Twisted Damascus - Newbie Question

[Laredo7mm]

Hey all, newbie here. I have just started making my own pattern welded blades and I have a question.

After I twist my square billet, I flatten all four sides to get rid of most of the "fluting". This flattening still leaves the "crinkle cut" potato look to the billet. Then I grind one side clean to prepare it for welding to another twisted bar which was prepared in the same way. The bars are then welded together.

My question is if I should only grind the surface that is going to be welded, or do I grind all four sides of the billet until it is a true square again?

Any advice/thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Gus Kalanzis]

Hello Laredo7mm,

Welcome to BF. I hope you enjoy it here and get to learn and share a lot.
I am going to re-direct this post to our shop-talk forum, but my bet is that a lot of us will follow this thread over there.
Regards,
Gus

 

[Tom Lewis]

I have gotten good results by just grinding the surfaces that will be welded together clean. On my web site, under damascus steel , the turkish damascus blade was made this way. My web site is http://www.cavemen.net/lewisknives
One thing I like to do when twisting a damascus billet is to forge it into a round bar before twisting. Then after twisting you can forge it back square. Tom Lewis

 

[Laredo7mm]

My appologies if this double posts, but I don't think my first reply went through. Lets see how well I can remember what I said 10 minutes ago.

Tom, great looking knife. All that I have learned so far about bladesmithing and damascus steel has been from Jim Hrisoulas' books and video. It is not clear to me in his books if he grinds the whole billet true or just the welding surface. Do you still get alot of "stars" to come out when you twist a round bar?

Anyway, here are a couple links to some pics of my latest:

http://www.btc-bci.com/~laredo7mm/Fourth.jpg

http://www.btc-bci.com/~laredo7mm/Fourth1.jpg

In the second link you can see how the pattern crosses the center line of the knife. This is the leftovers from the "crinkle cut potato" thing. The knife was made from two twisted 1/2 square billets. After being welded together, I hammered them down to 1/4 inch in thickness. That still did not remove all of the crinkle. I had to grind some of the surface material away to get rid of any crinkle evidence, but the crinkle still showed up in the final blade as the way line in the pattern.

I will try your method too. It can't hurt, I stillhave 46# of 15N20, 54# pure nickle, and 130# of C1095 to burn through

If you are interested, I have more pics on my server that show my progression in bladesmithing. Just replace the Fourth.jpg with Third.jpg, Secong.jpg, or First.jpg. You can do the same with the Fourth1, Third1, etc.

 

[Tom Lewis]

Laredo, your pictures look great. When I make Turkish Damascus, I have always only ground off the part of the billet to be welded. When I make patternwelded damascus , I don't grind anything when I fold and weld the billet. As far as stars in a round twisted billet, I think you will have as many if not more than in a square billet. For me a round billet that has been twisted is easier to square up and forge into a blade than a square billet that has been twisted. Try both ways and see which one you like. Tom Lewis