kuraki
Fimbulvetr Knifeworks
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2016
- Messages
- 4,679
After making the American flag bowie last year, I wanted to do something using the same process, but with a damascus core. While chatting with a customer who's a native Texan, I came up with the idea to make something inspired by this recreation of the "Noah Smithwick" bowie.
He was on board so I got to sketching, trying to fit various Texas flags on the blade, and we settled on this as the design, with the hatched area to be a damascus core.
That done, first step was to laser cut the cladding pieces. These are 1095. I cut with nitrogen assist gas so the internal edges are weld-ready, there is no oxidation.
Then I make a 300 layer ladder damascus core and forge it generally to shape using the cladding pieces as templates. This is Cru Forge V and 15N20.
Surface grind everything flat, and tack the cladding to the core.
Then fill the cutouts with 4600kc powder and tack sacrificial plates over the top of the cladding before TIG welding the entire perimeter for an oxygen free weld.
Carefully forge weld. By carefully, I mean balancing between enough compression to assure that the powder has solidified, while not distorting the shapes too much. I do this by using large flat dies in my forging press, and attempting to work in a way that doesn't move too much in a single direction.
Then I start grinding. First, I rip off the sacrificial cover plates to see how the powder welded up. (side note: these pictures are the 2nd attempt. I got this far with the first attempt and the powder had not welded completely. Not exactly six sigma process capability
)
Breathe of relief on the second go...
He was on board so I got to sketching, trying to fit various Texas flags on the blade, and we settled on this as the design, with the hatched area to be a damascus core.
That done, first step was to laser cut the cladding pieces. These are 1095. I cut with nitrogen assist gas so the internal edges are weld-ready, there is no oxidation.
Then I make a 300 layer ladder damascus core and forge it generally to shape using the cladding pieces as templates. This is Cru Forge V and 15N20.
Surface grind everything flat, and tack the cladding to the core.
Then fill the cutouts with 4600kc powder and tack sacrificial plates over the top of the cladding before TIG welding the entire perimeter for an oxygen free weld.
Carefully forge weld. By carefully, I mean balancing between enough compression to assure that the powder has solidified, while not distorting the shapes too much. I do this by using large flat dies in my forging press, and attempting to work in a way that doesn't move too much in a single direction.
Then I start grinding. First, I rip off the sacrificial cover plates to see how the powder welded up. (side note: these pictures are the 2nd attempt. I got this far with the first attempt and the powder had not welded completely. Not exactly six sigma process capability
)Breathe of relief on the second go...
