As Published Knives Illustr

By Matt Walker

Says Walker, "This anvil knife is an experiment Imade with the help of a couple of friends (AlanLongmire and Mike Adams). I had a bar that was aspare, so we made one of these knives for each ofus-working together. I give credit to Robert Mayofor the idea. I carry this one daily. lt is not good forusing, but cool for a blacksmith to have."

A basicovendew for

those consideringmaking their

own Damascus

52 KNIVES ILLUSTRATED . APRIL 2009 knivesi l lustrated.com

want to give an overview of how Imake Damascus steel, along withsome opinions and ideas about it.This is what works in my shop forme.

Making Damascus is almost a faith-based pursuit for me. If you talk withseveral people that are serious aboutDamascus you will see why I say it issomewhat like religion-we are all tryingto get to the same place, but often valuedifferent formalities in the practice ofgetting there.

My advice for anyone wanting to startmaking Damascus is to learn everythingyou can and use what works for you. No-body is born knowing this stuff. At theend of this article I will credit some ofthe people I have learned from andmention resources I value.

Materials

Most steels and even wrought iron, canbe welded and manipulated to create pat-terns. If you put wrought iron, mild steelor nickel in the original billet, you run therisk of having layers that won't harden orthe lower carbon layers robbing from thehigher carbon layers, possibly resultingin a blade that won't respond properly toheat treatment.

In some cases. like with a tomahawk, inwhich a tool steel bit will be used, softerlayers can be acceptable because only theworking edge needs to be hardened.

This hawk was forged from a ladder pattern bar. The ladder pattern was distorted away fromthe eye due to the hand forging. Finished and hafted by Roy Carter.

kn ivesi l I ustrated. com KNIVES ILLUSTRATED . APRIL 2009 53

Matt Walker in his shop

I use nickel in my bars only when myinformed customers ask for it. Nickel re-ally does make a piece pretty and, in mybusiness, whoever is paying can choosewhat material they want.

Some steels aren't compatible in a billet.You run the risk of having a piece tearapart during heat-treat due to radicallydifferent alloying elements in the steel,causing differential rates of expansionand contraction under extremely quicktemperature changes.

My personal recommendation is 1084and 15N20. This combination provideseverything I want for a piece that I canprovide to others with confidence. The1084 will be very dark, and will contrastnicely with the 15N20 (which will bebright). These steels are similar in com-position and perform well in heat-treat-ment, and make outstanding blades. I alsobelieve they stand up better to misman-agement (time and temperature extremes)than some other mixes.

Wre rope and a chainsaw chain alsocan provide some cool patterns. Whilewire rope welds up easily, both it and thechainsaw chain are hard to completewithout small flaws.

Technique

Billy Phelps, a talented blacksmith,said: "To forge weld requires 2,400 de-grees and 800 pounds per square inch." Ithink it would take lab conditions toprove this, but it seems reasonable to me.I do know higher carbon-tool steels willweld at slightly lower temperatures thanmild steel, and wrought iron needs to bescreaming-hot to weld or even to forgesuccessfully. A coal forge will certainlyreach the required temperature, and Iuse it often for welding certain general

This hunter is a pattern Walker developed called it Tennessee Twirl. He says it's nicer in higher layer counts. This knife is by Tennessee makerJohn Young (not the John Young of Utah). He had a little more finishing and cleanup yet to do when this photo was taken.

blacksmithing projects. For pattern-weld-ed blade steel, a good blown propane-fired forge is hard to beat.

Over many years I have found theblown forge to give me total control overthe most critical concerns: atmosphere,temperature and time.

One question I get a lot is how I knowwhen the steel is ready. The first thing Iwould say is that it is essential that you'reable to see the work. Seeing the work re-quires some type of eye protection, whichis a whole subject itself. I use a Shade 3weldin,e lens. Use some kind of eye pro-tection when welding, even in coal. Ibelieve if you can see the work, it can bebetter managed.

Experience is the best teacher as youlearn the particularities of your forge andthe lighting conditions in your shop todetermine the right color of the hot metal.Keep in mind that whatever eye protec-tion you choose rnay aff'ect how youreyes see the color of the metal as well,

For me. when the flux is violentlyactive and the billet appears the samecolor as the inside of the forge, I wait afew more minutes so the heat of inside ofthe billet can catch up, and then I applypressure. [t's a feel that comes after mak-ing a few pieces that fail. A piece will notweld up well if i t 's too cool, but a longsoak time at welding temperatures is notgood for the steel, either. Although plas-tic deformation and thermal cycling canrepair some of the grain dama-ee done byoverheating, a piece with bad welds isn'tuseable. Managing the compromise ispart of "the feel."

Flux

Many people use 20 Mule Team Boraxright out of the box. I can't recommencthat because. with that method. most of itquickly hits the floor or the bottom of thefbrge. Anhydrous borax is a much betteralternative, and all things considered, may

be more economical. With anhydrousborax, more flux stays on the work andseems to penetrate better. so less iswasted.

There are other things that can be ben-eficial in f-lux. Here is a recipe for SuperFlux that I share with permission fromChuck Robinson of Picayune. MS " 15Parts Borax. 6 Parts Boric Acid, 3 PartsIron Oxide and2 Parts Fluorspar", I likethis mixture a lot. I have welded stainlessto carbon, in atmosphere, with this flux,which is something some say can't bedone. But be wamed - fluorspar isn'thealthy and only use it rvith

-eood ventila-

tion or proper breathing protectionI like to use a lot of flux. Consider that

the job of flux is to remove oxides andtrash. I like to see the flux dripping offthe billet taking the unwanted stuff withit. For me the proper amount is ll'hatstays on the piece at weldins tempera-ture.

