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Hey all, finally getting around to selling this one. ~70 layers of 1084 and 15N20, high layer damascus bolster, Bethlehem Olive wood handle. 10inch blade, razor sharp, 15.5" overall length $900 if you have any questions, or thoughts about it, please let me know! Thanks

OAL: 6 1/2 inches Blade Length: 2 1/2 inches A simple leather sheath to let the knife really shine on it's own. This was a real joy to make, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Thanks, -Tim

Yesterday I started welding together my first billet of Damascus steel. I started out with six layers of bandsaw blade for my initial weld, which I then welded, drew out, cut, stacked, and welded again. Before I spend too much time on this billet I would like to know if it will show any pattern at all when etched, given that it is made out of only one alloy of steel

Hey Folks, Here are the finished photos of a pattern welded kitchen knife I recently finished. Thanks for looking. Recycled bandsaw blade, 1084, recycled wrought iron Rosewood, brass, Birds Eye Maple, Walnut

Ok, time to start another project. I've made one of these before, but only a simple version. This time I will (hopefully) be making the kickass multibar version. I'll kick this Work-In-Progress off with a concept drawing, and a picture of the two billets that will make out the body and edge of the blade itself. I will also be making day to day videos giving the walkthrough. "Skaugubben" is Norwegian and consists of two words "skau" (forest) and "gubben" (the old man). This knife will be ment for old and middle aged geezers who wander the Norwegian woods hunting and skinning game. The steel is old files and rasps donated to me, along with some railroad and #15 and #20 steel. And here is the video: https://youtu.be/tHAJpjpQbHM

Ok, so I've been working for a while on this little bastard... I was walking along the railroad tracks earlier and scrounged with me a cutoff piece of railroad as well as some plates and spikes... I've since cut those into pieces, forged and folded, twisted.. etc. etc. Here are some pics from the process: My drawing: The two first twists. 5 layers rail-road and plates: VIDEO: The twisting of the edge steel. The two twists and the content of the last bar - the edge steel, consisting of #15, #20 and some old files: The edge steel pieces welded together: VIDEO: The forge welding of the three bars combined. And here is a test-etch at #400 grit sandpaper: Closeup: The two two upper bars are 5 layers railroad and railroad plates. The third bar - the edge stee - is 160 layers #15, #20 and old files steel. Twisted 20 times. More to come I suppose... Next up is another 10 hours of polishing - final etch - and then the handle...

I did a site search on Google foor this topic and only found one discussion that didn't yield much, so I'm asking again. I recently started using 1095 in my Damascus and I have this multi-bar pattern all welded up and ready to accordion cut. I normalized 3X and set the bar to anneal. The bar measures 1-1/2" x 7/8" x 8" Into the Paragon: Ramp up to 1450 @ 250 degrees per hour, hold for 1.5 hours Ramp down to 1200 @ 100 degrees per hour hold for 1 hour Turn off oven. This would not cut on the bandsaw (at least not very easily, it killed two blades before cutting 6 lines each about 3/4" long) A quick call to Hancock, and we decided to try it again. So, I put it back in to the paragon. Ramp up to 1350 @ 200 degrees per hour, hold for 2 hours Ramp down to 1250 @ 100 degrees per hour, hold for 2 hours Shut the oven off. This is even harder than the first one. It is eating bandsaw blades before making a single cut. Any ideas or suggestions? Here is the bar:

Hello! It's been a good long while since I've posted any work here. In the last two years I've moved 7 times, two of which were across the country, which has made getting time in a shop difficult. Because of that, whenever I travel I usually get overly enthusiastic and make a bunch of stuff. Last month I went over to Nate Runals' and forged a ring with the help of Robert Burns. After he posted the ring tutorial, I was bitten by the bug, and it was a fantastic project. It was the first time I've ever welded in coal, which was great. The band is 18 layers of wrought and 15n20 and the liner is sterling sliver. Originally I wanted to make the band out of wrought and pure nickel, but I couldn't get a sheet of nickel before I left. Instead of taking pictures for a WIP I filmed the entire process on my dslr. Although the process was very smooth (due to Robert's gracious guidance!) there are a few small things that I would change. First, we did not have a torch that was quite hot enough to get the silver solder to flow which eventually worked out. I also forgot to grind the surface of the band clean before fitting the silver. That was not a huge deal but left the rails with a 'jagged' edge where it meets the wrought. In a way, it makes it feel a little more organic. Finally, when the silver began to be flared to form the rails, it slid a little to one side. To fix that I would take a small hammer and carefully bend over two or three points on each side before bringing it to the opposing ball peen hammers. Thanks for looking! John

I just completed a 23 minute video of making a Damascus billet using the press and power hammer. Basic stuff really, just getting it to the first fold. Enjoy!

