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These are two knives i made over Christmas break, they are my first Damascus blades. The first one is a straight razor 15N20 and 1084 twisted with about 30 layers with a walnut WW2 stock for a handle and a brass rivet and washers. The second is a EDC style knife with a multi-bar twist core clad with 1084 with a brass spacer, a micarta spacer and an African blackwood handle. Critiquing is welcome.

A while back, I began a small project. It was to take old bits and cut-offs of various high carbon steels as well as a 15n20 circular saw blade I cut up and forge weld them together to make my first piece of damascus. I gave this random patter the ever so creative name of "scrapmascus". The idea was that the random shapes and sizes of the bits would create a purely random pattern, which it did, but it came with some project ruining welds that actually left two very noticeable gaps in the blade. Does this concept make it impossible to not get a bad weld, or should I just chalk this up to lack of experience and a power hammer? I have a bunch of 1075 and 1095 cut-offs that I'd like to try again with, but I don't want to bother if it's not possible to do it.

So I haven't posted in quite a while but have been doing a lot, learning a lot, and gaining all I can from what i see posted on this forum. The last time I posted I believe was showing off some meager first attempts at blade smithing and was given a lot of very helpful wisdom from a lot of you of which I am very grateful. I've been quite busy and haven't quite found the time to give updates on all of my doings but thought I'd like to share some of my work since I've been working a lot to get better since I last posted. All of the things I've been up to isn't necessarily blade work but is close enough. However I just finished my first knife from start to finish successfully (having had a difficult time with heat treating and not a lot of time to experiment with it a lot until recently). Also I'm working on my second knife which is in the process of getting all of the fittings assembled. Needless to say, I'm excited and glad to have that under my belt. Without paining you all with details I've had issues with heat treating a lot and haven't even gotten to the "fit and finish" stage until recently and I'm glad to have made it. These are a few non-blade objects I've done. The first pictures are damascus Mjolnir pendants I've made. I shared one I made in my first post and I feel like I've honed them to a slightly finer piece than what I first did. Also have been fiddling around with damascus rings. The first one is the first I made and is my wedding band. the others are for friends and posted in chronological order. This is the most recent one I've finished. This is my first completed knife. 6" Chef 11" overall from 1084. Not exactly sure what wood is on the handle but the fittings are copper. Not the most perfect thing in the world but glad to have one under my belt. Only thing left is to put the edge one it which I will be doing very soon. And this will be my second once its all fitted and finished... Thanks for your time and would welcome any critiques, help and wisdom. I have a lot of respect for a lot of guys on this forum and have yielded to a lot of wisdom and gained much inspiration and insight into this craft from you all! Matthew Shead