May 11, 200917 yr This is the latest piece I have been working on, its low layer twisted 15n20 / 1080 for the 4 bars in the core, and 7x6 section twisted 'w' pattern for the outer wrap (aka 'firestorm' pattern). It was quite difficult scarfing the tip joint!, took 4 goes at rewelding a defect, got it in the end though. Ive recently finished making a belt grinder, and this is the 3rd blade ive ground, Im happy with the way its turned out, its full flat grind. I might even get round to putting a handle on this! (yeah, right, when the forge is sitting there taunting me)
May 12, 200917 yr Great pattern, and a real clean grind and finish, not to mention the photos are very good, what did you use as a light source? Thanks Mark
May 12, 200917 yr Author Thanks guys! The light source is good ol fashioned sun! I took the snaps early evening when it wasnt to bright on a windowsill. (its sitting on a piece of black rubber gasket material to give some contrast) Ive got a light tent but it wasnt worth setting it up for this one! Ive found that the trick to a reasonable photo of a knife with minimum equipment is move the blade around untill your viewing it with no shadows / reflections , then use the camera from that angle, flash off, macro mode on!
May 12, 200917 yr John - Very nicely done. When you say a 7x6 section - do you mean 7mm x 6mm? Looks awesome. - JK
May 12, 200917 yr Author Hi jeremy, Sorry, I wasny very clear on the '7x6' thing! When you forge the 'w' pattern you end up with the pattern showing on the end of the bar. It looks like a checker board. You can control the number of 'squares' in each direction. So, for the outside bars on this blade I had a bar of 'twisted' w pattern 1/4" square x 12" long. the very end of the bar looked like a checker board 7 squares x 6 squares. When you twist a bar of 'w' pattern damascus, the firestorm pattern is hiding in the middle of it! This was then cut into 2 pieces, scarfed at the tip of the blade and forge welded around the exising 4 bar core. If I get chance I will do some sketchs of the pattern progression (easier than trying to write it down :)
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