Jokke

Nice to see you work on the pucks here! Sorry but I was not active here for quite some time, on one of the bext weekends I will be making more pucks with my friend Johannes. We will aim to 1,6% and above. It is always very urgent to normalize the wootz inbetween cycles of forging. In my eyes the necessary manipulation of the surface to achieve a decent "look" is underestimated. Best regards, Jokke

well there has been some distortion, in pieces that had lots of cracks, Jan but still it is the fastes method that I have found, where the pressure helps to keep the wood in form oak is different, because of all the acids in it... it is even hard to stabilize after drying it this way.. Jokke

found some new pics on wootz-ovens on fb: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.468368493323938.1073741835.438515189642602&type=1 seems to work

here we come to see some hint of a pattern in my blade after I have tried to get rid of the filemarks using coarse waterstones (200 - 250 -300) but remember, this is all before any final heattreatment the raw blade, if you like... so the first quetion was. can I trust the rust? it came up by itself from the water so I used some ferric to be more sure: and it looks like there is some real character in this steel

well, I have the Honour to be able to work on some of your Wootz, Niko, Kiitos sulle and here is the actual stand: 41cm of blade + tang, 30mm wide, 5mm thick at the back and down to 1,5mm now at the edge filed down from 460gr to 390 gr today still way before heattreatment:

well, I would forge mine under 900, at around 850 down to 780°C, less cracking, but more cycles needed. Krysztof, you could try the Donut-technique, when you have hammered your puck down to be round like the above... here another link: http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/illustr/ib_5_3.html mainly the "usual subjects" Greetzes Jokke

Tim, the main reason why people use more than one bottle is icing during high use of gas I usually put the gasbottle into a water bassin, to keep it "warmer" I have not yet tried to put two or more bottles in line.. I am still working on my last pieces with files, as I find the time to go to my workspace best regards Jokke

on FB there is a "new" wootz theme with some interesting fotos and texts: https://www.facebook.com/Wootz.Bulat just to get some ideas... best regards Jokke

he aims at 1,5 or 1,6%C as far as I know - rather traditional, but he has made some modern chrome "wootz" , too this is Achims burner this is one another friend made for me I mostly used these two kinds of ventury burners somwhere I have a pic about how to do one, by a friend, but I recommend: Gas Burners for forges, furnaces and killns, by Michael Porter ISBN 978-1-87953520-6 , skipjack press, 2004 www.finneyco.com to get a better understanding of venturi burners Niko has one that he may give away and I know it works very well so one could ask him, too never used more than a 11kg gas bottle one hour can do the job for about 2 kg in a clay-graphit crucible if everything is well prepared and the insulation of the furnace is well done this one was lined with material that can hold up to 1800°C you will have to look around, but things can be found, not for low I am afraid to say but they are there best regards Jokke

Sorry that I did not reply earlier, but I have not been on the forum for quite a while. I am German and learned most of what I did from Achim Wirtz, Anne Feuerbach's PhD and others still I am in touch with makers in Finnland, being lucky enough to understand Finnish (thx to my wife ) One of the guys you are looking for is Janne K., his nic is/was Kutvonen, he has a site of his own try him on fb (Jandaus Rahnasto) or here: http://www.pajauttelu.blogspot.de/p/under-construction.html you may ask him, if you can put down his real name by the way, Achim told me that a soaking of the king in 720°C for about 12 hours will do a fantastic job on dissolving the C and make it easier to forge it afterwards I did not try this, yet, but I will on a small cake that I have lying around, sooner or later best regards from Germany Jokke (Lagerspets) PS I have gathered some info on a german forum (messerforum.net as jl-jokke) http://www.messerforum.net/showthread.php?86118-K%F6nige-backen-oder-Wootzbruzzeln don't know why, but it has gathered over 50.000 hits have not been posting much there in the last years

Hi folks, I used this method again on some oak-burl I got from a friend works very fine from this lot:

hope you have a good class and that your pupils will have a decent size wootz-blade at the end of this week let us know how many heat-cycles they count best regards from Germany

Hi Athan, I do have a burner like yours for my bigger red gas forge, the smaller one (5kg gas bottle) works with one of my venturi-systems in Achims burner was a 1mm gas feed tip that I changed into a 1mm mig-tip, because of its longer straight way for the gas (like rifle barrel, not like pistol) makes the venturi effect a bit stronger. Achim has been melting with this venturi for years now, needs no electricity, so it is very easy to take along... that is why I started like that, too but I want to try the blower-type burner in my smelter, too need to put somekind of connection onto the pipe,since the intake of the smelter is of a smaller diameter than the (I quess 2 inch)pipe of the burner (I did not build it myself, it came with the gasforge, that someone from eastern Germany had to sell, because his neighbours would not let him forge and hammer in the backyard, *bummer*) hope to get to the making of a king these days, I am going to use the bigger venturi-burner, (the one in the fourth pic) that has a device to blow in extra air (it is a bit like cheating on the venturi) I will try to show pics then.. best regards

