mick maxen

Another trinket box in a flame pattern. The diameter is just over 2" with a stainless steel lid and base. Mick.

In another area on this site there is a thread about common names for damascus steel patterns. So I thought I would show you this pattern. It was a result of messing about with some steel to achieve a certain pattern, but it did not work as I expected. The result is quite interesting, though. What you might call a happy mistake. So if you were to name this pattern what would you call it. There was a similar thread on another forum a few years ago asking the same question and some interesting ideas and names came up. Mick

As Thomas points out, people have different names for the same pattern. Maillemaker has a pattern he calls "Stacked". I know this as Random pattern. I think it gets its name from the fact that the only thing that influences the pattern are the hammer blows which as we know are never the same weight or in the same place, hence random. Below is a variation on the twist pattern. The piece is a 4 bar dagger blade. Each seperate bar has about 30 layers and would be described as an interupted twist pattern. Two of the bars have been twisted clockwise and the other two anti-clockwise. The straight areas are the interupted part of the pattern where no twisting has been done. The twist shows up better on the outside bars with the stars/chevrons showing. This is because the bar has been ground closer to the middle of the bar. The two centre bars have exactly the same pattern but have not been ground as close to the middle of the bar because they are thicker along the central ridge of the blade.

Here is another one of my trinket boxes. It has aTurkish Ribbon pattern running all the way around in the middle band of the pattern. The box is about 3" in diameter with a stainless steel base and a lid made from the same steel as the body. The photo above shows the Turkish ribbon band before it was welded between the other bars with the plain stripey pattern. Mick.

Giles, I would be interested in one of these. I am not worried about postage as we are in the same county. Mick.

Don, The bar was forged flat using a power hammer. This is the first time I have used the mill for doing this, before I just used a small angle grinder with a 4 1/2 x 1/4" or 1/8" disc. Mick.

Over here in the UK we have run quite a few smelts for steel and iron. With a good smelt for iron we would expect to get about 18 kilos of bloom from 50 kilos of ore. Building the stack, drying it out, pre heating and charging with ore and charcoal is a good days work for two people. Here is a link to one we did recently http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=19636 For a huge resource of smelting have a look on the above site under Buttons and Bloomers. Mick.

The ladder pattern has been mentioned on here a few times recently, so as I was making a bar for someone I took a few photos. The pattern welded billet of 15N20 and 20C has about 320 layers. The finished bar before laddering was 230 x 35 x 14mm thick. There are various ways of putting the grooves in and I decided to use the mill as it is the new shop toy. All I have done in the past is to use a grinder. The photo below shows the bar with the grooves cut. The cutter was 9mm and the grooves are about 4mm deep. The spacing of the grooves from centre to centre is 12mm. The flats between the grooves are about 3mm wide The photo below shows the sharp edges have been radiused. I decided to do this as I think it gives a better pattern. Now the bar has been forged flat to about 6-7mm thick. The width is still 35mm and the length has increased to about 255mm. I have only cleaned and etched a small area to show the effect. The pattern on the edge of the bar is an undulating pattern of layers where they have been pushed back in. Mick

If you want to try pattern welding then its best to use steels that you know what they are. You could spend your life welding up all manner of steels and have no luck at all unless you get lucky. 15N20 is the most common steel married to a plain carbon steel like 1084 as Rich suggested. 15N20 is the bright steel as it has 2% nickel. Most peolpe will associate 15N20 as bandsaw blade steel, which it is but don't think that every bandsaw you find will be 15N20 as it won't be. Mick.

There are really only two ways to cause the disruption to the pattern. As has been mentioned you can emboss a pattern into the steel and then you grind it all back to flat. Or you remove metal to create grooves and then forge it all back to a flat bar. I always think it is good to get the brain going so I won't say how the concentric ladder pattern was done, but it was not pressed in. Putting the grooves in was the easy bit then all you have to do is forge it so the pattern stays circular. Mick.

Jake, skinned knuckles is an overiding memory of mine doing this work. Once all the stay holes are tapped, the stays are wound in using a pipe wrench. The old style of stays had a square on the end, like a tap to aid in winding them in. The way we used to make them was to turn the thread on a lathe and cut them to length with a cut off/parting tool. So when the wrench slipped which it did often, all those sharp edges were there just waiting for your knuckles. Mick.

Jake, there is a lot of old ironwork typical of a house of this stature. The main entrance to the house and grounds is about 25ft wide consisting of two gates and an overthrow, the top of which is about 16 - 18 ft high. I don't have any photos of the ironwork and the house is now closed to the public until March of next year. I shall have a wander around next year and get some. Not only is there all types of ironwork, but statues and bits of art everywhere. Someone on the estate obviously has a quirky sense of humour as I found this about 10ft up a tree, Something that will appeal to what we do with metal was this very elaborate sundial that is just so crisp and clean in its design and craftmenship, a work of art. Beth, thats interesting that you mention Lyn Chadwick as I got talking to a couple there and they mentioned her work. From your photo I can see the similarity. Mick.

