Heres a bunch of roses i made for christmas gifts, then decided i could make more and sell them. People seem really interested in these. Thanks to Mark Aspery for putting these in his books.
I also made a damascus shawl pin at the request of my wife. I had a billet of 15n20/1080 that i had made before the holidays, so i chiseled off a piece, slit, drifted and worked to shape on the horn of my hay budden, and cut the pin off another billet i had. Let me know what you think. I see shawl pins on etsy for $20 to $60, but i have never seen any damascus.

I have no idea why that picture ended up in the text.

Maybe this will work better.

You have been busy, it all looks great keep up the work.

Nice work. I really like the roses. Thanks for sharing. :)

Thanks guys!

I like the roses, Iv gotta try that one of these days.

Thanks. The roses are fun to make. Of course after making a dozen, the hand got a bit tired of peening the petals. My wifes grandma sure lit up when she got one for christmas!

Hey Ironstein,

I really like both the flowers and the damascus pin!

Looking at them side by side I couldn't help but wonder what a damascus flower would look like. . .

Caleb Ramsby

real nice work man, real nice. i love that pin man it's pretty awesome yet very simple. what did you use to make the roses(parent stock)

Really beautiful work. Normally i don't take much time to look at the pics when they are so large but these really showed how much effort and craftsmanship went into your work. Impressive!

Mark<><

Thank you very much Mark, Rokshasa, and Caleb. I think a damascus rose would be way too labor intensive if trying to sell or make any money, but i have thought about the concept as an artistic point of view. Might do that some time!
The roses are made from 16 ga sheet which i plasma cut the petals from. The stem is from 1/2 inch round stock which is upset to about 3/4 and butchered to make a tenon for the petals.. Then the stem is drawn out leaving the upset as the bud beneath the petals. I used hot rolled round stock and it works like butter at a nice bright heat. I just got a pair of Grants aspery tongs so i can start welding leaves onto the stems for a more custom look. The upsetting method was shown in Mark Aspery's book "the fundamentals of blacksmithing", Dick Fedder apparently showed Mark that and he put it in his book. Two guys i would like to meet someday! These roses are pretty labor intensive, but are great for hammer control and practice. Peening 60 petals will give the forearms a good work out!

I can't seem to get the pictures to work properly on this site. I size them before downloading and use the smallest size, but they always come out huge. You can hit command and the - button to zoom out though.