Artists of the Rockies

Hi I look for what I call the right color . Not very teck and probably is not the correct way to do it , but it seems to work for me . I take all the metal slabs and hand sand the surface to get any crud off then wash them with dish soap and a good scrub brush . Im not putting any flux in the tube . since they are sealed in the tube the metal does not seem to get any fire scale . I hit the tube pretty lightly so as not to blow it apart . and just draw it out little by little .I don't know if what im doing is right or wrong , but it worked so I'll do it again .Wayne

Hi all Im a new member here , but have been making Damascus art knives for several years . I also wanted to do a billit with copper included . The first few trys were a bust but a learing experiance . what finally worked for me was to make up a damascus bar with 1095 and nickle . I then put a layer of nickle on both sides then a layer of copper on top of the nickle more nickle on the copper and a final layer of damascus as the outside layers on both sides of the bar . I placed the stack in a steel tube and brought it up to a bright orange-red pulled it out of the forge waited about 4 or 5 minutes and hit it lightly on all four sides . I stuck it back in the forge and brought it back to a dull red . (just barely hot enough for shaping steel but plenty hot enough for the copper and drew it out into a long bar about 1" square and about 10" long . then while still in the tube got it hot and did a twist in the vise . after it cooled down I put it in my mill and cut the twisted bar down to a slab about 1/4" thick . Yep, I know I waisted a lot of material , but this was an expermint to see if it would work . I bent the slice around a braclet mandrel and then shaped it to my satisfaction . it made a really neat piece the nickle stuck to the steel and the copper fused beautifly to the nickle .It made a pretty unusal piece . I sold the piece before I got a chance to pothograph it . But I will do the process again in the next copple weeks as time permits and post the results on our web page . www.artistsoftherockies.com try it it is a fun project . Wayne