Will W.

Quint That is exactly the one I was talking about. I love it, personally, it's no bull, just straight information.

Sarcasm Go into the heat treating, general discussion section. There's a pinned topic about a heat treating app that is available. Not only is it about heat treating, but also about specs of dozens of alloys. I have the app, and it's awesome. Aside from that, reading through old threads is a good way to go as well. That app may tell you almost everything you want to know about almost any steel, but the forum threads will let you learn from the mistakes of others (so you don't have to make those mistakes,) figure out better ways to tackle common problems, or simply give you good ideas for projects.

Great job lanternnate, looks awesome.

Ha! Yeah, right. Seriously, it looks awesome, Theo. I'm sure he would be proud of the work you put into his blade.

Dimensions of both pieces? For the sake of both curiosity and practicality.

Please post some pics if all is successful. I'm very interested in how this turns out. Cool project!

I agree. Your utter lack of understanding is, frankly, amazing, Meridianfrost. Have you considered the possibility that you are, in fact, wrong? Your question was not specific. There is no magic steel that is best for everything. Frosty was trying to help you, and like an insolent child not getting what it wants in the store, you threw a fit. Did you read the forum at all? Figure out what steels work best for certain situations? And did you Google "powdered steel for sale?" Point is, don't come here, to a site dedicated to education, and direct your anger at those who wish to teach you. Oh, yes, and don't expect my help. Among several others as well. Good luck.

I would like to try to find another alloy wire as well. If every wire was 1085, the pattern would be lackluster compared to what it could be. After all the inspiration I've been given here, I plan on doing a few different wraps to play with the pattern, like you mention. I like the nickel rod idea as well. Thanks for even more ideas, Frosty! Come to the dark side!

Simple, yet pragmatic. Good idea.

All of their music wire spools seem to hover right around 1 pound. And they state that all of them are 1085 steel. The only variable seems to be the wire gauge. This means you'll get more linear feet out of smaller gauges. From their website: .045 (10mm) wire: 185 ft/lb .020 (5mm) wire: 937 ft/lb Significant difference indeed.

On top of this, use the cross pein/diagonal pein/straight pein end as well. Use that end to create little hills and valleys in the steel, then use the flat end of your hammer to even it all out again. Rotate workpiece 90° and repeat. I've found this to be a pretty fast way to draw out. Oh, yeah, and KEEP IT HOT!!!

Wow. Looks pretty extensive. Nice work. I really like that hatchet and the curved draw knife directly above it. Those look especially well made. I must ask however... What is the U shaped piece of wood for? To the right of the hatchet.

Haha! That's perfect. Well played, Mr. Powers.

JHCC Thanks for the link. Loving the idea about making it look like frets too! Buzzkill Thanks for the info. I'll look into it further. I'm hoping by using so many tiny strings, the pattern will looks like dozens of strings all over the blade, similar to what you describe. And hopefully then people can determine what it was originally. Smoggy I know the thicker strings (6th, 5th, and 4th) are often nickel wound. Not sure about the alloy of the core, however. Lanternnate Interesting thought. I bet it would look interesting in the end. Thanks for the reply. Awesome ideas all the way around, everyone! I came in wondering about one project, and now I have several more I want to try! Lol.

Pete I planned on using mostly the 2nd and 3rd strings (B and G, respectively) maybe with some 5th or 6th strings, nickel wound, thrown in. 1st string is just too thin. Marc1 That would cut down on the number of strings needed for the cable. And it is still luthier-esque. It's a consideration, anyways. Jspool That's the plan. Further twist once hot. But I plan on bringing the whole thing up to temp VERY slowly, and just tapping the weld into place with a 1 pound hammer a few times before getting a little aggressive with it. All of this is assuming that the strings have a decent C content, of course. *opens YouTube*

Now that, I hadn't thought about. I was picturing grabbing a bundle and just trying to twist them all lol. This sounds much more feasible. Thanks for the reply, JHCC, you definitely helped me wrap my head around this in a different way. Im not sure if i have the skill either, but i want to try it. Only problem is... Ouch. Frosty Thanks for the reply. I've been doing a lot of Damascus lately, and I've learned the sweet spot of how fast to crank my blower to create a neutral fire. Typically, once up to welding heat and removed, my billets have very little or no scale. So that's good news regarding what you said about the decarb. Thanks for the info. Thomas I planned on doing it the same way you did it: very carefully! Lol.

Quint The idea with the nickel wound strings occurred to me too. I feel like the pattern would be super interesting. I really want to do it purely from strings, and I'll give it a few small scale tests, but if it seems inviable, I'll likely do a San mai like you mentioned. If you get ahold of your friend, please, let us know what he says. I do plan on buying some guitar strings to test myself, but times are busy lately. Templehound Thanks for the reply, and the educated guess regarding C content. Going over it in my head, I agree about twisting them. It may cause more trouble, and open up some gaps. I realize this is not going to be easy, but I think if would result in a very cool pattern weld in the end, and the knife would have an interesting story behind it.

Hello everyone. Quick intro story: my brother is a luthier, and a very good guitar player on top of that. Not only does he build them, and play them, but he absolutely loves everything about any type of guitar. So... My idea is to take a LOT of guitar strings (electric guitar strings, no plating) and twist them into a cable and weld them into cable Damascus, and make a knife from it, for his birthday, or Christmas, perhaps. I'm just curious if anyone knows what the carbon content would be like in guitar strings. They have to withstand quite a bit of tension and bending during playing, but not enough to warrant an assumption of high carbon content, in my mind. I do have several guitars myself, but no extra strings around to test, sadly (really kicking myself for not saving the cut off ends from last time I re-strung!) The main premise of this idea is to make it solely from guitar strings, no additional steel, but I'm just unsure if they will make a decent blade, especially after decarb. I searched for the answer to this for a while, but pulled up little info regarding C content. Thanks in advance.

Much better. The handle is awesome, I'm loving the look of that ash.

Looks pretty nice. But the pictures make details hard to see. Could we get some better pics perhaps?

That's... *cough*... Reasonable....

The voice of pragmatism rears its head! I agree with littleblacksmith. There are far easier options out there that may, in fact, result in a better knife. If, however, the whole goal of the knife project is to make it from that specific item, follow the advice you were already given. Regarding your forge, in my opinion, every single forge should be able to reach welding temperatures. Forge welding is not a master level technique, nor is it useful for making Damascus alone. It is a basic skill that is incorporated in many tasks and projects, and if your equipment won't allow you to do that, all you're doing is limiting yourself.

Brake lathe powder... Now there's an idea! I have a friend who owns a repair shop, and I'm relatively certain he has a brake lathe. Thanks for the idea Thomas.

My thoughts exactly. Plus the arc welds may look cool in the pattern. Kozzy Wow! That's far more cheap than I imagined it would be. After that little revelation, I'll have to reconsider using swarf. Smoggy It's mostly just for fun. And for the experience. My main idea behind using swarf was 1. I've been collecting the stuff for a long time, thinking it may serve a purpose and 2. It would just be cool to say that the knife is made from the dust of a couple dozen other knives. In the long run though, I may just end up buying powdered steel. I'm with Kozzy, it's a lot of work to end up with an avoidable failure.

Well done. I am absolutely in love with the handle.