Skullandbonesforge

Hey all Jon here I’m located in Raleigh NC I’m trying to look and find some local forges recently made up a 12 layer billet of 15n20 and 1095 but I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it solid by hand anyone know of any shops with a power hammer or press they could teach me on to get this project started? By day I’m an iron worker/welder so presses and such aren’t new to me however I’ve only had a very small amount of hands on practice with a power hammer I’ve done smaller Damascus billets before by hand in the past but the billets were much more narrow and my new billet is to wide any tips let me know! Also if their are any local smiths I would love to come and help and learn the trade better thank you! 

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

don't understand the "Not possible to forge weld by hand" as folks have been doing it for around 3000 years now by hand.  How do they think the viking/Frankish swords were made?  The Japanese Katanas and Javanese Kris's? Not to mention ALL the welding done before gas & electric welding came along! 

That was my thinking Aswell he had personally tried it a few times with no success  and thought me crazy for having very little experience and wanting to try it It was quite a nice feeling to see him come over and go you crazy   xxxxxxxxx  it looks solid

Mod note: lots of editing and 'attention" given

On 7/6/2020 at 11:11 AM, ThomasPowers said:

Cutting the ends off of billets  is also pretty common to get rid of end cruft.  I sometimes save them and forge them into hammer wedges 

Dang that’s a great idea I love the fact that almost nothing is ever scrap and can be reused

On 7/7/2020 at 10:20 AM, ThomasPowers said:

I have a secret stash of the old black diamond files that were 1.2% C that I use to "juice up" billets where the total carbon content would be below that for a good blade without some extra "C" to diffuse through it.

That’s pretty wild I was watching a destructive test on a titanium blade today and to think you made steel to shave that blows my mind I love this stuff wanna get more into titanium but I need my buddy to contact his old forge to see if we could come in and use the power hammer seeing as the patent for Timascus is up in only three years I wanna try and learn more about forging it that way in three years I’ll have maybe enough practice with how the metal moves to try some Timascus I know for a greenhorn at this whole blacksmith/bladesmithing it’s a crack pot idea but the actual blacksmith who told me it was impossible to forge weld by hand is also eating “most” of his words right now can’t wait to keep playing around in this trade!

That’s probably a good idea once I get out of work I’ll give it a shot I’ve just never heard of a good quality piece of rebar ? Maybe it’s just me I’ve heard two different people at work say it was though 

No idea what this stock is I’ve been told it’s a type of rebar tryed to look it up on google got no luck there it’s really shiny despite a bit of surface rust but not shaped like most rebar you see today tell me what you all think and I hope I’m in the right part of the forums thank you also noticed a little tit on the end you’ll see in the picture only time I’ve seen that on steel is when I’m welding Nelson studs down onto deck with 9018 5/32 rod and the studs have a magnesium tip if I’m correct let me know what you all think

Thank you guys again so much for all the insight here’s how she turned out 8 layers 

Thank you guys for the helpful feedback so I found half got it cut and stacked it again attempting to go from 4 layers to 8 I mostly got it I see a small crack or line at the top on one side other then that it looks solid what do you all think 

On one side I see some imperfections in the center I think that was periosity from the welds and on the other side there looks like a crack or fold up at the top I noticed towards the end of working with it that the mild steel was getting battered inside of the 5160 to the point where it busted out of the top a bit I’ll upload a few pictures let me know what you all think 

That’s what I was hoping it was pre tacked to the bolt before I got it so I had no way of checking what the threads looked like plus there was obvious surface rust so it’s safe to assume it was rusted thru and thru 

So first of all thank all of you for the insight on the topic as for Frazer yes your right just a big 1”1/2 nut threaded on to a bolt cut flush on both sides and completely welded around with 7018 the forge I’m currently using is a single burner almost coffee can forge but slightly bigger it certainly gets very hot as for the heat however every other failed attempt at a forge weld in the past I think it was from bad welding heat but this time I payed attention flipped it around a bunch making sure it was evenly heated to the point where I had sat back for a second to let it get white hot and I heard the steel pop or crackle that’s when I had decided to take it out for its first welding pass since I welded both sides of the nut and ground it clean I saw no need for flux however it was quite an old and slightly rusted nut and was already tacked on one side so I had no way of taking it off and cleaning the threads and then the inside of the nut mainly I’m hopping the failures were only because it wasent cleaned or prepared correctly I have some more pics I’ll upload in a little bit of what the inside looks like after I cut it and as for why I did this ? I don’t really know I Am always trying different types of Damascus and failing and I figured this idea might be an easier thought I tryed to see if anyone else has done it and saw nothing so decided to give it the old college try 

So I had an interesting idea tryed to look up online to see if anyone’s tryed it had no luck anyways I had a 1”1/2 ish a-325 nut and massive bolt inside I cut it flush on both sides and with a stick welder and some 1/8th inch 7018 welded both sides of the nut and ground them clean then I went to the forge and worked it into a piece of square stock but it has many cracks I know when it comes to forge welding there’s a million variables that could go wrong but i have very very little black/blade smithing experience and wanted someone else’s opinion