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I'm not sure where to post this, but this seemed like a good place. Steve Culver posted a link on the ABS forum to a freeware program that allows you to create the end grain of a billet and see what the pattern will look like with twisting (variable tightness) and grinding (variable depth). It comes preloaded with a few standard end grains. I downloaded it and it does what it purports to do (at least with the preloaded patterns). I have not tried to create any diagrams to upload to it yet, but Steve has and says it works well for predicting pattern development using only twisting and grinding. It also has something called "burn-off" which as I understand it, simulates a user-chosen percentage of loss due to forge scale. Steve's post with instructions/description is found here: http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/index.php?/topic/2765-thor-ii-software-download/ The link to the freeware is here: https://www.stahlundseide.de/html/thor_ii.html

Hi all, Does anyone know how I got those "drops" on my blade after etching it in ferric chloride? I don't understand it looks like something splashed on it and the etch didn't take just in those places but I made sure to clean with acetone and then water before etching

So I'm trying to make a raindrop Damascus cleaver but here's the kicker... I only have 2 inch wide steel. And my cleaver has to be 4 inches wide by 8 inches long. So my question is. Should I press the Damascus layers wide wise so I can reach teh 4 inches and have enough layers to reach the 8 inch long goal. Or can I make 2 Damascus layer 8 inch long billets and forge weld them side by side and then punch in the raindrop patten. If I widen instead of lengthen will it affect the pattern? Thanks,

Hello, I have been building blades for a couple years now, and working metal for over 20. I have not yet worked with any Damascus, and my daughter bought me a billet for Father's Day. My question is, can I put it in the forge to shape it to a blade, or should I go with stock removal. I would hate to damage it by heating and hammering.

Hi all, So I started doing my first chefs knife, a Damascus 1060/15n20. But I found it to warp a LOT. I left it a bit thick for quenching but I saw it warping since the normalizing (I treated it like 1060 steel) maybe that was my mistake. So when I quenched it I quickly put it in my straightening jig and let it cool there and it was straight. But when I started grinding it started to warp I was cooling the blade in water and that started to make it curve. But I wasn't letting it get hot. That's what has me wondering.. Do any of you know where I took a misstep or what I should do differently? Check the Pics

Sorry if someone's already asked this. I couldn't find what i was looking for. Im very new at knifemaking but recently i got a premade damascus knife blade as a bday gift. The blade looked kinda dirty, and the pattern kinda dull. So, i started by polishing it with a dremel which made the upper steel really shiny. However the bottom steel looked kinda beige/light grey so i decided to etch it in coffee to darken it. After 5 hours, not much color change. The edge of the blade that was previously just shiny metal now showed a damascus pattern, so the etching did work. The shiny steel stayed shiny. However, the other steel kinda just turned beige with splotches of brown. I dont know if it just needs more time or what went wrong, any advice would be super helpful. The blade after my etch.

Alright, so... better late than never... Let me present "Odal" - the Heritage knife. Details on the blade can be found in my previous post HERE. Handle is in walnut, supplied by customer - treated with oil - also provided by customer (he makes his own). I decided to attempt to further develop both my drawing skill as well as engraving - so I sketched up a Urnes inspired dragon on my pad and put one on each side of the bolster. The back cap (or whatever it is called) on the handle is in the same steel as the blade. I've also done some inlay on this one, with a border of brass and a Odal rune in copper. Blade length is 10cm, while handle length is 12,5 cm. One of the shorter knives I've made, but the customer insisted on a blade this short... Anyhow, enough text... here's some pics. Hardness at edge is around 58 HRC. Alright, so .. that's pretty much it folks! Wish you all a wonderful week! Sincerely, Alveprins.

Alright, so I've been messing around with my Lindsay Airgraver, experimenting allot with brass and copper inlay etc. - and finally I've had an opportunity to put my newly developed skills to the test. I had a customer who wanted something special for himself, and asked me to whip something up for him. Well, lo and behold - here it is. A 10cm blade in san-mai lamination with sawblade steel for the core, and folded and twisted damascus from railroad steel, mixed with farriers rasps and 15n20 steel. I added a video as well - as a still picture simply doesn't give the blade justice:

As the title says, first knife I have really been able to make for myself. Before I just took too many requests for friends and family and never had the time to make myself one. Recently finished a full kitchen set for my parents and had some extra damascus and a spare piece of mokume, so I decided to make myself a cooking knife as I do a lot of it but I have never had a good kitchen knife to work with. It's not the fanciest one I've done, but the octagonal handle is very comfortable in my hand and the blade is very thin towards the edge making it cut better than any kitchen knife I've gotten to use before, so I am really happy I made the time to make it. Blade is 1095/15n20 damascus run through 4 hardening cycles. Handle is amboyna burl.

I am about to finish up a master's degree in physiology, after which I will be moving to start dental school. Because of this I won't have space for a workshop and likely won't have the time for knife making, so I decided to work hard to finish these up before the move. A kitchen set for my parents. All triple-quenched high-carbon damascus, mokume bolsters, and snakewood handles. Hope you enjoy.