Hey, I have a source for industrial steel material (it is in a big roll sort of like a bandsaw blade) that would fit into a die in a fabric factory. Apparently (the machinist who has this stuff) says that they would bend the steel which is sharp on one side into a press that would fit a curve of a piece of fabric they wanted to cut. They would stack up hundreds of sheets of the fabric and press the die with the blade through it all- achieving the desired curve. Does anyone have info on what the material could be? It's definitely high carbon (spark test & super bendy). It's homogeneous (no bits welded in as far as I can tell). Approx. 1" wide and as I said, is in a huge continuous roll. I can upload a picture of the stuff though I only have a little cut off piece right now I might do a test with. The hope is it will show up light in color when laminated with something like 1084. Thanks in advance!

Alright... so - finally I've finished the "little" knife I made from the same billet as I did THIS one. The blade is: Two bars of 126 layers twisted steel + 1 bar (the middle one) of 12 layer non-twisted steel, and ofc. san-mai lamination. The steel is UHB20C and UHB15LM for the damascus, and "Øberg"-steel for the san-mai steel. Hardness at edge is about 63HRC. The blade is hand polished on stones and sand-paper up to#2500 grit - and then buffed to mirror before etching. The handle consists of african ebony, camel bone, 925 sterling silver and vulcanized fiber. Handle is handle is worked by files and needle-files, before being hand polished on paper #400, #1200, and #2500 before buffing on a buffing wheel. There was some discussion around the file-work I did on this one HERE, as I was concerned it looked like crap. However - friendly forumites convinced me I should finish it. I was originally planning on using fossilized mammoth instead of the ebony, but it cracked - so I had to improvise. Ebony was what I had at hand at the moment... Alright - so here are the pics. No fancy stuff - just taken with my mobile camera on my desk at work. Enjoy.... And as always - critique is always welcome - even the negative. Sincerely, Alveprins.

This is my latest knife. It's is close to completion, the handle needs a little more attention but almost done! It is an 8" chef knife. The damascus is comprised of 1095,15N20, and nickel. I'd love to hear and criticism or things worth taking into account as I am still a newbie and desire to learn all I can. Any tips and pointers are more than welcome! Also if anyone recognizes what wood that is I would be appreciative. I got a huge load of handle material a knife maker dropped by a consignment store that I got an excellent deal on, however hardly any of them were labeled. Thanks for lookin'!trim.CC2F852E-859C-49E7-9599-4A4807DE85D4.MOV

Ok, so since I'm new here - and this is my first post - I thought I'd share my first knife and the process which through I made it. The knife is a 108 layer, twisted double bar damascus in san-mai lamination, differentially hardened with "blue clay". The steel used is #15 and #20 for the damascus, and "Øberg steel" for the edge. Handle is African ebony, with mosaic pins from Russia. I started off with a stack of 12 sheets of #15 and #20 steel welded together at the corners with my arch-welder. I proceeded to hammering it out into a long bar. And then cleaned it up with my angle grinder, cut it in three and stacked them arch-welding the corners again. I then drew it out into a long bar again. Cleaned and cut in three once more, and ofc. arch-welded the billet. Now having rougly 108 layers of steel, I drew it out to a square stock and cut it in half. I then proceeded to twisting the two halves. Some more twisting... And then some more - until I was satisfied with them. I then took the two twisted bars with me to work and borrowed the belt sander a bit... (mine sucks. Building a new one...) And then forge welded those two bars together, and drew it out once more. Cleaned it up, cut it in half, and inserted the middle steel for the edge. (Øberg steel.) Used the angle grinder once more to get everyting nice and even. I used too little steel ofc... and had to forge weld three plates of #15 steel, pound them out to the correct diameter - and then forge weld the new "extra length" onto the actual damascus billet. I then drew the outline of the knife. I then proceeded to cut the knife out - using my trusty angle-grinder. And taking it back to work once more - to borrow the belt sander. I then wrapped it in clay, which cracked up - so I had to wire it in place. (ceramic "blue clay") I quenced in regular "food oil" I bought at the super market. Then heat-treated the blade in my kitchen oven at +200 celcius for 2 hours. Polished it to 12000grit on my #220, #1000, #3000, #8000 and #12000 Naniwa Japanese sharpening stones.(oh, and #600 paper between #220 and #1000) And then etched the blade in 30% hydrochloric acid - neutralizing with windex and wiping off the blade with soft paper. I then glued on the ebony handle scales - attaching it to the full tang using mosaic pins I got off E-bay from Russia... And then finished the handle using files and sand paper up to #600. (Going to apply #1200 at work tomorrow before applying some wax or oil to it as well...) No power-hammer or hydraulic press was used. Only 1,5kg hammer, tongs, and a modified plummer's wrench for twisting the steel. A few mistakes was made along the way - and the knife has a few flaws... Flaws that will not be repeated in the next one. (I've allready ordered materials for it. Fossilized mammoth amongst other things. ) My biggest disapointment though - is the lack of hamon. Perhaps it will not show on this type of steel - oil-quenched. I quenched one blade in water though - but it broke - and I didn't want to repeat that... I definitively need to come up with some better clay... This one crack's up way too much. So - after having done this project I now have a 1.5kw electric motor down in the basement, waiting for the belt-sander metal framework and wheels to arrive in the mail from Croatia. I've also been in contact with a company in China about importing a 16kg C41-16 air-hammer. Forge folding those billets is really timeconsuming when done by hand, and I figured I can save quite a bit of time by getting a powerhammer to do the rough work on. Any comments or general feedback is greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Alveprins - Norway.

