Wire Damascus

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kvolle

Joined
Jan 24, 2008
Messages
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Hey guys, I recieved a request for a wire damascus short sword from a long time friend and customer over the week end. I have made a few skinners and hunting knives from wire cable in the past so I am relatively comfortable with doing this. The problem is he want's nickel interwoven through the cable. He said he saw a thread highlighting this technique. My question is about structural integrity. How long of a blade would any of you make with out fear of the blade breaking in use. I have never used nickel in this or any respect before and I am worried that in use it will break. I have some elevator cable and rigging cable that I have already burned the oil out of and soaked and scrubbed in water and borax. I have found a source for nickel sheets. How do I go about this and should I do this in the first place? I didn't see the thread he was refering to. Thanks.
 
Bill Burke made a beautiful sword blade from cable a few months back and pretty sure he also used some nickle. Maybe he will jump in with a few tips or thoughts on this one.
 
there are two ways to do this easily. the first is to do as Bruce said and have the cable nickle plated. The way I did it was to take every other strand out of the cable one at a time and wrap it with .015 to .020 nickle sheet. cut the nickle into strips about a quarter of an inch wide and spiral it around the strand then put that strand back into the bundle and do the next one if you want you can do the center strand also but this involves taking the whole cable apart wraping and then reassembling cool results but a pain to do. After you get the nickle wraped into the cable heat flux and twist as tight as you can at welding temp. then proceed with welding like normal. I like to use 3, 5, or seven strands and then twist them all together to make a large billet when doing this. I also cut restack weld draw the billet to an inch or so square and then swist tight again at least twice before forging into a blade. the sword that Jim mentioned was restacked and twisted seven times before the blade was forged.
 
I make cable in a can and put in a powder like 15n20 to give the contrast but still a good steel. Michael Bell makes katanas out of cable all the time and has no problem with structural integrity. Just make sure the welds are good and solid.
 
If using pure nickel it will actually make the blade more resilient/tougher. Pure nickel will not harden. This is why it is not the best thing to put in the cutting edge.
 
Monel is about 67% nickel and 32% copper, it has been long used on ships, subs and in the marine industries. It's cast or fabricated into pumps, valves, fittings, etc. It was used for safety wire for hardware/antennas on the boats when I was in submarine repair, a long time ago, they loaded the cannons from the front end then:):):) It used to be available in a variety of wire sizes.

I have forge welded some sheets along with mild steel to make pattern welded. Used it to make some jewelery and some machined thimbles. Had a thimble blank bottom die but it is buried in the shop some where.

The wire forge welds easily as a applique laid on top of steel, just have to watch for too high a heat. Spot welding it to the steel is best as it kind of wants to float around in the borax fluz.

A 1# roll of .045" monel 400 wire was about $25.00 maybe 20 years ago. bet it's really enpensive now.

I have some left and will give any smith a sample so you can try forge welding it. Just send a self adressed stamped envelope to me, put two stamps on it. Of course I'll enclose a brochure of my booklets:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Gene Chapman Blacksmith and Blacksmith student of hot iron.;);)
 
I have some monel welding rod and tie wire. Got the wire from MSC. Was not too expensive 4 yrs ago. I had not tried it since it has copper in it. Might have to play with that....
 
like they've said the nickel wont cause the blade to break or be any weaker just wont harden either.one thing ive tried was i made billet out of conveyer chain and wove nickel mig welding wire through it, ive even cleaned the flux off of ni rods and put them in cable.

good luck

www.takachforge.com
 
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