200yearstoolate Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Someone chime in and tell me what you think... when I make cable damascus, I MIG weld around the cable and then cut it off the existing pile of cable I have. This prevents the cable from unraveling. I'm thinking of upsetting the 1" cable (cold) and then lacing in 10 or 12 pieces of copper wire. After that, proceeding with the standard forge welding and hammering of the blade. What I'm shooting for is after final grinding, shaping, and acid etching I would like to see some thin lines of copper running through the grain of the blade. Any thoughts on whether or not this will work before I attempt it? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Someone chime in and tell me what you think... when I make cable damascus, I MIG weld around the cable and then cut it off the existing pile of cable I have. This prevents the cable from unraveling. I'm thinking of upsetting the 1" cable (cold) and then lacing in 10 or 12 pieces of copper wire. After that, proceeding with the standard forge welding and hammering of the blade. What I'm shooting for is after final grinding, shaping, and acid etching I would like to see some thin lines of copper running through the grain of the blade. Any thoughts on whether or not this will work before I attempt it? Thanks. Will it work? Its possible for sure... One thing you'll have to be aware of is the copper will reduce greatly, much more so than the steel. I have done a bit of copper/steel and brass/steel mokume If you start with a 1/4" copper strand you might end up with a 1/16 thats visable after bonding... I'll send along a photo of a 5 peice stack ... it started as 1/4" steel on bottom then 3/8 copper then 1/4" steel then 3/8 brass then topped with 1/4 steel... You can see the copper is now thinner than the steel even though it started out 50% thicker... The brass is about 10 thousands thick (lower melting point.. most of it migrated ) What its going to take is tonnage... To weld the steel and still diffusion bond the copper your going to have to weld at a very low heat ( copper melts at 1990 degree's) which means lots of pressure and time... The way diffusion bonding works is a function of time, temperature and pressure... The three are inversely proportional... if any one is lowered the other two must go up.... lower the temp and it takes more time and pressure.... And your not talking just a little.... I would guess a safe bet would be 100-150 tons and you could make a homogeneous billet at 1800 deg ... but you'll have to have a real good pyrometer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatamax Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I have no idea if this will work with copper but this site has instructions on how you can do what you want with brass.Bronze Cable Damascus Tutorial Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 That is pretty cool.. but its just melted metal in the void, its not bonded together... You couldn't forge or shape it or all the chunks would just crumble and fall out... That's another issue with the copper... you have to forge it at temps under 1850 and you have to be very careful or the billet will fracture at the copper vein... it has a much much lower yield strength than the steel of course I should also throw out I am far from an expert on the subject, Just sharing my experience with a copper/steel billet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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