Take Down Fighter Work In Progress

Threads like this demonstrate how the creation of damascus is time consuming, laborious, dangerous and requires a great deal of skill to execute the process properly.

Thank Josh for sharing these steps in such great detail.
 
Threads like this demonstrate how the creation of damascus is time consuming, laborious, dangerous and requires a great deal of skill to execute the process properly.

Thank Josh for sharing these steps in such great detail.
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Ditto, with one addition. After last years Blade, waiting on my flight, I met Joel Davis and we had a very interesting conversation on making and patterning damascus. After that meeting I had an extra appreciation for damascus making and I had much better understanding about what goes in making a quality (in every aspect) steel.

One of the things I learned is that to be a great steel maker, like Josh is:cool::thumbup:, and to make attractive damascus it is really key to be able to think 3-dimensional.

Marcel
 
Not only does making a knife like this take a great deal of time, so does putting a thread like this together. Thank you Josh.
 
One of the best and most informative threads I have followed ! I find myself coming back many times and will continue doing so until it's finished. This thread deserves to be a sticky for future reference for all to learn from IMHO. Ken
 
One of the better WIP threads yet. Looking forward to the construction phase in particular.
 
I love the CAT/GRZ license plate on the wall there, how the heck did you even get those two teams to get along on the same plate? HAHA I'm really impressed by the depth of your explanations of the steps you're taking, it brings a whole new level of appreciation for the different patterns out there. Thank you for this.

TA
 
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The billet has now been forge welded and drawn out to a thickness that is ready to be ladder patterned. Half of this billet is at the correct thickness. This is because my forge is not long enough for the entire billet. I will not cut the billet off and turn it around to draw the other end to the correct length. I would not do this to a fancy mosaic pattern where distortion would cause problems. But in this case it doesn't matter.

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Part of the billet is forged to a different width and thickness. The narrow part will be for the guard, spacers, and escutcheons. I do this to save steel. If it were all laddered at the blade width I would waste a lot of steel. If I were to draw it out after laddering it would stretch the pattern out badly.

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I now cut the pieces off that are ready for laddering.
Here are the lengths.
Blade and Frame: 12 x 1 1/2 x 1/2"
Guard/Butt-cap: 5 x 1 x 1/2"
Spacers and Escutcheons: 5 x 1 x 3/8"

Typically I press my ladders into stock that is twice as thick as what I will set my ladder jaws at. For example, the blade steel is 1/2" thick. I will ladder to 1/4" and that will give me room to draw out a bit, forge, grind, hand finish, and etch my blade to a 3/16" final finished blade thickness.
 
One of the "perks" of being a knife maker is that my kids get to come visit me at work from time to time. While forging they came to say hi.

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Demi, almost 5, on the left. Sadie, just turned 3, on the right.

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Demi loves to swing from the big rope that I use to test my knives.
 
haggismonger said:
I love the CAT/GRZ license plate on the wall there, how the heck did you even get those two teams to get along on the same plate? HAHA I'm really impressed by the depth of your explanations of the steps you're taking, it brings a whole new level of appreciation for the different patterns out there. Thank you for this.

TA
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Notice that the CAT comes first. I'm the Bobcat fan but my wife played college basketball for the Griz. Bit of a conflict.

For those who don't know the Montana State Bobcats and University of Montana Grizzlies are huge rival state colleges in Montana. Of course the Cats are far and away the best school in the state! :D

Thanks for all of the other compliments about this thread. I appreciate it. More to come later.
 
love the family shots!
Great thread, Josh:thumbup:
 
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Here I am setting up my press to stop pressing at exactly 1/4" I have set that up and am testing it on 1/4" stock before I run the risk of ruining good steel.



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On my press I have a ruler built on the side where I can adjust the amount of travel by just thousands of an inch. It has limit switches attached to it not allowing the press to go past a desired thickness.

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Here I am squeezing the ladders in. I go slowly and do this while the steel is hot to get the best ladders.

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Finished ladders.

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You can see the layers in the billets.

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Now I begin by grinding off the ladders. The reason for pressing this pattern in then grinding it off is to cut across the layers of the billet therefore creating a ladder effect.

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My messy outside grinding bench.
 
Great thread Josh. Your daughters are VERY cute and look remarkably like their dad.

Looking forward to the next phase.

Peter
 
Josh,

Awesome thread!

And great pics of your daughters. Mine is now 7 and I feel the same way--the more time spent together the better.

BTW, who built the monster press, and how many tons is it?

John
 
Do you grind off the layers entirely w/ your hand grinder, or do you shift to another tool when you've done part of the removal?
 
I grind all of the layers entirely with the hand grinder. Some guys use face mills on a milling machine but my mill is just not heavy enough for that. I like those big cup wheels because they really hog the steel away. The large flat discs are really loud and create a lot of heat, which makes them glaze over.
 
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