Stainless steel damascus questions

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fireminime3

Joined
Jul 12, 2011
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hello, i have been lurking on here for a while, and i must say the work i have seen on here is amazing. i have been trying to do some stainless steel damascus for a little while and i cant seem to get it to work. I am doing it in a can with cardboard to get rid of the o2. One question i have is when i do the initial weld should i bring the thickness down alot, or just enough to set the weld and then let it cool? i am using a power hammer. also i am using 304 and 304 to start before i get the more expensive stuff. I am welding when my forge is almost white hot, and also letting it soak for about a half hour. Do i need to grind the material clean first? it is 16ga with a #4 polish so there is no scale to start. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
I would think that since stainless is air hardening you would want to do some thinning down while the steel is still encased in the can. Your other problem is that you are only using one type of material, you will get a homogenous mixture and no contrast.
 
What is your problem? is it not sticking, crumbling what? first thing I would do is get rid of the cardboard.
 
Thank you for the replies. When I try to do the initial weld, I will hammer a little bit and then take it out of the can to forge it further, then I reheat to welding heat and continue to forge, but once I start to forge on edge it immediately starts to come apart. So I am assuming it it is not properly fusing it to begin with. What would use iffy place of the card board?

Thank you
 
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