Hello, First of all I will introduce myself: In short, My name is Eric and I hail from The Green Mountain State. I use coal for fuel, arm-power for air and hammer, and I do all my forging outside under a little shed roof (which can be brutal in the winter ((despite the lack-there-of this year)). I am almost entirely self taught from books, this forum, and a whole lot of trial and error. On the note of "this forum", I have a whole lot of thanks to give out. When I started experimenting with pattern-welding I utilized these pages as my primary and frequent resource along with a few books that are amazing in their own right. The wealth of knowledge, passion, and generosity given for free by the members of this forum astounds me- there really isn't anything else quite like it. The inspiration I find here seems endless. So, thank you to those that make it possible and contribute. When I am not working on other metalworking commissions I practice bladesmithing, making hand tools for woodworking, and sculpture. Almost exactly one year ago I became obsessed with pattern-welded steel. I can't quite explain it, but I love the process- magic to say the least. Each piece seems to teach me more than last. Anyway, enough of that... here are some photos of recent work and a little info about them. I have a lot of process shots from the pattern welded blade if there is interest, but I won't post any here. I hope to continue to post and not just lurk as the questions never cease to emerge for me. Pattern Welded Blade: Total Length: 8.25" Blade Length: 4" Blade Material: 21 layers 1084 + recycled bandsaw blade steel Handle Material: Rosewood Copper Fitting & Brass Pin Pattern Welded Drawknife: Blade Length: 6" Blade Material: 252 layers composite recycled metal file and bandsaw blade steel. Handle Material: Walnut Steel Pins Pattern Welded Small Kitchen Blade: I had a lot of trouble with this, especially because the smallest nick to the Manzanita bark and it was gone forever. That also meant no shaping the sides of the wood. Also the etch came out super weird- I tried to fix it, made it worse, and gave up. More of an experimental piece I guess. Blade Length: 4.5" Blade Material: 252 layers recycled jackhammer bit and bandsaw blade steel. Handle Material: Manzanita Brass Pins Pattern Welded Small Blade: Blade Length: 3" Blade Material: 120 layer recycled metal file and bandsaw blade steel Handle Material: Curly Maple Steel Pins Thanks for taking the time to peak, Eric

This is a 25 minute film from around 1925~1931 of Belgian French or Flemish (not sure) Damascus gun barrel makers. I thought it was interesting enough to post here. https://youtu.be/fa9dlvRDuQU

Good day.my last knife Blade:52100 center steel + random pattern damascus. Handle: zebrano. Brass guard.5" long Dimensions: blade 6.4"\1.7"(in widest point) Best regards Roman.Sorry bad foto.

