James Higson Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 (edited) Dear Blade Brethren, Mr Ecroyd and I have been working on a project now for some time and we have finally got to the stage that we have something to show you for our toil, blood and tears. I am getting married next year (Mr Loose is making my ring ) and I decided all the best men, ushers and fathers needed wedding knives. We sat down and, true to form, we decided to attempt something ridiculous. This is obviously very similar to the flame edge patterning Dave Stevens showed on Arctic fire and Mick Maxen's explosion mosaics. The plan: Blades: Serpented two bar interrupted twist spine, Flame edge with 'Brownian motion' smoke above it Fittings: Cast bronze chape and pommel, celtic/norse love-themed knotwork Handles: Choice of wood made by the receiver of the knife (Likely wild mango/bubinga/cocobolo/coolibah burr) Sheathes: Veg tan leather with electroetched makers mark and bronze/brass fittings This was the plan for the blade patterning: I have made a few videos of the process thus far which will be linked at the bottom of this post. I started with 18 layers of 15N20 and 1095, then a massive block of 20 layers of 1095 with a strip of EN42J in the middle, welded on top of the stack. This was welded and elongated, resulting in this pattern on the end of the bar: This was then stacked at 90 degrees to the original orientation and re-welded, resulting in this pattern on the end of the bar: This was then again stacked and welded, resulting in much tighter flames: Finally, this was stacked three times and welded. After this, the billet was allowed to cool very slowly from critical temperature to make it as soft as possible, allowing it to be cut into slices. Another billet was then prepared, 18 layers of 15N20 and 1095, welded and elongated, then twisted alternately one way and then the next. This was split into two and then welded together inside two bars of EN8 plain carbon steel. The resulting bar was cut into a zig-zag and forged back to bar stock, causing undulation of the central two alternating twist bars. The slices of the flame edge bar were then forged into 1cm thick bars: These were then married up to their serpent bar and welded, then drawn out to the correct thickness for forging the knives. It was attempted to elongate them as little as possible, to avoid elongating the twist too far, however the flame edge bar needed elongating to unbunch the pattern. A compromise had to be made. These bars were then forged into two knives each and normalised before grinding. After a huge amount of grinding, normalising, quenching, grinding again and then polishing, the knives were etched and taken to a final polish at 1200 grit. I made a machine I named the 'Hand-sand-o-matic 2000' to assist with polishing but I think it will be more useful when time is not such an issue as most of these were polished with A45 trizact belts, as there was no plunge line. Thank you for looking, any comments and criticisms are as always welcomed. Video links to follow to some horrifically amateurishly edited videos! I will post more as we progress with the casting, handling and sheathing. Cheers, James and Sam Edited August 7, 2018 by James Higson 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Blohm Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 (edited) Amazing!!! Cant wait to see the video. Edited August 7, 2018 by Jeremy Blohm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhard Gerber Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 All I can say is that's going to be a cooler wedding than any I've been to! Amazing blades! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Longmire Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Ambitious! And well done so far! I didn't think I would like the mix of modern mosaic pattern development and migration-era techniques, but I do. Well played, gentlemen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dougherty Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Very nice! Good luck with the wedding -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Ecroyd Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 (edited) Definitely one of the more nerve-wracking projects we've attempted but the results so far have made it worth while. Edited August 7, 2018 by Sam Ecroyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Higson Posted August 7, 2018 Author Share Posted August 7, 2018 2 hours ago, Jeremy Blohm said: Amazing!!! Cant wait to see the video. Cheers Jeremy, videos added into the original post. 2 hours ago, Gerhard said: All I can say is that's going to be a cooler wedding than any I've been to! Amazing blades! I hope so, cheers! 2 hours ago, Brian Dougherty said: Very nice! Good luck with the wedding I'll need it 2 hours ago, Alan Longmire said: Ambitious! And well done so far! I didn't think I would like the mix of modern mosaic pattern development and migration-era techniques, but I do. Well played, gentlemen! Cheers Alan, was worried about what the traditionalists would think about our blasphemic patterning on a historical blade shape! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDT Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Impressive work, well done. They all share a common unifying theme but each are unique - great symbolism for the wedding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieter-Paul Derks Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Very cool, the modern edge pattern fits much better to the ancient patterns than I thought it would. Also I give you guys major kudos for taking on such a massive project. http://mefecit.nl/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifford Brewer Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Very impressive .................. If ya can't be good don't git caught !! People who say stuff can't be done need to git the hell outta the way of people who do stuff !!! Show me a man who is called an expert by his peers And I will show you a good man to listen to ...... Show me a man who calls himself an expert and I will show you an egotistical asshole...............!