mick maxen

smiffy, Mosaic steel is just another form of pattern welding. Bars are put together so that the pattern is on the end. Then multipule bars are welded together to form a bigger pattern. The photo below is a block of steel that has been made from 16 bars with an identical pattern on the ends. A close up of the 4 centre bars, Mick

Have a look for books by Jim Hrisoulas. There are three that I know off, The Complete Bladesmith, The Master Bladesmith and The Pattern Welded Blade. All 3 are showing as available on amazon uk so they should show up for you. Mick.

Has anyone on here have any experience with anodising. What I would like to know is how to prepare the surface before anodising. As aluminium is soft and easily marked, I have thought of gently shot blasting the surface with glass beads to hide any scratches. This would also give the surface a more interesting look than just flat and shiney. Does anodising take evenly to a uneven surface or does it have to be polished for the best effect. Mick.

Another place to look is here www.mokume.com Stunning work by Steve Midgett. Mick.

Vic, this book is worth a read Mokume Gane by Ian Ferguson. Its on amazon but I can't add a link. I have made mokume before with brass and copper by just clamping up the sheets between two heavy steel plates about 10mm thick. Using 4 bolts to tigthen it all up. Everything has to be perfectly clean before putting the metals together. Then just put in a forge and watch for the copper to start to sweat, I think copper melts before brass. Keep an eye on it as there is a fine line between copper sweating and running out of the seams. When it is sweating it should be welding together. Mick.

Frosty, I am glad we are both calling the same thing silver solder, it makes life a bit easier. I have heard soft solder being called silver solder in the knife world but I think its just a generic term for shiney. Our plumbers solder does not comtain lead either. In fact now a days the only thing that contains lead is lead. The steels I use for these are 15N20 which is the bright steel as it contains 2% nickel and 20C or CS70 which are just plain carbon steels, very similar to your 1075 and 1095. Don A, good to hear you lurk about on Don's site. I think there are a few of us that do. Steve Sells, damascus is ideal for leaves as the pattern can be made to pretty much what you want. No more beating/chasing in viens. Arbalist, the Fire and Iron Gallery is still very much open. I know what you mean about the website, it does need revamping a bit. There is a facebook page for the gallery. I think I mentioned at the start of this thread that the flower was made for a competition that was "make a piece containing flowers and leaves". So all this flower had was a stalk and one of the comments from the judge was that it needed a purpose rather than being just a flower. So I have revamped the whole idea and gone a bit "arty". The three small flowers are about 1 1/2" and made from the same steel as the main flower and with mosaic steel buds. The driftwood is 17" long. Mick.

Thanks for all the kind words about my work. Jake, the first few of these I made with random pattern steel had the seam forge welded. The only problem to my mind was the weld looked like an ugly mess compared to the rest of the pattern. Now I am making them with much fancier steel/patterns, I file the seam so there is barely any daylight showing and silver solder the seam up. Silver solder in the UK is the hard solder that is in the form of flux covered rods, not the lead solder that I think you call silver solder, like the plumbers use. There are a few advantages to using this solder. First of all it does not contaminate the ferric etchant and is a similar shiny colour to the bright steel in the pattern. Also the pattern runs all the way around these containers almost without interuption, when done right. I can see why you ask about barrel welding as there does look like a slight spiral to the pattern, but this piece is from a 7 bar pattern formed around a mandrel. I have done barrel pattern welding and the spiral is usually more pronounce. Matt, you will have seen similar boxes in the Fire & Iron Gallery, but not this one. I made it about 5 years ago and brought it home to show the other half, before taking it to the gallery. She laid claim to it and it has never left the house apart from going to the New Forest Show. Someone did ask about buying it at the show, but it came home with us. This clock is the second one like this I have made. The other was at the gallery but you had moved down under by then, I think. Mick.

Thanks John, I have put some photos here http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/23148-pattern-welded-flower-and-other-stuff/ Mick.

Here are a few pieces of my work using my own pattern welded material. The first photo is a flower I made for a blacksmithing competition over here in the Uk. The other two pieces were also entered into the competition. This flower is about 6 - 7" wide and made from three different patterns. The leaves are made from a feather pattern bar of steel. The petals are from a random sheet of damascus with about 160 layers and the bud is from a trick piece of mosaic steel. This clock has a pattern welded face of about 120 layers and is 5" round This is a small trinket box made from a 7 bar piece of pattern welding. Three of the bars are just normal straight layer stuff with 4 bars of twisted steel. The lid is made from the same steel. Since this photo was taken I have changed the base, which is Oak, to stainless steel to match the lid handle. The diameter is about 2 1/2" Happy to answer any questions and Thanks for looking, Mick.

I have some photos of the New Forest Show pieces but after looking at all the sections on this site I am not sure where to start a thread and post them. Any Ideas. Mick

John, have a good weekend. I can't make it this time, I have a family wedding to go to. Hope to catch up with you at Edenbridge or the Dorset Show if you are there. Greenbeast, the Edenbridge and Oxted Show will be a good gathering as there are live blacksmithing competitions and farrier comps as well. Bank Holiday Monday is probably the best day to go. Also there will be a large display of blacksmiths work for the static competitions. I am putting some pieces in the show. It will be the first time I have done the show since 2002. Mick.

John, your name rings a bell with me. Have we met before at one of the county shows or through Bobb Hobbs or Richard Jones. I will be at the New Forest & Hampshire Show in a few weeks to catch up with a few old faces. The last time I competed in that show was back in 2002. Will you be there. Mick.

Bob Hobbs work is some of the best in the UK. I had the Farrier and the Doorknocker at my place for a few weeks, between shows and they are quite exceptional pieces of work. What you can't see from the photos is that the farrier is holding another nail in his mouth, ready for using. It makes me smile when I think of that as its a really nice touch that not many people even notice. Mick.