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I Forge Iron

First go at canister damascus


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And it was a sorta success & sorta failure. But it was an informative lesson either way. Straight arm power for this.

A few weeks back my wife picked up a can of 1084 powder for me along with a big bag of titanium dioxide. It was a nice surprise. A couple days ago I scored a 3 foot piece of 3/16" wall 2" x 2" square tube from a supplier at work. I like free. 

So tonight I gave it a shot. Cut a piece of tube 2" long & caps from another short piece. I ended up using white out to coat it. Used the 1084 powder & small pieces of bandsaw blade in at random directions, with a small amount of charcoal in the bottom to scavenge any air. 

Now my little coal forge ain't the greatest & I think this would would work a lot better with a gas forge, as mine is hard to keep consistent heat.  But, we use what we got. Got it up to heat (just starting to sparkle, the turn 90° & repeat for about 20 minutes or so), hammered a side & back into the fire. Did this I don't know how many times, until the wife called me in for dinner & tv with the kids. 

 

I think I should have hammered from the some from the end as well. Might give it a go with the trusty old borax to see if it'll consolidate more. Not sure of the bandsaw material, but it will harden and break nicely. So that could be the problem as well. 

I've may do another can with the 1084 powder and some 1095 scrap & left overs. Got some 4130 tig rod that may find its way into a can. Might have a bit of 15n20 somewhere. 

 

Sorry metric guys. I'm to tired to convert things right now. 

 

Critiques & pointers are always welcome. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Fleur de lis, it looks ok to me. Is there any de-lams? Cut off the ends and make sure grind the faces a little and you should be good. I think the wrinkles May need ground off to avoid Cold shuts. Is there anything I'm not seeing?

I can't tell if those are wrinkles or cracks

I finally seen it on a monitor instead of my phone. You may be able to grind past the cracks and get down to good steel. If not you have the right way of looking at it as a learning experience. Good luck 

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Gave it another go today, only with 1095 & 15n20. Same square tube as before & 3" in length. The 1095 is .187" thick & the 15n20 is .120" thick. 6 pcs each filled the tube tight. 

Now my welder is in need of replacing. So the welds on the can weren't very good. I will be getting myself a tig setup in the near future. But it worked well enough to move forward. 

 

Poped the can in the forge & piled on the coal. I let is soak for 20-25 minutes before the first hammer strikes. Got 4 good welding heats before some welds gave way. Specifically the one for the round bar for my tongs to hold. I don't have any tongs big enough for 2"x2" square or anything there about after hammering. 

I cut her open for giggles and much to my surprise, it took a weld. Well half a weld anyways. The center didn't weld at all but the outside three layers on each side did. 

 

So instead of damascus, I've got San Mai of sorts. Hopefully I can get it drawn out to blade length. 

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