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeb Camper Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Nice!!! I've become a bit of a sax geek recently myself and I don't mind it at all. Call it an artistic interpretation Props given for taking on such a huge project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles dP Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Hats off to you guys. Snuck that one up on us "The way we win matters" (Ender Wiggins) Orson Scott Card Nos, qui libertate donati sumus, nes cimus quid constet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Detrick Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Damn those are awesome! I love the flame damascus “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." -Albert Camus http://www.krakenforge.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Lester Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Wild pattern to those blades. Waiting to see them finished into working knives. Doug HELP...I'm a twenty year old trapped in the body of an old man!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdsmith02115 Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 LOVE it! very cool stuff! I did a seax with a similar edge concept a few years back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Stephens Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 The flaming edges look great! Yeah, that's a finicky pattern. Easy to get lost in rotating the bits and pieces between welds. Great job!! Dave -----------------------------------------------"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly." -- Theodore Roosevelthttp://stephensforge.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emiliano Carrillo Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 You and Sam did some heroic work on these so far! Very cool I'm happy to see some of the WIP! Looking great you guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Higson Posted August 11, 2018 Author Share Posted August 11, 2018 Cheers guys! I am not entirely sure how I didn't get the same irregularity in my pattern as you Dave, that's what I was going for, a little more organic. Did you intentionally stack the pieces a little off centre so the flames were higher? Mine looks much more regular than yours. I like it a lot but I think I was just too surgical with the hammer! Just finished carving the waxes for casting bronze fittings so just need to make a ridiculous number of casting trees and get the ceramic shells sorted, then we're good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Maxen Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 Nice work James. A more irregular pattern will be achieved by forging your initial billet, the 1st photo you show, so that you have a combination of wide and narrow pieces. Always keep the height the same but try forging them so one bar is say 12mm wide and the other 6 or 8mm wide. This pushes the wave pattern higher up the bar in the narrow section and then stack them in alternating thin and thick sections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Maxen Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 Similar to these pieces, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Higson Posted August 12, 2018 Author Share Posted August 12, 2018 Cheers Mick! I'll definitely do that next time. Damn your patternwelding is clean! Life goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Stephens Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 What Mick said. If you're not getting sufficient distortion on the edges of the first weld, try rotating 45 degrees while it's still pretty thick, then re-rectangling it (if that's a word). This will increase the pointy bits on each slice, but won't achieve the macro variation of flame height that Mick's technique achieves. These are great patterns to play with in plasticine before trying it with steel. Dave -----------------------------------------------"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly." -- Theodore Roosevelthttp://stephensforge.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Provos Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 This came out great. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to how they look when you are done with them. Niels Provos The Serpent in the Sword Videos - Sword Resource Search Listen to my Activ8te EDM music releases Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Lipinski Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 (edited) I'm seriously impressed! Massive work. I love the final effect. And thanks a lot for wonderful videos! I love particulary two devices: grinding "jig-tool" with adjustable angle and... the cam paper sander. That's cool! Reminds a steampunk art however it's not steam powered Edited August 17, 2018 by Kris Lipinski lipinskimetalart.blogspot.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Higson Posted August 17, 2018 Author Share Posted August 17, 2018 Thank you Niels and Kris, Means a lot Also.... steam powered hand sanding machine....... hmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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