Ozbow

Started my first Damascus Project yesterday at the forge. I came across a couple of old chainsaw blades and decided to make a damascus billet out of them. I will be making a knife from this billet. Needless to say I am quite sore today, 5 hrs work in the following pics. Hand Forge welding is a time consuming and physical task, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Getting the stock to the right temperature and then getting it to the anvil and striking it with the right pressure is the hardest thing I have done so far. I will fold this billet again and maybe add a twist, then forge weld, and forge down to a finished billet ready for the grinder. Thats the plan!!!!!

I would think the links would all be high carbon, are you going to fold in some mild steel into the billet. Your labour on this reminds me of the time I swedged a ball pein hammet down into a throwing axe.Be watching this with interest.

Not going to put any mild steel in at this stage Bob, I will just temper the blade carefully as i do the file knives, they also are high carbon blades.

The main advantage of including the mild steel is that it allows the finished blade to be far more malleable than just straight high carbon, allowing the blade to flex more but still having the edge holding ability of the high carbon. I can see that the links will still give you the mottled look of 'true' damascus and should make a great knife with a terrific talking point about its construction.

See Bob, now you got me thinking.............. I might cut in and weld a mild steel spine.................Hmmmm

normally alternate layers of mild and carbon steel are layered together by folding into each other for anything up to one hundred plus folds being fire welded together in the process but a mild steel spine such as you mention would probably give some benefit .Good luck with it and looking forward to your progress.

There is no need to use any mild steel in your blade. The chain has differing grades of steel in it already and tempering will make it a useable blade and etching will show a great pattern as is.

I did think that perhaps there would be different grades of steel within the construction of the chain , but they would be interspersed randomly throughout the billet in the forging process whereas layering mild and high carbon steel during the fire welding process forms a 'sandwich' of steel having malleable, ductile and heat treatable qualities , whereas mild and high carbon singularly don't possess all of these qualities.The chain will most likely make a good blade but in my humble opinion not as superior as the process I described.

Plenty of blades are made of mixed carbon steel (like saw chains) and work as blade well, with good edge holding and good strength. Mild steel has no place in a blade when you can use a good spring steel like 1050 or similar. In pattern welded steel there is not often any need to add distinct layers (san mai or similar) of softer steel, the norm is to use your pattern welded steel (which will be similar to 1050 in practice) as the outer (strengthening) layers and something a lot harder and more brittle (but able to hold a finer edge) as the centre layer. You could add a centre layer of L6 or similar and your blade will be able to hold a great edge and also be all but unbreakable (when tempered correctly).

More work this Sunday. Going to cut billet in half and forge weld(sandwich) a piece of file or spring steel in between, which will also form the edge.

looking forward to seeing the results

Ok, it's been awhile.......... but have done some more work on this.
forged out the blank then shaped and ground the scandi bevel, going for a Pukko look........
Have gone for a bit of file work on the spine.......have done a test etch.
Next will be to harden the cutting edge and do the tempering......

I cant add to the metallurgy discussion but I am seriously impressed

regards Jacko

ok, a little farther along.......hardened and tempered............antler, New guinea Mahogany, osage and antler handle..with bamboo pins

Polish and sharpen to go........

that looks great well done

Alldone. Just need to make a sheath.......

Mick, from a chain to a blade, what a fantastic result.

Daryl.

Excellent ! of coarse a good Sheath is vital, looking forward to seeing

regards Perry

Yes a job very well done.

Eddie

big effort to convert that chain into that blade, you've done a great job!

Great result Mick, a lot of work for shore but will last a life time.

Cheers Wayno

Awesome

Very nice work.

Top job....

Great looking blade Mick.