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Hi guys, So the time has come to make a copper San mai blade. I was thinking of doing a nickel outer shell. Then copper, then hardenable steel core. I'm open to any and all tips, recommendations, warnings, step by step of how you would do it, and what you would stay away from. anything else that will help me with this new goal. Thanks so much in advanced.

I completed my first (and so far only) sword almost exactly a year ago, a hira zukuri wakizashi with wrought iron cladding. The construction is san mai with a 1095 core and a 15n20 contrasting layer. The cladding is twisted wrought iron and O1 tool steel. The blade was not deferentially heat treated, so no hamon; there would not have been much room for it, and I felt it would visually compete with the cladding. Besides, I was in over my head already with this project so I thought I'd stick with my regular HT routine The engraved habaki and seppa are brass and the tsuba, fuchi and kashira are wrought iron. The ito is silk, over a full same wrap with minimalist menuki made with leftovers of the cladding billet. All in all, this took about 160h, not counting research and practice. Yes I am slow but I learned a huge amount. It definitely has its flaws (for instance, the core could have been better centered, and the overall blade geometry has issues), but I feel that wasn't too bad given my first knife, from stock removal, was a year before. A few weeks back, I started working on its big sister, a katana with a similar construction. I just finished the forging, so at my pace of work, it should be done in what... four or five months?

My lastest piece for a buddy of mine from Argentina. His passion is the asado (bbq equivalent here in america). He wanted a custom knife for his bbq pack and this is what we came up with. Details: Blade- 140 layer ladder pattern 15N20/1095 outer steel of the san mai with W2 core. Differentially heat treated, the hamon is low though the whole edge turned out quite adequately hard, hardness files confirmed at least 65hrc on edge and about 50hrc along the spine post quench. There is another faint hamon present in the damascus region where the clay was applied. Never had a dual hamon like that, I attribute it to the different steels involved. I tempered it back a bit more than usual given the dramatic point this blade features. Handle- Deer antler with two 48 layer damascus fittings that I hot blued. There is a take down nut in the back to make disassembly and cleaning more practical (going to get greasy cutting all that meat). A 14k gold "L" is inlaid in the back as a memorial motif to his friend that passed away.

Just finished this little thing in order to finance some motorcycle restoration and preparation for the summer vacation. Blade length: 11 cm Hardness at edge: 58 HRC Handle length: 13 cm Blade stats: Two bars of 15 layers folded and twisted 15n20 and 15-steel, in a sanmai lamination with Øberg-steel in the middle. Handle stats: 2800 year old Russian bog oak from Siberia, vulcanized fiber, brass sheet, copper, and mosaic pin. The blade is reaaally thin - like 2,7mm thick. Flexes ever so slightly. I hope to make the sheath by next weekend.. I have so much screwing around (literately) to do with my bike atm. Sincerely, Alveprins.

Hey guys I recently made some sanmai 1018/1084 and all of my welds were solid and has no delamination of any sort. I went to heat treat it, thermal cycled 4 times and then quenched in mcmastercarr super quench. The blade passed the file test with flying colors. However upon further inspection there was a crack in the middle of the core steel running the length of the blade...like it just wanted to spilt in 2. What cause this and what am I doing wrong? I know people make low carbon sanmai with a high carbon core all the time. I suspected that I may have over heated it so I took it to the vice and snapped it at the tip, the middle, and at the heel. All of the grain was silky like you would find if you snapped a file so overheating is out of the question. Thanks for the help guys!

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