Finially got our gas forge up to welding heat and managed to make some cable damascus from 1-1/4 oilfeild drill cable.  Must have some nickel in it to resist the acid conditions during drilling.

I recently tried making a cable Damascus knife and would have to say that yours turned out much nicer. Thanks for sharing.you did great!

                                                               Littleblacksith 

Beautiful. And welcome to the forum. I'm going to steal frosty's job here and say that you should putyour location on your profile. You'd be surprised how many smiths there might be near you. This is one of the things that has me dying to get out to the forge. Maybe in a few years i might even be able to get something like that accomplished! great knife.

Nice job with the cable forging.  Looking forward to seeing the completed blade.

Just have to ask, what the heck is that stuff wrapping around the outside of your forge?  It looks like old fiberglass insulation.  Please do be careful with that if it is.  Once the fibers get overheated something happens to the material and it becomes more friable.  The fibers can easily break into shorter lengths and become airborne.  I currently have significant scarring on my lungs due to years of glassworking with equipment without encapsulated high temperature refractory fiber and fiberglass insulation.

Learn from my mistake.

You are right it is roxul mineral wool, which doesnt seem to breakdown like glass wool. But yea, it is probably not good on the lungs so we have a side draft going at all times. We were losing too much heat through the walls but now I lined it with kaowool.  It was our third attempt at a forge with stuff lying around  but now we know what to do.  Going to make another one for forge welding and have it lined with refractory in an old propane type canister.  WE mwlted the kaowool in this one when we introduced a bit more air so want to have something that can hit 2500F. 
I am going to build another like this but want it wider and deeper.  Its only about 5" wide inside which is too restrictive for standard forge use.  By the way this is the first time ever to forge weld that cable.  I think it is just a fluke it turned out so well!  We quenched in water from too high a heat and cracked it a bit.  Should have quenched in oil and at a dull red.

Hello there, 

Very beautiful knive, you can be proud.

Luc

what did you do to that poor lamb?  Oh there is no Ni in that cable. It is 10XX steel, usually 1060 or 1070. What you are seeing is weld de-carb and crystalline differences.

I second the suggestion of sealing that mineral wool..It can and it WILL FUBAR you ..

JPH