Shane Atwood 7 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Hey there, How good does a twist pattern look with a ladder pattern pressed into it? I'm sure it has been done but I can't recall ever seeing it. I guess is what I am planning on doing is making a composite bar of crushed W's with a cutting edge of twist. I have not done anything to my W's bar to bring the pattern to the surface yet. My W's bar is 1/2" thick and my twist bar is 1/2" square. I am thinking I will forge weld them together now, then press a ladder pattern into the entire billet which will ladder pattern the W's and the twist. What do you think? Will it look decent?? Thanks for the suggestions! Link to post Share on other sites
billyO 411 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Of course it'll look decent. I say go for it 1 RIP Bear....be free! as always peace and love billyO Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 3,767 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 This is where playing with plasticine helps. You can figure out a lot of patterning results that way without lighting the forge. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Joshua States 2,500 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 (edited) GO FOR IT! DOOOOEEET! Seriously, most of what anyone knows about patterning steel comes from experimentation. Alan's suggestion to use plasticine is a good one, but how many of us have a box of that laying around? How bad could it be really? If it were me, I wouldn't bother laddering the twist, if I were using it for the edge. I would want that to be a nice row of stars along the edge and would simply forge and grind it down to show the stars. Maybe that will happen in the ladder/ Who knows? Part of learning the art of pattern welding, is being able to visualize what that bar will end up looking like, and reverse engineering from a mental image of what end result you are aiming for. How many layers are in the twisted bar and how tightly is it twisted? Edited January 26 by Joshua States “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to post Share on other sites
John Page 95 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 I just recently made a small knife with a small twist bar on the spine and wide twist bar for the edge (3/4 the blade width) and the grind to get the bevel left the edge twist bar as a vaguely diagonal ladder effect but with the starburst of the twist interspersed in the diagonals. There isn't much else visually going on in the pattern, the twist being wide enough and ground into enough that the S shapes between starbursts aren't too visible. I'll grab a picture next time it's handy so you can see more easily. I would think that doing actual laddering might add a little bit of extra chatoyance, but not a crazy amount of pattern development. One way to find out though! John 1 Not all those who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien-Shards of the Dark Age- my blog-Nine Worlds Workshop--Last Apocalypse Forge- Link to post Share on other sites
John Page 95 Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 Here’s a phone picture, unfortunately it’s quite difficult to capture the detail. Please excuse the weird grind that doesn’t line up with the spine bar, not my best idea… The higher layer edge bar twist is somewhere in the range of 45 layers if I remember correctly, the original billet behind around 1” square while twisted then forged down to around 1/4”x1” to weld to the lower layer spine bar. The twisting was not nearly as tight on the edge as it is on the spine, thus a more diagonal line pattern. I think with laddering in there it’d be best aesthetically to ladder a looser twist so it gives a greater difference to what the layers are doing. grinding ladders in a really tight twist I don’t think would do quite as much because the outer third of the billet is already going almost perpendicular to the length of the billet but that’s mostly speculation. anyway, hope the pictures are of some use! John 1 Not all those who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien-Shards of the Dark Age- my blog-Nine Worlds Workshop--Last Apocalypse Forge- Link to post Share on other sites
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