After a long hiatus of moving and trying to get the new farm up and running, I finally got the new shop partially set up and started making some knives. Took three years but hopefully will be steady now. Thought I would post a few of my favorites from this set. I kept a log of hours on this set of 15 knives and was amazed how long it takes me to make the Damascus, make the mokume, make the pins, stabilize the wood and then make the blades. Now its on to sheaths. Apologies for the poor photography, all of the knives are coated with gun grease so sometimes looks like scratches on bolsters etc. The copper in the mokume should darken over time and make the pattern much more obvious. The woods used are ebony, bocote, buckeye, mesquite, laurel, wenge and mahogany. All of the Damascus is 1095 and 15N20. I have been making some long Damascus billits (up to 6 feet). If anyone interested in seeing those let me know. I resized images and hopefully have them attached correctly. Not sure if its better to insert into post or leave as attachments Thanks Matt

Hi !! These time I want to show you my latest project in collaboration with "CICHY Knives". My job was to make forgewelding. The razor will be a reward in the shaving tournament in Poland (https://www.najlepszypolskigolibroda.com/) Hope you will enjoy

Is there a means of making a reasonable canister if you don't have access to a welder? For that matter. Has anyone done a canister of strictly powdered mix steel? Ex: 1095 and W1. With different ratios? I am just trying to understand what the range of possibilities are. I don't want to waste time/material trying things that have already proven to be a flop.

Hey folks! This is my introduction post. I've been reading the forum for a couple of years now, and the amount of helpful, obscure and esoteric information I've dug up from past years is just astonishing. It's been such a help, so thank you everyone who contributes here. A little bit about me: 29, forged my first blade a little over three years ago. I quit my job 2 years ago to pursue this skill/addiction full time, and have not looked back since. I live and work on a little acreage surrounded by tall trees in the country at the base of the Washington state peninsula. I tend to be a bit long winded on forums, so please prepare yourself in advance, there may be some tangents. Also, won an episode of forged in fire (S5E7) Polish Karabela, which has been a somewhat helpful feather to wear in my mohawk. I don't want to rest my laurels on a tv show, but it was helpful in getting me where I am currently. Without further ado, my Peshkabz. This is loosely based off of an antique Afghani blade I found online. I've found these blades to be fascinating for some time. I particularly love the T spines, and also how purpose driven they are. It's a weapon. Can you cut your dinner with it? sure, why not, but its primary use is stabbing through armor, bones, and flesh. Blade length:8”Overall length:13.5”Blade width at widest point: 1.25”Weight: 6.75 oz/189 GWeight with sheath: 9.75 Oz/271 GBlade steel: Multibar Damascus of L6 and 1080. Handle: African Blackwood, leather spacers, multibar damascus pommel with peened over hidden tang. Sheath: form fitting tooled, dyed cow leather. Hand stitched and conditioned with water resistant oils. I had a ton of fun making this thing. I had been making a lot of chef's knives, and needed to make a weapon to refresh my soul. The steel is 4, 16 layer loose twist bars, alternating directions. I've also really been enjoying working on my integral bolster skillset. The first roughly 40% of the spine was forged in to a T profile, for rigidity and strength. The remaining 60% ish is a stretched diamond. Originally, the entire spine was a T, but I ended up spending the better part of a day stabbing steel, leather, cinderblocks, chainmail, bones etc. and adjusting the geometry until it performed how I wanted it to. Before making it pretty, I conducted the following tests with the geometry as you see in these pics. -Hammered through a cinder block - stabbed part way through 3/4" of leather. Not as much penetration as I wanted. It did a 1/2" fine, but I got cocky and 3/4" defeated me. -Chopped through a cow femur -stabbed through an elk shoulder blade -Achieved 2" of penetration and opened a roughly 1.5" wide hole in a piece of chainmail strapped to a folded up hoodie. It did not sustain any tip or edge damage through this process, but did pick up a slight warp near the tip that I was able to coax out with not too much trouble. Fullers for Days! these were an interesting challenge, and some times a huge PITA. Especially the transition on to the bolster, and the blended triangle thing near the tip. All of this was ground freehand on a 1/2" contact wheel. 4 fullers in total, they have a central ridge between each set, and eventually blend in to a single sort of triangular shape closer to the tip. It's sort of hard to see with the etch, so here's a picture of it rough ground for reference. The spine fullers run all the way up the bolsters, down the handle and end at the pommel. This was purely for fun, but the handle fullers do feel quite comfortable. The Pommel. A scrap piece of multibar that I annealed and then threaded before hardening. The base of the tang was a bolt I welded on to the tang prior to quenching. Originally I annealed the tang, threaded it, and was in process of getting it to fit properly, when I managed to shear it while twisting. First experience tapping and dieing, definitely a learning experience. Anyways, the bolt eventually got sanded down and peened over during glue up. The texturing is achieved with some careful work on that same 1/2" contact wheel. The Sheath: I also made the sheath, I try to make a cohesive aesthetic flow between blade, handle and sheath. and since CLEARLY THERE WEREN'T ENOUGH FULLERS, the sheath also looks fullered. It started as veg tan, tooled, glued sandwich spacers, drilled holes, stitched, dyed, then used leather conditioning rub to shape and smooth everything, and mold the sheath to the knife. Aaaaaaand that's a wrap. Thanks for taking time to check this out, I'd love some feedback/constructive criticism on it. I look forward to getting more involved in this community. Victory through fire and steel! -Ethan Kempf www.kempfforge.com

