded for all your effort, otherwise it's a crapshoot, and requires a lot of extra work. Too many variables when your just getting the basics down adds to many potentials for failure, and can make the cause of setbacks unclear.

Good luck!
 
For those who haven't done it, coil spring damascus is done by heating a garage door coil spring ( or similar spring) and flattening it so the coils overlap sideways. Then you have to forge weld it together and consolidate it into a bar. Besides dealing with the voids, just the weld is tough enough. Two pieces of the processed spring material are placed on a core piece of blade steel, and san-mai is welded up. The pattern is curved loops, and is subtle( like cable damascus).

I have heard that some folks flatten the spring, and then do it as a canister weld with contrast filler. A few folds and it gets pretty interesting.

While similar to cable damascus in theory, spring damascus is a far harder weld to do.

Sugarworm,
I would suggest you start with a piece of cable and learn to forge weld that first. Many of the suppliers sell cable in pre-cut and cleaned pieces.
 
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