Just down the road from where I live we had an exhibition of Henry Moore's bronzes set in the grounds of Hatfield House as part of the celebrations of 400 years of the Cecil family living at the house. First a bit of history about the house. The Royal Palace was first built in 1497. Many years later, James 1st decided he no longer liked the palace and did a swap with the Cecil family for a property they had somewhere else in Hertfordshire. The Cecil family moved in in 1607 and have lived there ever since. Hatfield house was a favorite place of Elizabeth 1st and it was here that she learnt she would become Queen of England in 1558 after the death of Queen Mary. If you are ever in the UK, Hatfield House is a 40 minute train journey out of London and is worth a visit as it is one of our great stately homes. The sculptures are set in the grounds of the house and it was a beautiful sunny day when I was there. I particularly choose to go on a weekday so it was not crowded and I would have some time to take photos. I don't know very much about the work of Henry Moore but I think he was a bit before his time with his sculpture as it would not look out of place today. Most of these pieces were made in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Some photos. This first one is made from fibreglass and is about 9 meters long. Its standing on the lawn in front of the original Royal Palace. Large Reclining Figure, 1984 Reclining Figure : Arched Leg, 1969 Hill Arches, 1973 Locking Piece, 1963 King and Queen, 1952 Sculpure is not really one of my "things" but I think it is a good idea to look at all types of work to get inspiration. As someone who has no ability to draw a thing and most of what I have made has evovled on the anvil with an image in my minds eye, I can see that in a months time or whenever I shall be making something and wondering where the idea or shape has come from and it will most likely be from some of Moore's work. Mick.

Jake, here are a few photos to give you an idea of the work we used to do about 30 years ago. This first photo shows a complete traction engine minus its chimney. This came in for a new firebox and tubes. From memory this was the only complete engine that we worked on as most times we would just get the boiler. The photo below shows a new firebox. This is about 24" wide by 36" long. The rivet holes in the foundation ring (square section at bottom) are 3/4" diameter and would be about 6" long to go through the outer plate, ring and firebox. This was one of the first jobs in getting the old box out, drill through all 70 to 80 rivets with a 1/4" drill to be able to cut the old rivets out with an oxy/acetylene cutter. The tube holes would be about 2 1/4" and the stay holes about 7/8" diameter ready to be tapped to size to fit the stays, once the firebox was in place and rivetted up. This photo shows a repair section around the stoke hole door. The thickness of this plate would have been either 3/8 or 1/2". The holes around the bottom of this plate would match up with the holes in the foundation ring. The holes around the oval opening would be for 3/4" rivets. The other holes would all have to be tapped out to about 1" when the firebox was in place and stays would be screwed in and the ends hammered over. The stay taps were about 12" long as there is a gap between to outer plate and the firebox of about 3" were the water was. This job alone took forever as there might be about 100 plus holes to tap and all done by hand. The plate that sticks out towards the camera with the large hole is where the rear axle fitted. This photo shows a new half barrel being fitted and the valve chest hanging in mid air about to be put in place. The row of two sets of bolts would eventually be replaced by rivets and hold on a cover plate over the seam. Then a front tube plate and smoke box would be fitted. I have not been involved in this type of work now for many years but I think that the fireboxes have gone back to being constructed in the old fashioned way of being an all rivetted construction. This must be a requirement now of the insurance companies. Mick.

Jake, the steam boat sounds interesting, I have never worked on one of those. Most of our work was on the old traction engines. The likes of Robey, Ransomes, Fowler ploughing engines, Burrel Showmans engines and Foden steam lorries, to name but a few. I don't wont to upset you but I still have all the tube expanders from about 1.5" all the way up to about 2.5" maybe 3". The smallest one we have is 1/2" and this was used to expand the copper tubes for a Stanley Steam Car boiler, all 300 of them if I remember correctly. I will see if I have any old photos to show you. Mick.

Mark you are the second person today to call me Max but I'll let you off. The other one emailed me asking how to do something relating to pattern welding, I decided to ignore him if he can't even get my name right. The way I made the silver sleeve/liner was to make a mandrel minus the thickness of the silver, having previously sized my finger with ring sizers. I found out later that for a band you go one size up from what you would have for a normal ring, ie skinny band.That is probably why it did not fit the finger it was made for. Jake, that is an intersting observation about rolling in boiler tubes. About 30 years ago my father and I used to retube traction engines and steam boilers. Along with making and fitting fire boxes, tube plates, throat plates, barrels etc. I have removed and installed many fire boxes, cutting out the old stays and rivets. Then rivetting them all up again, fitting the tubes with expanders, caulking all the seams, all to insurance company standards. Most traction engines have a working pressure of about 150 psi. When the insurance company man came to see the boiler and watch the pressure test, we had to pump them up to about 225 psi and it had to hold that pressure for 20 minutes, if I remember correctly. I like to see traction engines working and ticking over, gently rocking on their wheels. But I can't get romantic over them as it was hard work. Heating the rivets up for fitting was my first experience of using a forge but the fascination with pattern welding got me standing at an anvil. Mick.

