Now for something completely different

[Geoff Keyes]

Not to jack the thread, but are you using Kilz as an anti-scale coating?  And have you used it for a damascus release agent?

 

g 

[Joshua States]

@Geoff Keyes Yes I use it as an anti-scale coating. It seems to work pretty well. I have found that when used for hardening a blade, I had to up the oven temp about 10 degrees to account for the insulating property when the coating was applied too thick. I have since changed from using a paint brush to using one of those white foam rollers. The thinner coat provides enough to block scale without insulating. I can use 400 grit to remove any residue, I just had a piece of 220 handy this time and grabbed that instead. I assume you mean Damascus release agent for canister Damascus. I haven't made any of that yet, but it should work exactly the same way that whiteout does.

[Alan Longmire]

Pretty slick, Joshua!  Magic indeed, or at least weird in the original sense of the word. 

[Guy Thomas]

On 8/5/2020 at 4:22 PM, Alan Longmire said:

 

If you knew how many multibar tangs are laying around the bandsaw...    I feel your pain, in other words. 

 

Outstanding, really liking how this blade is turning out!

 

Out of curiosity what makes the breaking off of the tangs a particular danger of multi-bar construction while forging? The drastic transition form a wide bar to a smaller sized tang section? Combined with materials mismatched in their forging characteristics? Now that I pose those questions it seems obvious now, lol.

[Joshua States]

Well, it wasn't as magical as I'd have liked or hoped. I was totally psyched watching it come out of the first etch cycle.

 

 

But this blade has issues. The crack location is definitely visible.

 

 

And the edge bar sort of disappeared at the tip.

 

 

I will have to shelve this one. Although tomorrow I may try to reshape this blade and salvage some of it.

 

I am having a string of luck with Scraps of Damascus. That little piece I forged into a by-knife came out OK.

 

 

[Joshua States]

So I have some forging to do tomorrow and I'm making some Damascus for a commission, and a couple of chef knives (also commissions) and I figured I would take another shot at that scramasax. So I got the pieces parts together tonight for an early start in the morning.

 

[Joshua States]

A bit of a hiccup today. I was working on welding the fold for another billet and had the forge running pretty hot. I forgot to reduce the heat and the bar for the twists broke in half when trying to retrieve it for drawing out.

 

 

The grain got a bit gnarly in the excessive heat. It may be scrap now. I have it in a long heating/hold/cooling program in the paragon. We will see if that helps.

 

 

[Joshua States]

On the plus side, I took that hearth steel, re-melted nails bar, and ground one face  to see how well it was consolidated.

 

After grinding into it, I decided to add some more steel to it just to be sure the bar had enough mass for the edge of this blade. That welded up nicely.

 

[Alan Longmire]

Bummer about the burned bar.   I think the forge would be better for bringing the grain back down, myself.  Whole lot of thermal cycles across critical to really refine the grain.  

[Joshua States]

Back in the forge today. Yesterday was spent stripping ceramic tile out of the Kitchen and dining room and scraping the slab clean.....ugh.

Anyway, I got the two pieces of burnt bar drawn out and finished welding and drawing our the edge bar. I think I will skip the wrought iron spine for this blade. What do you guys think? Should I put the wrought spine bar on it, or just leave it as two twists and an edge bar?

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by Joshua States

[Joshua States]

Every other Wednesday is a flex day in my work schedule and I typically use it for forging. Today I worked on four different projects in the forge, that commission project, a couple of kitchen knives (also a commission in there), A PW dagger that I decided would be better as a Dirk, and this seax thing thing that is giving me all sorts of grief and trouble.

I had the three bars cleaned, ground, and tacked together for welding.

 

Then, I decided to put the fourth bar on it. Big mistake. That started out Ok, but halfway through forging the blade to shape, the edge bar started to delam and I just couldn't get it to weld. 

 

 

I ended up cutting this bar off with the hot cutter. Most of it came off. There is still a short piece up at the pointy end. I have no idea what this will end up looking like, but a quick change of plans is everything sometimes. Now it's a narrow Seax (or Schmalsaxe) in the Schmitt typology. I wonder sometimes if all these different types and styles were born from similar mishaps in the ancient forges. 

Journeyman smith: "Hey Master Snorri, this bar fell off."

Snorri: "Keep forging lad and make what you can. We will throw that bar back in the smelter."

A piece of the long twisted bar fell off in the forge. This is now a small lump stuck to the forge floor. After I cut off the spine bar, about 3 inches of tang end had to be removed as well.

Anyway, here is the forging as it sits today. I can get anywhere from 13-15 inches (35-38 cm)  of blade. OAL is 19.5 inches (49,5 cm) The blade width  goes from 1-1/8" (3 cm) to 1-3/8" (3.5 cm). I might have to shorten this so it will fit in my Paragon oven.....

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by Joshua States