WIP Damascus

Gary Mulkey

Gary Mulkey

Joined
May 14, 2001
Messages
1,414
These are a few of the steps that I did today on a damascus billet. I started with 25 layers of 1080 & 15N20. Hope you like it. It's a little hard to run a camera and a forge at the same time. (my first WIP attempt)

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I missed dead center a little with the cut. OOPS!


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This is after four folds & welds @ 200 layers. Think I'll stop here. Haven't decided on a pattern yet.

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Gary
 
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Damascus always amazes me and it is a treat to see it being made up. I'm looking forward to the rest of the thread to see the whole knife come together.
 
Gary I dig your WIP but I feel like you left something out you where thinking about what pattern to make next thing I know you are ready to heat treat a blade. witch looks very nice I am thinking you got more into making knives and lees into taking pics. slow down are the next pic will be of the finished knife.
 
D lisch said:
Gary I dig your WIP but I feel like you left something out you where thinking about what pattern to make next thing I know you are ready to heat treat a blade. witch looks very nice I am thinking you got more into making knives and lees into taking pics. slow down are the next pic will be of the finished knife.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what happened. I got engrossed into the blade before I realized that my camera was still in the house. :)Will try to do better.

Gary
 
I knew it. And I know how much work doing a WIP can be as I am working on one now. so keep it up I will keep watching.
 
I'm liking the look of that blade and looking forward to seeing it come together.

Roger
 
I got started on the handle fittings this morning. I decided to use an old wagon tire. This will be the first of this particular tire that I have used. Hopefully it will have some interesting properties. I'm planning on Nitre Blueing both guard & butt cap out of it.

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Gary
 
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While doing the various normalizing & H/T on the blade, I got started on the handle. I have been saving a pair of beautiful giraffe bone scales that I got from Sandy McClure which will be going on this one. Hope you like it.

Pic 1: drilling holes for mosaic pins
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rough ground:

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polished (side view):

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top view (black spacer between scales visable):

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Gary
 
This afternoon I started on the handle fittings (wagon wheel iron). I finished the guard & added a handle spacer of the same antique iron.

This is the iron billet after forging in flat bar.

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Drilled handle spacer
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ready to grind into shape

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Here I am getting ready to NitreBlue both fittings.
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I stopped the process at 490 degrees which is the point where it starts to turn from dark straw color to blue.

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I managed to get both straw & blue colors randomly across both pieces. Hope the photography shows it.


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Hope you like it.

Gary
 
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I decided to add a little 3-D to the spacer.

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With this it sshows a little plain iron color with the NitreBlueing.
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Back on the KMG for final shaping of blade.


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Ready to start removing scratches on blade.

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Gary
 
Hand sanding time.

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Ready to etch. 4 to 1 ferric chloride

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20 minutes later:

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Neutralized & buffed:

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Will start assembly tomorrow. Hope you like it.

Gary
 
Since the guard has been NitreBlued, I didn't want to take a chance in scratching the finish while removing extra solder. So I am going to use a moisture barrier for the two pieces of my own invention made from these ingredients.

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I like this mixture better than a JB Weld mainly because it can be buffed shiny where JB Weld will remain an unattractive grey. I have found it to be a durable moisture barrier which is my main purpose.
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Applied to both surfaces, I placed it in a vice to cure. Extra was removed with Q-tips & acetone.

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Spacer attached to handle with 3/32 pins:

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I will attach the handle to the blade & guard this afternoon.

Gary
 
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Ready to attach the handle. (note notches in tang) Since I gave this one no butt cap, it will attach like using a stag crown. Once the acraglas sets, it will be there forever.

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And finally a big clamp. Remember that AcraGlas likes to be warm and won't set in a cold shop.


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I've had fun with this WIP. Hope you did as well. I'll post pictures of the finished knife tomorrow.

Thanks for joining in and all of the nice words.

Gary
 
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