Hi Athan, as you could see, I used the cutoff from the gas-bottle as a top. It has a kind of cupola effect. I had gotten the hint to weld some nails into the form, so that the lining of ceramic blanket had a better hold - and then put the cast on it. That works fine I think something with a better insulating effect would be better as a top, bricks "eat" a lot of energy - but so far I have not made a better "topping", but I am thinking about it... regards

mine is big enough for an A6 now, too, but I tend to use smaller crucibles, since they need less energy firebrick is not transporting heat well, I recommend using the downer part of an old crucible as a stand pls be free to show some pics here, too, maybe of your burner? here some more pics: wrapping the bottle with some paper, did not make it much easier to get the concrete in, though this is how smooth it came out, much better than before so I heated it up with a burner from a friend of mine, had to close two holes to make it run evenly, but was able to open them up at about 800°C until then most of the water had damped out and I had an old A6 crucible with some nails in it then I changed the burner to Achim W's "hellburner" which gave the temp a kick up to 1400°C let it go for a while although the temp was not high enough to do a melting next time then...

so since I am on holiday I started a redo on my wootzsmelter, after working in the garden. It is my old smelter, made from an 11kg gasbottle, following a design I got from Achim Wirtz here in Germany it was a bit "nifty" as Niko once said, very narrow for an A1 crucible, so I want it to be bigger in the "heatroom" which should give me less trouble with the heat for the melts for that I took out some of the casting - had to hammer it out with some effort - finding that I made the walling very thick, some pieces where thicker than three - four centimeters out came over 11kg, much more than I thought the wool is still in good shape, so that can stay, the bottom is still ok and the pipe gives a tangential flame to the bottom of the crucible, there is anough space to use some stands, too I found an old bottle that will make for the inside, it is big enough to give the space for my crucibles (Achim said: a double-magnum redwine bottle will do the trick, too) more in the next days

http://www.koraat-knives.at/public_html/menu3submenu1.php take a look here, Koraat has managed a smelting system with cokes, http://www.koraat-knives.at/public_html/menu3submenu3.php all in German pals and a video, too:

take a look here, #18 there are two pics worth looking at. http://www.messerforum.net/showthread.php?84422-Gasesse-zum-Schmelzen or here: http://www.fursa-family.net/main/Vasilij_Fursa_files/Vasilij-Fursa/Wootz_files/bulat.html he uses coal or coke for the fire http://www.fursa-family.net/main/Vasilij_Fursa_files/Vasilij-Fursa/Wootz_files/crucible.html mit welcher Firma stehst denn in Kontakt? LG Jokke

thx to both of you!

really nice look, fine lines and a superbly made damascus! but I have to admit, that I do not like guards, at least not most of them - here it kind of stands out, especially over the back of the blade, where it has no real function wonder how it would look like when you would grind that part down to the line (sorry, just my 5ct) best regards Jokke

they are perfect to cut leather, I used them for the sheets and very accurate in cutting wood I hardened them to 56 HRC, which makes it easy enough to resharpen on a wetstone

after taking my time to finish those two, I just sewed two small sheets for them data: wild damascus, about 120 layers of 2/3 1.2842(90MnCrV8) and 1/3 1.2767(X45NiCrMo4) made at the Bremeker Hammer (http://www.bremecker-hammer.de/) the broader one is one side flat grounded with an 28mm edge, 146mm long just before hardening and without the etch the smaller one has a blade of 26mm and is sharpened on both sides, both are cutting like a razor, 145mm long the flat side: one in brown the other one in black leather

Hi, so I managed to get the smallest of the blades into a Puukko: the blade is now 79mm long, 3mm to 0 thick, at the hilt it is 25mm wide the handle is made from stabilized masure birch which was a bit spalted, I added black horn, which is also at the end and two spacers of black fiber it is 105mm long, has a nice fit to the hand just polished, nothing added nice to see the structure of the fine 160 layers of this superclean damascus (Balbach DSC) with the banding I put into it

Peter, it is really nice to see that you are sharing your thoughts and findings with us all, since you gave me a glimpse on your notes in Solingen I thought that there is more in these than just for one book time seems to be ready for sharing and more discussions, good that you can publish you findings in this way I think the real transition starts when one uses the hints you gave making any new sword in the old way gives me lots to think about the design of my own knives and puukkos best regards

reminds me of Waterville way in the south, where I spent some time in Sept. 2006 hope you had a sip of Blackbush thx for sharing!