Steel Cable Knife question

[Cole Cross]

I am looking to try my first damascus project and my research lead to using steel cable as a start. I found some 1 Inch 6X37 IWRC Wire Rope for sale online and was wondering if this is suitable enough to start with?

[fciron]

1 inch cable is fine. You want to make sure that your cable is uncoated and doesn't have a plastic or other non-steel core. A lot depends on what type of knife you want to make and what your equipment and experience are.

[LDW]

I have welded 3/4, 1, 1 1/2 even 2 inch with the method I am putting this link to. This is a crude way of doing it but it has always worked for me. I am not sure if it shows it, but after welding the end I usually clamp the end in the vise and untwist the cable a little and sprinkle flux inside the cable then put it back in the vise and tighten it back up.

http://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/BirthOfACableKnife#

[Cole Cross]

I have welded 3/4, 1, 1 1/2 even 2 inch with the method I am putting this link to. This is a crude way of doing it but it has always worked for me. I am not sure if it shows it, but after welding the end I usually clamp the end in the vise and untwist the cable a little and sprinkle flux inside the cable then put it back in the vise and tighten it back up.

http://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/BirthOfACableKnife#

Hey LDW, what you made as simply amazing! I made a forge out of an old grill. I ran a 3/4" pipe through the bottom with some holes drilled in it and then hooked a hair dryer to it as a blower. I use old wood pallets for fuel and I am wondering, can I get the steel hot enough to weld it with the setup mentioned?

[LDW]

They melt iron ore with wood charcoal. I have never used charcoal myself but I am sure you can do anything with it that you can do with coal.
You say you ran a 3/4 inch pipe to carry your air. I do not think that is going to give you enough volume. You need a bigger pipe for your air.

[golgotha forge & anvil]

A while back I made a coal forge out of an old cast iron hibachi. I lined the inside (firebed) with fire clay and used 1 1/4" pipe for my air supply with holes drilled the entire length at
1" intervals. To control air flow I used a 1 1/4" water valve. I used a hair dryer for about a week and it burned out so I went to a hand crank bellows that a friend loaned me. At any rate
ur gonna need something to control air flow for the forge.

Gene

[ThomasPowers]

LDW chasing the Skeeters off with massive clouds of sulfur smoke is not possible using charcoal! (OTOH I have smelted iron from ore using lump charcoal...)

[LDW]

I have seen someone use charcoal and when we break for lunch he was able to cook hot dogs over his fire. You sure would not want to do that with coal.

[Ken Nelson]

I am looking to try my first damascus project and my research lead to using steel cable as a start. I found some 1 Inch 6X37 IWRC Wire Rope for sale online and was wondering if this is suitable enough to start with?

back to the cable question, I am not sure it would be a good cable to start with. IIRC 6x37 means 6 cables of 37 strands each wound together for the total. That could cause two problems. First, a good cable for welding would be 7x7 or 7x13 which means 7 cables, including the one in the center. The 6x37 probably has a synthetic center that will cause all sorts of problems with welding, or allow the cable to collapse, giving it only as much mass as a 3/4" or 7/8" cable. The second problem would be the size of the individual strands. When you weld a cable together, you will get a decarb layer on each strand. In a way this is nice as it adds to the pattern, but on thin wires, you can lose over half of the carbon in the steel while you are welding. a single wire in a 7x7 is about .111" dia. If you were to only lose carbon in .005" all around, you would still have .101" of good steel in each strand, or about 82% of the wire. in 6x37 each wire is about .045" by the time you lose the decarb, you have a .035" center, or only about 60% good steel.

The cables I have used in the past are 7x7 aircraft cable bright finish. Those are available in various sizes, and are not coated or filled with any plastics or fibers.