My first folded steel blade.

[dennis_hl]

This is my first folded steel blade.

I made this blade out of mild steel and a length of car coil spring. It is 24 layers, I twisted it after each weld. The mild steel bar was about two feet long, provided a great handle, didn't need to use tongs at all. I bent one end into a rough 4 inch U shape and inserted a 3 inch length of spring steel. The first weld had 3 layers, I doubled it for 6, then 12, then 24. I squared the handle, twisted it near the blade, drew out the end to a point, and then rounded the handle and put the little curl at the end. This is my thrid or fourth knife (depending on how you count them)

[T-Gold]

Pretty dang snazzy Would make a fine eating knife.

[elkdoc]

I really like this one. Very simple but at the same time elegant.

8)

[Strine]

Excellent first effort Dennis but the arithmetic is a tad out.

You started with three layers...mild steel/spring steel/mild steel. and doubled it over. This results in...MS/SS/MS/MS/SS/MS. The two adjacent MS layers become one i.e. you now have MS/SS/MS/SS/MS (5 layers). Doubling again, using the same theory will result in 9 layers...MS/SS/MS/SS/MS/SS/MS/SS/MS. and so on and so forth. In other words the number of layers is one less than twice the number of layers in the previous fold. So after 3 folds I reckon you would have 17 layers.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble and don't want to dent your pride but I thought it only fair that I pass on the humiliation as it was passed to me many years ago. But I pass it on in the same good humour and concern for your edification. I thought I'd have to carry this snippet to the grave having waited such a long time to offload it. I hope your chance will come a little sooner.

Good luck and happy layer counting.

[dennis_hl]

Strine,
Makes perfect sense, thanks. Now I'm gonna have to sit down and do some figuring, I've made another one. I thought it had 100 layers. Using my old method of counting layers I inserted another piece of spring steel at "12" and then folded it to get "25" layers, then again for "50," then "100." Is that 73 then, when counting properly? I'll post pics when I get it cleaned up.

[ThomasPowers]

That is one way to look at it---but if you weld the same stuff to itself you still get a pattern---look at welded cable blades---all the same metal welded up but the pattern is there.

Turns out that decarb and possible weld zone pick up keeps the layers from melding into one.

Thomas

[dennis_hl]

Here is the second folded steel blade (100 or 73 layers, depending on how you count them). The pattern is a bit more pronounced, I put a high polish on it then etched it in vinegar, then touched up the polish again with a worn piece of 1000 grit sand paper.

[Ian]

That really shows the pattern nicely Dennis, sweet! I like this style of knife, like someone said, makes a good 'eating' knife and also good as a ladies knife for 'ye olde' time re enactments. Think Viking
:)

[ThomasPowers]

I make that style so that they will clip into a leather belt pouch for camping events...

Of course the last eating set I did was for the local smithing group's potlucks---did it from Ti and coloured it---pretty to look at and dishwasher safe.

Thomas