damaskus?

[SWE_Karl]

just looked on (almost) al the knife´s that has been posted. how do you deside what.. how do you spell it.. "the piture" dont know the word.. if i want tho have traight lines or dotts... hope you know. how do you know what the result will be and how do you decide what "picture" it vill be??\\SWE_Karl


Edit: words edited

[sandpile]

Hello Karl-- I am in the panhandle of Texas. it is getting late here. So this will be a little short. it might be what you are wondering about.

The Damascas or Pattern Welding of blades is very interesting procedure. In the old days of sure enough Damacas-- It was necessary to weld some good steel to the Wrought iron to make a durable edge holding blade. They layered or laminated alternating iron and steel to get the disired blade metal.

Today they do it for looks and appeal. The different patterns are laminated and forge welded, then they can be twisted(dots you spoke of) and flattened back out. some times the bladesmith will fuller them(drive a round bar down into the steel at 90 degrees to the blade. This will create a pattern that is called a Ladder Pattern. There are very many ways to get the different patterns.

A bladesmith is really only limited by his imagination. Basically you laminate the steel, fold it back on its self and reweld, doing this a number of times. You can have straight lines or any number different patterns.

Hope this is what you were needing.

Good night and good luck

Chuck

[ThomasPowers]

Karl; you control the pattern by how you manipulate the material. Basically you need to have deformation and stock removal.

To get a bird's eye or raindrop pattern you drill shallow holes in the billet and forge it flat again---they have to be shallow so you don't get cold shuts from the walls folding over into the holes. to get a ladder pattern you cut V shaped grooves into the billet and forge flat.

Christmas is coming and it's a great time to get a good book on this sort of stuff.

"The Pattern Welded Blade" by James Hrisoulas or "Damaszener Stahl" by Manfred Sachse, (also available in English Translation) will cover how a lot of patterns are made.

Hrisoulas' book is better for people learning how to make it themselves in my opinion.

Thomas

[oakwoodforge]

SWE_Karl,
Check this website out Its JPH 's aka Jim Hrisoulas ... Incredible Bladesmith ! He makes more Patternwelded steel in a year than most smiths will make in a lifetime !
http://www.atar.com/
Happy Forging,

Jens
aka Oakwoodforge