# Damascus blade



## triw51 (Apr 5, 2013)

Here is a blade I made for a fellow pen turner larry. Not sure which wood he used (Larry give us a shout and tell us about the wood). The blade is 144 layers of 1095 and L6 which came from a band saw blade used in a saw mill. It was hammered and folded several times. I am not sure why but can not get the pictures large enough to really show the pattern.  

Thanks for looking


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## triw51 (Apr 6, 2013)

I received a PM from philipf  asking about a knife but when I tried to message back I could not get through.  Philip you have your account set up not to receive PMs.  Can you send me your e-mail address?


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## thewishman (Apr 6, 2013)

William, that is a beautiful blade.


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## johnhenry (Apr 14, 2013)

triw51 said:


> Here is a blade I made for a fellow pen turner larry. Not sure which wood he used (Larry give us a shout and tell us about the wood). The blade is 144 layers of 1095 and L6 which came from a band saw blade used in a saw mill. It was hammered and folded several times. I am not sure why but can not get the pictures large enough to really show the pattern.
> 
> Thanks for looking



How do get the metal clean enough to weld together? I tried a few times to weld old ships chain with annealed tool steel using oxalic acid but the layers seperated during heat-terating.


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## triw51 (Apr 15, 2013)

johnhenry said:


> triw51 said:
> 
> 
> > Here is a blade I made for a fellow pen turner larry. Not sure which wood he used (Larry give us a shout and tell us about the wood). The blade is 144 layers of 1095 and L6 which came from a band saw blade used in a saw mill. It was hammered and folded several times. I am not sure why but can not get the pictures large enough to really show the pattern.
> ...


 
John:
1) I clean the surfaces with a grinder to bare metal.  

2)Then I stack the pieces (in this case the band saw blade and 1095) in alternating layers and tack weld togeather.  I also weld on a metal handle so I can work with the piece easier.

3) I heat in a forge until a little red starts to show then flux with borax.  Heat to welding heat (bright lemon yellow and the flux dances on the metal) then I put in a vice and tighten the layers togeather, this causes the heat on the outside to be sucked up by the jaws of the vice but not inside so you know the inside will be at the same heat when you reheat.  This also forces the layers togeather and elimates any air spaces.  

4) When the out side is black I reflux and heat again to welding heat and hammer solid, I do step atleast 3 times dependng on the size of the piece.
I hammer out the piece then cut it into 3 or 4 pieces and restack.  Then start over until I have the number of layers desired.

Now you know why damascus is so expensive.  I attached a few pictures of a chainsaw chain I did.


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## triw51 (Apr 15, 2013)

I forgot to attach the photos so here they are.


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## Haynie (Apr 15, 2013)

Cool.  Nice looking blade.


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## Russknan (Apr 15, 2013)

Very nice! Could you please show what the chainsaw blade looked like in the end? Neat idea! Russ


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## triw51 (Apr 15, 2013)

Russknan said:


> Very nice! Could you please show what the chainsaw blade looked like in the end? Neat idea! Russ


 

The knife on the bottom has the blade made from a chainsaw chain.  Elk antler handle and cast pewter bolster.  One of my earlier knives so not as refined as others.


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## Donovan (Apr 15, 2013)

I really like Damascus steel blades but I have no time to make them, so I bought some from Alabama Damascus. They are beautiful. I have bought 7 from them so far

Donovan


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## Russknan (Apr 15, 2013)

triw51 said:


> Russknan said:
> 
> 
> > Very nice! Could you please show what the chainsaw blade looked like in the end? Neat idea! Russ
> ...



I'm not USUALLY a man of few words, unfortunately. But this one knife has always attracted me. And no one could ever believe that it was made out of a chainsaw chain. So here's the word: WOW!

Thanks,
Russ


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