Jake, I have been called a few things in the past but never a "world authority on Pattern welding", hehe. The silver lining is about 0.5mm thick and the way I did this was to make a sleeve that just pushed into the band and had enough sticking out each side to cover the edge of the band. After much umming and arring about what do I do now to get it to fit, I had a brain wave. The silver sleeve was already annealed and I used two large ball bearings to squeeze the liner and flare the ends, then it was just a case of pushing the edges tight to the band. I first posted this work about 4-5 years ago on a website and got a flood of replies about making them for other people. The reality is that I made this ring to fit a finger on my right hand but as it was too small it now gets worn on my left hand. So I quickly came to the decision that if I could not make them to fit me there was no way I could make them for other people. Making things to fit people was just going to be a whole world of pain. So this is strictly a one off piece. Earlier I spoke about lining up the pattern, as Jake pointed out. This was just a "happy accident". The photo below shows an interesting pattern line up on the fat ring. This was a piece I salvaged from what was really a disaster as it did not weld up very well. I had to turn out the centre too much to get rid of any welding flaws, by which time it was too big. The smaller piece is the ring above There are some very interesting books about damascus/pattern welding that are still available, I think. On Damascus Steel by Leo Figel. This book is about true damascus steel, wootz or crucible steel. There is also a very good section of about 30 pages that covers pattern welded barrels. Damascus Steel by Manfred Sachse is probably the finest book out there about the subject, all 240 pages of it. It covers every aspect of the art from the earliest times to present day including some very fine work by the author. This book is available in both German and English. An original copy is an absolute fortune but I think it is being republished. A must have book if pattern welding is your thing. Damaszener Stahl, Theorie and Praxis by Gunther Lobach. This is a more recent book published in 2009 and only available in German at the moment, although I think the author is trying to get it published into English. This book is more an instructional "how its done" and runs to about 170 pages. I don't read German but the pictures are in English plus there are about 14 photos of my work included. Mick.

Jake, I have no problem with you posting any links for info about this. I have also read about the barrel makers in Liege, I think it was around the early 1900's that they were making about 400 tons of barrels a year. After the 1st World War the industry came to a close as technology had moved on during the war years. I think it is The Musse de Arms in Liege, Belgium that has a whole section devoted to damascus barrel making. My understanding of why barrels were made this way is that they did not have the know how to bore holes in solid bars but could ream out an existing hole. The pattern on the ring is purely by chance as there is no way you can allow for lining up the pattern. The best part of a twisted bar pattern will always be as close to the centre as you can get, where the most disruption to the pattern has occured from the twisting and you dont get to see that until you clean up and etch. Mick.

This is a bit unique in pattern welding as I have not seen it done before. This ring has been made in a similar way to how the old damascus gun barrels were made. The weld lines spiral around the ring. Now lined with silver, This is a short piece of barrel I made a few years ago using the same technique, Mick.

That all looks very familiar. Howard Clark and I were the demonstrators at the Conference in 2008. We had a great week staying with Mike Blue and his family. We also called in to see Myron Hanson on the way through and spent a wonderful afternoon at Tom Latenes eating his wifes soup and crusty bread under the shade of the trees. Good times spent with friends. Mick.

I have posted an example of some ladder pattern work here http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/23797-pattern-welded-clock/ Mick.

Here is another example of some of my pattern welded work. This clock is about 13" tall by 4" wide and made from the same steel but using two types of ladder pattern. The pattern, I think gets its name from the way the light plays and reflects from the surface, but the surface on both of these steel plates is perfectly flat. Here is a more detailed photo, Mick.

I can't find an example of a ladder pattern, but here is the same effect with twisted bars welded together. The first photo shows the bar face on and the second photo at an angle to catch the light. Where the layers are tight together is where the effect occurs. With a ladder pattern this happens in abundance. Mick.

Scott, that is a nice first blade and something to be proud of. When you fancy having another go at the ladder pattern, one thing this pattern benefits from is a high layer bar of about 300 layers and the grooves cut more close together. Then when its etched you get an incredible play of shimmering light as it reflects back from the blade. To do this I would have my bar with 300 layers and stagger the grind marks from side to side. If the bar is 1/2" thick then cut/grind or file to a depth of 1/8", but no more. Stagger the cuts from side to side or top to bottom, however you are looking at it, but leave an area of flat between the cuts. Where you have flat one side you will have cut the other side. Forge all this back to a flat bar at a good welding heat with flux. I will try to find a photo to show what I mean. You also get this shimmering light effect from twisted bars. Mick.

Tom, Along with all the books already mentioned, The Artist Blacksmith by Peter Parkinson is worth a read. There is also BABA which is the British Artists Blacksmith Association which might be worth joining to see what is going on around the country with regular hammer-ins being held by various members. Next year if you are still into the idea of knocking hot metal about, as they have finished for this year, are the blacksmiths competitions that are held at various county shows. There are always good displays of ironwork and the chance to see blacksmiths working. Mick.