Tyler Reinarts

In that case it’s about a 3.5 in blade and 7 in overall, and about .1 in thick with a flat grind. And I started with a 16 layer billet.

I don’t know what you mean by vital statistics, but the wood finish was several coats of linseed oil followed by paste wax.

Here’s a hunting knife I just finished. It’s 15n20/1095 feather Damascus with a bird’s eye maple handle.

Hi everyone, I’m doing a school project where I’m researching bladesmithing as a hypothetical career and I’m supposed to find out what kind of training, education or preparation is required. So, for those of you that do this professionally, how did you learn your craft? And what would you recommend for someone who wants to make blades professionally? It doesn’t have to be too in depth as this is just hypothetical.

Thank you. I'll post a pictures when im done but it won't be for a while.

Thanks

I have been trying to improve my heat treating process for 1095 and in reading this forum I saw some people recommend normalizing followed by spheroidizing. I'm I'm not mistaken spheroidizing means hardening then heating to almost critical and letting it cool slowly. My question is: does the spheroidizing have any affect on the finished blade as opposed to just normalizing then hardening? Or does it only serve to make the steel easier to grind, drill etc. The reason I ask is because I'm making a fairly long sword and I don't want to risk quenching it twice if I dont have to.

Thank you both. I'll give your suggestions a try.

How are you supposed to etch a damascus blade so you get some contrast between the steels? Im trying to etch one made of 15n20 and 1095 (de-greasing then submerging in ferric chloride in distilled water at a 4:1 ratio for 30 min) but by the time I've neutralized it and washed off all the black silt the 15n20 is just as dark as the 1095. Then I tried sending the high spots with 1500 grit sandpaper and that just brightens up both steels. You can clearly see the layers, but except for at the weld seams it's all the same color and texture. On every other damascus knife I've seen there's a clear color difference in the layers. I've heard that if your blade isn't hardened right it can mess this up but I know mine is. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Interesting... I wonder what the flaw in their theory was. Also would you say the ductility/toughness of room temp high P iron is comparable to unhardened high C steel? Sorry if I'm being tiresome, I'm just trying to get a good idea of what it would be like since I am not able to test it myself.

Thanks for the info, but did you mean to say that high P iron etches dark? The other places I read says it etches bright.

I was doing some research on the composition of historical blade materials and I found out that a lot of the iron they used contained a lot of phosphorus, between .4 and 1.4%. It also seems like they used it on purpose for pattern welding. Here's the links to some articles: https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/backbone/rb_3_4.html https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.uni-obuda.hu/journal/Thiele_Hosek_60.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj3s6rbo43gAhUL54MKHVZ7AEUQFjARegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw1XYSF1k9B22QPbps6nWetn So my question is: wouldn't that much phosphorus make the metal extremely brittle? I've read that phosphorus increases hardness but reduces toughness/ductility but I don't know to what extent. I guess what I'm asking is how a high phosphorus (e.g. 1% )steel or iron would compare to other materials and if it's still strong enough to be useful to a blacksmith.