Hunter Copelin Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 A friend of mine bought me a beautiful billet for Christmas. It is a ton of metal! This thing is 3/16 thick, 2.25” wide and 10” long. Honestly, if this was 1095 I would think I had conservatively 3 knives worth of steel here, but this thing already has the pattern perfectly made out on it. If I Forge this into a couple knives will I ruin the raindrop effect? Or could I potentially make it into an interesting smashed down personalized raindrop billet? Ooorrrr would anyone advise I just draw a full tang 10” knife on it and hit the grinder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyO Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 Perhaps you can find a smith who has a rolling mill who'd be willing to reshape the bar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 Forging will alter the pattern. There's not much getting around that. Perhaps you could cut it lengthwise to get two blanks and forge in the bevels. With raindrop pattern if you do a lot of stock removal you will probably grind through all of the pattern where you did the deepest grinding anyway. If you forge in the bevels you can keep some of the pattern, but it will elongate in whatever directions the steel "stretches" compared to its current state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Try forging 1 blade from a subsection and see if you get an acceptable blade from it. 3/16 isn't thick enough for a lot of forging anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyO Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 20 hours ago, Buzzkill said: Forging will alter the pattern. There's not much getting around that. Finding a smith with either a power hammer with big flat dies or a hydraulic press will only make the drops larger, but should keep the round shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 of course stock removal will remove part of the pattern, since its a surface effect much like ladder pattern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Copelin Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 Oh yea I have a power hammer alright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 With that rationale; all my hammers are Powers' Hammers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Copelin Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 Are we talking about hammer size, Or arm size now? Hahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I think we're talking about surnames. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Copelin Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 Oh wait... I get it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eutrophicated1 Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Raindrop is such a beautiful pattern, I've looked at your pics here several times. Maybe make 1 large drop point Chefs knife out of it, using just convex bevel grinding to preserve the pattern. Maybe only a 40 or 50% grind. Maybe use some nice well defined straight grained hardwood on the handle, like old yellow pine with close dark growth rings. Zebra wood is also like that. Just a couple of thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 On 12/30/2018 at 12:53 PM, Hunter Copelin said: A friend of mine bought me a beautiful billet for Christmas. It is a ton of metal! This thing is 3/16 thick, 2.25” wide and 10” long. And it weighs a TON! What did postage set you back on that? It's going to need at least 10 handles to be usable at all, you won't need to push down to cut though. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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