As the last one did this knife started from a piece of 1 1/4" cable, it was forge welded then squared up and cut as an accordion fold is demonstrated here Bits of Steel if you scroll down you will come to it. I had never heard of accordion fold until I saw this on Ed Caffreys site. This knife has about 5 little flaws in the weld but you get a better idea of the pattern it produces, It was etched with a mixture of PCB etchant and white vinegar half and half for about 5 minutes. I tempered this one immediately after hardening. It did not crack.


LDW

Here is another picture I am still learning how to do this.

Yea Your Still Learning;like Da Vincii Was Learn'n When He Painted Mona Lisa!
:cool:

Slick!! It looks like snake skin!
Finnr

Yeah, very nice, does look just like snake skin...

looks good keep it up

Very Cool!

Well it was a nice excercise but you don't need to accordian unfold wire rope damascus. The wire rope pattern is already open to being etched as welded.

I guess I should be happy enough with the pattern that wire rope produces but I have experimented several different ways to try and alter the pattern. If you do too much the pattern just gets smaller, as in twisting or folding. Jim Batson told me you can take four pieces and twist two of them the opposite direction then square them all up and put them together to make a feather pattern. That will be my next goal. I really enjoy working with cable. So far the accordian fold done to the cable has been the only improvement I have seen to the actual pattern. I have about 6 hours in the knife pictured above, I guess it would be considered a proto-type. Thanks for all the comments. LDW

That is a great looking blade! I haven't really attempted much with knives yet and didn't realize that cables could produce such a good looking piece. Keep up the great work!

*eyes get bigger than baseballs*
i dont think I'll ever master pattern-welding to that degree

About 7 years ago my wife saw a picture of a knife made of cable with a cable handle. She told me she wanted one. I worked for a week and burned up about 6 feet of cable before I finally got a piece to weld together. I guess the main thing is not being scared to get it hot enough to forge weld. If it does not weld its not hot enough. If it comes out of the forge shooting yellow-white sparks its too hot. I always tell people to heat it till its the same color as the hottest part of the fire. Good luck, every knife you make gets better. My brother still has the first one I made from cable. Its not a pretty sight.

Looks great, i love it.

One thing you can try if you are after different patterns is to get some antirotational cable. Inner strand is turned one direction and the outer goes the other way. Makes a lot more definitive snake pattern on the finished blade then trysome with your accordian cut. One thing I always thought about was to cut pieces and lay diagonal in a can and then cut slices so just the end wires would be on the blade side. Mike

I don't understand the "lay diagonal in a can" part.

Thanks,
LDW

Should have said sideways in a can to fill it then cut off side.