This was done for a restaurant here in Louisville called Mirin, an amazing ramen house where everything is made from scratch. It is high carbon damascus with a flat grind and differential hardening. The hamon is pretty high up but the transition can be seen as the etch fades closer to the forge mark and on the last picture in the same area. The blade has a solid distal taper and is the lightest knife I have made by size. The handle is bloodwood with a mosaic pin and a nickel/copper mokume gane bolster. The grain on the mokume is very tight and can barely be seen in person along the side, but it can be seen on the flat in the first picture. Feedback welcome.

4.5" blade 15N20 1088 steels 9.25 OAL Fossil walrus scales Damascus bolsters Yup, I still make stuff like this...just not that often.

This piece has been around for some time now. It found it's way back to my shop for some minor cosmetic uplift and a scabbard. It had never been photographed or shown before now. Blade 7.5" 11" OAL Hollow ground 15N20 and 1088 steels African Blackwood carved hilt Pattern welded fittings

Blade Length 12.5" OAL 17" Steel 15N20 1088 Damascus bolsters, file worked spine Bocote scales.

My end of a trade with a friend. We have done a lot of blacksmithing together and wanted a piece of each other's work (especially now that we live very far apart). So we decided to each make a knife for the other. He designed the handle carving to have urnes period viking style hawk and deer. It is a bit difficult to see the carving in the handle as the grain in the burl tends to hide it. This is a replacement for his everyday carry knife that broke, so it is a fairly simple blade that should be pretty useful for mostly anything. His original design sketch for the handle The final result

Let me present Veðrfölnir - named after the hawk with the same name, which sits atop Yggdrasil - the world tree. Description - blade: The blade is made from three bars of folded and twisted steel. Two bars are made from railroad steel from the Numedal Railroad here in Numedal, while the bar for the edge is made from Farriers rasps mixed with 15n20 steel. Hardness at edge: 58 HRC Description - handle: The handle is made from stabilized grey Maple, Holly, Brass, white vulcanized fiber as well as mammoth ivory which is between 10 000 - 30 000 years old. The handle is engraved with Elder Futhark runes, written in English. The text reads: "Better to die with Honor, than live with Shame" followed by owners name and surname initial. The engravings has been filled in with ashes. Description - sheath: The sheath is in vegetable tanned leather with certain engravings, stitched using grey tiger thread and saddle makers stitches. Stained in antique black leather stain and treated with antique leather fat. Any comments, input, critique and suggestions are as always - very welcome. :) Sincerely, Alveprins.

A recent commission, the blade is a tiled end grain w's pattern with a 340 layer twist edge, the guard and spaced are also 340 layer Damascus and the pommel is a single tile of the mosaic pattern. there are 7 carnelians set in the hilt and scabbard the handle is cord and leather wrapped and the scabbard felt lined popular with a leather wrap and steel fittings it is set for a left hand carry, as this was ordered as a companion to the falchion I made a few years ago. Like the falchion this is a full take down, and includes a damascus wrench with a damascus skull bead to take it apart. enjoy!

Hey there from the home of the Lederhosen! Just recently finished this knife as a gift for a good fellow servicemember of mine (yup...this one here is part of the German Armed Forces) who left us now to another post. The steel is some 1095 and 15N20 damascus. The hardware is stainless. Handle and the coating of the blade itself is carbon fiber. As always i have to excuse for my bad english my lousy footage my even worse editing and pretty much everything!!! Comments and criticism are very welcome! ...although some honey spreading would be better.... Also it would be very cool if you'd check out my other videos...but hey...it's just me...

First part of my new project... A little (meant to be)EDC but for shure with my fancy custom touch. The steel i'm using is some basic damascus out of 1095 and 15n20. For the handle i decided to go for some carbon fiber. And because this is not difficult enough i thought...hey...why not slamming some of this carbon fiber onto the blade itself so you will get a rad transition between the carbon fiber and the damascus...!!! Holy lord, this has been a stupid idea... As always i have to apologize for the bad quality and also for my bad english! Especially in this episode i've been really hammered and in this state me 'ol brainy no worky... I hope maybe one or two will enjoy it nonetheless... Leave some comments if you like and it would be this little Krauts pleasure if you would also have a look at my channel!!!

ok so I thought I would post a few pictures this time so that if it goes wrong (again) it may help some others... here are the first stages in pictures... 1075 and 15n20 rounding off the edges. my power hammer needs more power for this jig through, but it seems to have worked.

I'm new at forging. I've forged a couple camp style blades. I'm starting on a Viking Seax and my question is....is it possible to forge a Damascus blade without a power hammer? Is it doable with a hammer and alot of will power?