Stewart Light

I hadn't thought of wood but it's an idea. Casting videos look good, though not the ones I recall from before. Will have a better look later.

Thanks, I'll have a look. The appeal of casting (if viable) is that we could use up a mass of left over scrap rather than needing to buy a big chunk of metal to make smaller.

A contact wheel that I would mount on a tooling arm for a kmg style grinder.

I haven't been about here in some time but while pondering this, I knew you guys would be the ones to ask. So I've always like the idea of getting a large wheel for my grinder but can't afford one. Today, I was stood in a workshop where they have kit to cast aluminium, there's a few mills and some metal lathes. While driving home it came to mind that I thought I recalled seeing someone casting their own wheel, cleaning it up, fitting bearings, etc. Does it ring a bell with anyone that could point me in a direction to some info and / or do you think it's realistic?

I've not stabilised anything myself but looking around at some of the mix of materials folk have had stabilised, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Get it with dye in the resin to fill any gaps - sounds like a winner to me.

Thanks James!

Yes, sorry my bad wording but Tim has it written more clearly. I should have said, "while I am aware that 15n20 and 1095 are a great combo for making pattern weld, it is often the steel that is claimed to be used in Damascus from Pakistan and India where it turns out on use that the billet is no good. While the claim of these steels isn't an indicator of it being dodgy on its own, it does make me question it more than if it had been claimed to be other steels, especially when it was bought cheap and by an unknown maker. " Good to know I'm still likely to see delam when stressed like this. I did file test it and it was hard James. I really need to think on whether I am prepared to make a blade in this still but it does help.

Hi, Long time no post! I am after some advice and I'm sure you guys and gals are the ones that would be able to assist! I have a billet of pattern welded steel here with me that was sent by a chap to make a usable knife. I quizzed him as to it's origin and when he could only give me the standard 15n20 and 1095 mix that is often mentioned in dubious damascus, I warned him that it may be no good. I agreed to bring it in to see if it would harden and we would know then. First off, I put it on the grinder. First I tickled a bit of known O1 and then the questionable one. https://youtu.be/lmwPVUzB-GY Now to me, I think the carbon content looks pretty similar. Spark testing is not something I've done much of but I think it looks promising. Would you agree? Next I chopped a bit off the corner and stuck it in my kiln to harden. It seemed to harden up and after sticking in a vice and smacking it, it snapped off cleanly as I expected in it's untempered state. I was slightly surprised as I had expected it to be junk but I had known people o get lucky with this type of material in the past. However(!) I then had a closer look at the broken surfaces of the now two pieces. I could see evidence of delamination and this is what has me questioning it again. I have gone back to my belief that it's junk due to poor welds but is this just confirmation bias on my part? I admit to never having snapped any other pattern weld, good or bad (mangling and burning it in a forge doesn't count!) so is this actually normally due to the stress I have just put it through or should it stay as a homogenous piece of steel, even when snapped untempered? Thanks!

It can be quite hard visualising descriptions of PW! I look forward to their pics!

A sneaky souvenir - an offcut left lying around. A future chisel tip perhaps?

http://www.dailyedge.ie/game-of-thrones-swords-dublin-1414905-Apr2014/

To be fair, I expect theyre all going to be wallhangers anyway.

Funnily enough I was talking about scythes at your place at the weekend. I've wanted to try use one for a while and find it frustrating that my wife's work has 20 or so hanging on a wall. I've also been trying to find out why scythes work better when peened after sharpening - I'm wondering if its just the grade of the steel? Sadly no forging info for you though...

I had a great time. Bombarded with so much information that'll take time to process and think about in more depth! Need more time in my days!!! Thanks to Owen but also thanks to everyone else for making it a great weekend.

Huh, thought it was going to be the todd begg ones that are pretty similar.