First try with cable

[GottMitUns]

One of my oilfield customers brought me some 3/4" wire rope and I finally worked my nerve up to try and forge weld it.  After 2 years of heating and beating and reading this sight pretty much daily I must say making the billet was easier that I expected and that doesn't happen very often.

One observation I can make is 1 linear inch of 3/4" cable does not make near as much solid billet as it looks like it will!

 

I forge a billet from cable appx  1/2"x1/4"x12", 

cut it into 3 pieces,

sanded, stacked, tacked, fluxed, forge welded,

and forges back to 1/2" x 1/4" x 12" 

I repeated this process again, only I turned the billet 90Dgr. after forge welding it and drew it out to appx 1"x 1/4" x 5".  At that point I thought I might want to try and make a knife out of this.

I free hand filed it into shape and sanded it down from 80 grit to 600 grit while it as in a annealed state.

I etched it in a solution of hot vinegar and salt (thank you ThomasPowers) for 18hrs

I brought it above non magnetic temp and let it air cool to black heat 3 times then quenched it in ATF.

 

I heated the spine until the colors ran to blue on the cutting edge, then buffed it with a Scotchbrite belt on a belt sander

The waves on the cutting edge came from me being careless with tongs during the heat treating process

 

Thanks IFI

 

Russell

[Charles R. Stevens]

Good looking blade

[ThomasPowers]

Now try one with a weak ferric chloride etch and see which you like better

[T.J.watts]

I've tried cable once and it didn't like me very much so I decided to practice more before trying it again. We throw away large cable slings at work from old units being refurbished. Nice looking blade.