rhitee93 Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Hi folks, this is my second real knife attempt, and my first attempt at ‘Damascus’. It was made to be my gift for the office Christmas party dirty Santa exchange. The blade is made from 1095 and 15N20. I started with a stack of 7 layers and then drew it out and quartered it a couple of times to get to 112 layers. The handle is a piece of stabilized black elm burl. The blade is 5.8” and 1.4” high at the heel. It is 0.085” where the spine meets the handle, and that tapers to a few thousandths at the tip. The blade has a flat grind from the spine to the edge until I got the edge to about 0.010” then I ground/honed in a final bevel. The final honing was with an 8k Norton stone, and resulted in a pretty keen edge. It is certainly shaving sharp. The pins are 316 stainless, and the little maker’s mark medallion is nickel silver. There are lots of little flaws and lessons learned with this knife, but I am rather proud of it at this point. I’m sure a few knives down the road I’ll look back at this one and think differently. I’m certainly open to criticism… For the Damascus rookies out there: those parallel lines you see at the edge on one side of the blade, and at the spine on the other are what happens when you let your billet get trapezoidal rather than keeping the edges square. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitch4ging Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Nice knife, Brian! I like your medallion, nice touch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearhartironwerks Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Dang, I'm looking at all the beautiful work recently posted and feeling like I should get my rear end in gear just to keep up. Seriously, I'm impressed seeing all the good work showing up on the site and find it inspiring. Thanks to all who show us their work. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loneforge Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Nice looking blade right there. If your getting out of square on a billet turn it on a 45 and whack it back into shape. A lot of guys are afraid of hitting across the weld grain in fear of delam......If it opens up it wasn't a good weld in the first place. Reweld and keep on going.....not only does it get the billet back to square it will give you confidence in your welds. I have had to do this on a lot of billets. It should also be telling you something about how you're striking the billet.....Do your billets curve as well......hit flatter... they stay square. I have had these issues in the past and in the future, I just don't know it yet! Cheers, Darren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhitee93 Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 Thanks for the compliments guys. Darren I appreciate the advice. This was my first billet attempt, and I was a bit timid with it. I have another project that is at the heat treat stage now. I was a bit more forceful with this one in terms of keeping it square. I realize now that if it won't stand up to my hammering then it won't work as a knife. By curve, do you mean in a plane parallel to the anvil surface? I don't see much of that, but I try to straighten everything out with the last few strikes of every heat, so I may be erasing any indication. I do have some hammer issues. I've been drawing these out by hand since I don't have any other means. My little 2lb hammer doesn't make much progress with a 1" thick stack, so I have been using a 8lb sledge to do a lot of the grunt work. There are two problems with that. I'm all of 140lbs with the upper body of a school girl. The control I have with that hammer isn't the best. Second, the hammer shape just mushes metal in all direction so it is hard to control the draw unless I try the edge of the anvil or the horn which gets me back to problem number one. I hope to find a nice 3 or 4lb straight peen hammer in Ohio this weekend. If I don't find a straight peen, I'll make a fullering tool for drawing out. Thanks again. This pattern welding stuff is addictive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loneforge Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Looks to me like you know what is happening and why.....The curve I meant to be parallel with the anvil face.....Could tell you that you're not striking flat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhitee93 Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 Looks to me like you know what is happening and why.....The curve I meant to be parallel with the anvil face.....Could tell you that you're not striking flat. Gotcha, thanks. That makes sense, but I wouldn't have put it together on my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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