kerryd

I've done two small billets in the last two days out of quarters. About $5 each. This is after I burned the copper and yellow brass I had into a puddle on the floor of my forge (turns out yellow brass melts about 350 degrees lower than copper). Anyway, making a roll of quarters with aluminum foil for a wrapper and just putting them in a vise worked great. I heated the stack with a spare forge burner and squeezed it more with the vise every time it got up to dull orange. After compressing my stack by about 10-15% I just left it in the vice to cool and in a couple of hours I had a really solid piece. Apparently, you don't need as much heat if you have more continuous pressure.

I thought I had it all ground out. I wasted two cutting wheels getting it loose, but that bright spot in the center looks suspiciously like the stainless that the hatchet was made from. That's another piece of dumb luck because I'm told that stainless rarely forge welds outside an oxygen free environment.

Despite a major screw up I managed to finish this feather damascus gyuto. 124 layers of 1095 & 1080 with 15n20 in bewteen.

Never use a cheap chinese hatchet to make the center cut. I managed to weld this thing into the billet and had to cut it out to continue.

Did you build that or are they available commercially?

Nevermind, I found the website.....COOL!!!

Beautiful work on all of the above, but that bigger cutting board really is exquisite.

How do those guards attach? This is the second one I've seen you post and I can't, for the life of me, figure out what holds them together.

You did all that with files? It looks really cool for a first knife, or a twentieth knife for that matter.

The tram up to pill hill was a big deal in Portland when they finished it. Just being able to say you make knives out of the cable would allow you to sell them to yuppies at Saturday Market for way too much money. They won't have to hold an edge because they'll be wall hangings and coffee table conversation pieces, so 1040 will be just fine all by itself.

If you have enough ratchet straps you can roll anything into the back of a pickup.

Should have been 57 layers, but I think chasing down an inclusion brought it down to about 50. This is the last time I use a farrier's rasp without grinding it totally flat and smooth, probably the last time I use one period. There IS a learning curve. This is only my 4th attempt at forge welding a billet and my second at anything over three layers. If I stay anal enough about cleaning my steel to keep inclusions out of a 200 layer twisted billet in the future I will count myself lucky. "you don't have to be good if you're lucky".

Way beyond my skill level. A truly beautiful and functional work of art.

I don't know if a log splitter will move fast enough to become a hammer, but I made attachments for my 25 ton gas splitter that turned it into a functional forge press.

I may grind off the fullering & flat tools and make removable dies for it in the future. It's still in the experimental stage, but I've managed a couple pieces each of San Mai and Damascus.

Talked to him on the phone this morning. Seems like a decent guy.

23 hours ago, Rashelle said:

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH iron ore........ We got to talk one of these days Thomas. I've gotten all of those metals from Kelly Cupples out of Yakima. Could probly also get them from pacific steel and metal supermarket in Portland.

 

I was at Metal supermarket in Portland yesterday. They don't stock 15n20, L6, or even 1095 or 1084. He said all he had for high carbon was a little 1070. I'll check out Kelly Cupples, Yakima is closer to me anyway.

Thanks Steve. I guess I should explore the forums more.

Thank you sir.

I did a billet day before yesterday that was leaf spring, circular saw, an old Stanley hand saw, and a ground down farriers rasp. I want to see what it's like to use new metal.

Everybody's a comedian....but I can relate. Oregon, I don't think I'm ready to build a foundry just yet.

Hey, I could possibly have a friend.....maybe. Ok....it was me. I just spent half the day in Portland Checking places like metal supermarket looking for 15n20. But I was already in town picking up a bag of Kastolite and a case of fire bricks so it wasn't THAT obsessive.

Does anybody know a place that physically stocks 15n20, 1095, & 1084 in Oregon or Washington?  Like Portland, Bend, Yakima, maybe Seattle? It occurred to me that the time and abrasives I use up cleaning up rusty saw blades and the like would pay for a lot of nice clean store bought steel. I also have a car that gets 40mpg so actually picking the stuff up would let me buy half again as much as paying for delivery.

Is Making damascus addictive? Asking for a friend.

I done several 8" chef's knives and a 10" filet knife with mine. But it's good to hear about someone else's learning experiences now and then.

Oh yeah, the blade in my profile pic. It's a five inch boner made from leaf spring and stabilized spalted alder. The meat manager at our local grocery has the mate to it. He also has a cold room and butcher shop built into his garage. Apparently the boner I made him went through 2 pigs and half a steer before he had to touch up the edge, so I got the HT right through no fault of my own.

Buck tools makes a 3/4hp direct drive that will actually hog off some metal.

Spraying the press plates cooled them off too much. Wood splitter presses are slow. Given my level of experience that may be a good thing. However, plenishing with water at the end of a thinning cycle worked great! My thanks to everyone that put their two cents in. There IS a learning curve.

Thanks frosty, I'll try that.

2 hours ago, templehound said:

Vinegar works but, sprinkle water on the anvil while forging.

I'm doing it almost entirely with a press, but water hammering between heatingswill probably help.