Good night.my last big knife Blade:52100 center steel + random pattern damascus. Handle: bog oak. Brass guard. Dimensions: blade 9"\2"(in widest point) 15.6" overall length Best regards Roman

Hi everyone, I'm new here and this is my first post. I first got a taste of smithing on my grandfather's farm more than 30 years ago. I recently took some classes at Pratt Fine Art institue here in Seattle, and have been seriously bitten by the bug. I've started setting up a forge in my garage, and look forward to a big project this summer which will be building a press. I got the Batson book and will be making one similar to the "C" press described in the book. Most recently I took a damascus steel class and forged a couple of billets. I've started grinding out a blade from the first billet, and here's what it looks like: I haven't etched it, but the pattern is visible. I'm quite happy with it. Unfortunately this is what the other side looks like: The blade had a slight warp in it, so I heated it up to flatten it, and that hole appeared. I think it may have been some flux that got included, and on the reheat it sort of exploded. The white line is where I plan to cut the blade to salvage it and turn it into a broken-back seax. I'm eagerly awaiting the delivery of my KMG grinder on Friday. -Jeff

Good night.my last knife name by owner-Mario Blade:52100 center steel + random pattern damascus. Handle: stabilized maple burl handle. Brutal satin copper guard. Dimensions: 6.3"\1.7"(in widest point)-blade 11" overall length Best regards Roman

Hey guys this is my first try forge welding/sanmai. I wrapped a piece of W2 between Aldo's low Mn 1075. I chose this method because I don't have a welder to weld the Seams. I fluxed the billet and "welded it" 3 times using light hammer blows. It doesn't seem like a very good weld. I made 3 cuts into it to view it. Please help me get my next welds nice and clean! Is this billet able to be saved or is it scrap? Thanks

Just finished a day of forging, but I cant figure out whether my billet has delaminated or it just have some irregularities in the steel what does it look like to you Guys ? It is 11 layers of 15N20 and high carbon steel (from old springs parts from an old truck) it seems like it is holding together, but What do you think ? is it a bad weld or am I just being fuzzy ? Pictures of both sides of the billet

My brother turned 50 in September. I figured I better make him something special since he's always been a fan of my knives. The blade is 1095/15N20 damascus, and I believe it's from the first billet of damascus I ever made. It's about 9" long (I forgot to measure it before i gave it to him). Our Mom lives in an 1815 farmhouse and there's a ton of old metal lying around where the barns and other buildings used to be. I cut the fittings out of a very rusty old strap hinge, soaked them in rust remover and the did a ferric etch for an hour, followed by a wire wheel. I'm really happy with the texture that I got from this. The handle is some spalted stabilized Japanese Red Maple from a tree in Mom's front yard that we used to play in when we were kids. It's dying now, and my brother had cut the dead parts off for fire wood, but then notices the spalting and gave me the logs for handles. I also ran vine pattern filework down the spine just because I could :-) And yes, my brother was very happy with this. Kinda stunned even, which is what I wanted.

After quite a few failed attempts at making damascus style blades, I finally had one succeed. The steel used is 5160 spring steel and some medium carbon steel from the railroad. I have 64 layers total. The scales are made from Osage Orange, which is another first for me, and the pins are copper. I am rather pleased (and relieved) about how this one came out.

Hi ! During summer I build a new workshop, made a new power hammer and now I start a new project, Polish saber, karabela type. I decided to made it from damascus steel, I choose 1045 and ncv1 steel, 3 billets, 18 layers each, 450 g. weight. After the first weld: Heating to the welding temperature in my gas-forge: And after forging on the power hammer: After forging I use the stell rolling mill to get flat surface and equal thickness on the lenght: 3 billets after forging: After grinding and forging the weight get loss from 1350 to 1083 gram. Each billet cut into the 5 pieces, restack and after forging i get the 90 layers: Forging: and all three billet after forging process: Now I loose less weight then previous time: And now all three prevous billets weld together to make one big billet, after forging I get 270 layers: And ready to forging 7mm thickness bar: It has 3 cm width, 60 cm length, and 870 g. weight. Here is the bar after the forging process, I got the 85 cm length blade, in the widest point is 34mm, After first grinding I mark the fullers and start to grinding the blade: During the forging and grinding I did not notice any delamination, so I'm very happy of welding quality in this piece. Now it is after the grinding, near the tang I got 2 wide fullers and 1 narrow fuller on the back of blade, in the middle near blade is 1 wide fuller, near back is 3 narrow fullers, and at the point there is 2 wide fullers. I hardened the blade already, and now hand grinding the blade, after that I made a video showing flexibility of the blade Regards, Rafał Garbacik

Damascus 1095/15N20/1070. Etched heavy, then CERAKOTE Black. Polished to expose highlights. Enjoy, Jim