Dabbling with mosaic patterns

[rhitee93]

I've  been wanting to try some mosaic pattern welding lately, and gave it a go.  I made quite a few mistakes, and had a number of major problems along the way.  This was never going to be a knife I would sell or let into the general population, but in the end I decided to slap on a simple handle and make it my new "Beater knife"

I'm glad I went for it, and this won't be my last mosaic attempt.  It's kind of addictive.

This started as 11 alternating layers of 1095 and 15N20 that was stacked and rewelded.  Additional 15N20 was inserted after making some crushed W's.  Then I did a 4-way weld, but screwed up the orientation somehow.  After that it was just a "Ferry flip" and I had a bar to work with.

The balde is 4.5" with an OAL of about 9.5".  I'll do better on the next one

 

 

[Daswulf]

Very cool eye grabbing pattern. I don't See anything wrong with it. Why don't you trust it? 

 

[rhitee93]

Thanks Daswulf.  It isn't so much of a trust things as a quality thing.  I did have some concerns about welds at one point, but those turned out to be unfounded.  There are a couple of small could shuts on the spine that won't be a structural issue, but I think are unsightly.

The bigger issues are that since this was an experiment, I figured I would double down and try some hollow grinding.  I don't do this very often, and am not good at it.  As a result, the quality of the grind is pretty bad.  (It looks better in the pic than in person)

I also made a major rookie goof in building the mosaic pattern that I just wouldn't let out of my shop.

It'll make a nice EDC weekend knife for me.  It will also be nice to use some of my pattern welded steel for a while to see how it holds up.  Unfortunately, most of my knifes just get looked at, and not really used so this will be a good data point

 

[Daswulf]

Ah ok. I wonder why they get more looked at than used. 

Yeah, that will be a good looking user knife to test out. I'd be glad to test it out for you. Can't wait to see the others if this one wont leave your shop. 

[ThomasPowers]

I "carry" my experiments too.  Handy to see how much abuse they can actually take as my carry blades get used for *everything*! (I remember a guy flipping out as I dug a firepit with a pattern welded blade---told him I couldn't do anything to it that I couldn't fix as I had made that blade!)

[rhitee93]

Lol Thomas.  I am a horrible knife abuser.  It'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to tear this one up.

[Steve Sells]

I still have my first multi bar damascus, its a dirk I wear for Ren fairs everyone likes it but I can see the problem it has

[templehound]

Very nice!

[TheoRockNazz]

Stunning! Well done

[John in Oly, WA]

Oh, those miatakes are jest glatingly hiseous! LOL Just jesting!

Looks like a beautiful pattern and finish from here. Keep up the good work!