The time to introduce the flux is iust

This folder was made by Steven Vanderkolff. lt's signed inside on the back spacer. It's also the Tennessee Twirl pattem but either the bar wasn'tpatterned deep or he ground a lot of it away. I carry this one. lt's heavy but it is all my steel except for the titanium liners.

54 KNIVES ILLUSTRATED . APRIL 2O09 kn ivesi l lustrated. com

Walker calls this Damascus pattern "bas-ketweave."

before color shows in the work. A fadedred will melt the flux, and that is when itstarts to do its work. Making the weld ba-sically requires that enough pressure beapplied to the stack of individual piecesto force out the flux and molten scale sothat the steel surfaces are in contact in-side the welding temperature range.There are many ways to accomplish this.

While a hand hammer will certainlyu'ork, a power hammer can hit it manymore times with the amount of force Idetermine while at welding temperature.Extreme, hard blows aren't what arecalled for when making the weld, but lotsof moderate well-placed blows are. Thetaster you can overlap the last blow withthe next one, the better. Whether poweror hand hammer, the first series of over-iapping blows should cover the center ofthe billet, and the next series should godown the side, overlapping both the lastblow with the next one, but also overlap-ping the previous series of center blows.

Power-hammer dies should not be flattor this work; they need a small amountof crown in the center to help push theuash out, not help trap it. I've foundthrough experience that a forging press isan even better (cleaner, faster and moreconsistent) way to set the weld. I thinkthe press is better due to forging dynam-ics that are beyond the scope of thispaper.

After the weld is set, there is the prob-lem of drawing out in preparation for aft-rld or a stack. For me, that is accom-piished with a combination of the pressand the power hammer. The press is thebrute-force tool and the power hammer isused for finesse. Building up layers can beaccomplished either by folding to doubleeach time or drawing out and cutting thebar into multiple pieces and re-welding.

I use both methods, but typically drawtrut erough to cut five or six pieces, thenre-stack the billet for another welding cy-.'ie. Sometimes I even do that aeain. Then

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5111 Berwyn Rd. STE 110College Park, MD 20740

Walker made this knife from an accordion-cut "W" bar. He forged it to shape and John Young helped finish it up, along with the engraving.Handles are mammoth ivory.

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sometimes will bifold or trifold to reach apredetermined layer count. Some patternslook better in higher layers and some inlower levels. and Damascus billet cus-tomers know the range of layers theywant the piece to have. Again, the guythat is buying has the conect idea.

I have a McDonald rolling mill that isused for final forging steps. The mill isthe most efficient tool for working to adesired thickness, and it leaves a cleaner.more consistent surface than my otherforging tools. Many people forge Damas-cus by hand, but I would never recom-mend it due to potential damage to yourbody-and your frustration level.

Just managing a moderately sized bil-let against the leverage of a long handle(necessary to isolate from the heat) canreally hurt your elbows in a short time. Isolved this problem by using a devicecalled a tool balancer to carry the weightof the workpiece. The tool balancer wasrecommended by a friend (Charlie Mur-ray), and may be the single best thing Ihave found to helping to produce Damas-cus. When you are doing this for manyhours a day, several days in a row, any-thing that makes it physically easier al-lows you to work longer, faster and safer.

After the prefened layer count isreached, something needs to be done to

make a pattern happen, otherwise youwill just have a straight pattern, providedeverything has gone as it should have upto this point.

Patterns are usually created by manipu-lating the steel mechanically or by stockremoval. Twisting is an example of me-chanical manipulation. Drilling holes ormilling grooves are examples of howstock removal followed by forging canexpose layers to create a pattern. Differ-ent dies can be used to make impressionsin the surface, and then when the raisedareas are milled away, a pattern appearsin the exposed layers.

Expect to lose up to two{hirds of thematerial you started with in grinding outthese stock-removal-developed patterns.Remember, the last forging cycle beforepattern development needs to leave a piecethree times as thick as what you want toend with. You will be drilling or otherwisecutting one-third of the thickness fromeach side and forging it to the middle, ordeforming one-third the thickness fromboth sides and grinding to the center third.

Etching

Patterns are unlimited, but rememberthat whatever pattern is developed willnot show up until the piece is etched. For

etching I use fenic chloride. Ferric chlo-ride is the best and safest etchant for themetals I use. Etching will give a goodidea of what you have created in all yourhours of hot, dirty work, but the patternwon't really pop until the piece isproperly heat-treated and finished.

Problems

If you have never made pattern-weldedDamascus before, the odds are you willhave some problems, but the good newsis they can be solved.

For example, inclusions are usuallysmall and are something that was trappedbetween the layers during the weldingprocess. Most likely, they are scale orpockets of flux that weren't driven outdue to poor technique when making theweld, or they could be dirt from leavinggrinding dust between layers.

It doesn't matter what they are, but whatmatters is that they ruin the look of thepiece, and the way to avoid having them isto be fanatical about your weld surfaces.Weld surfaces must be clean and eitherdead-flat or very slightly convex, (nevereven slightly concave), as well as free ofdivots. I grind and wipe clean my materialbefore each weld cycle. I know many whofeel this is a waste of time and labor, but Ialmost never have an inclusion. Since I'mfurnishing material for others, I can'tafford to have bad metal out there.

Even if I were making steel for my ownuse, I still would spend the extra time tokeep everything clean because who wantsto get almost finished grinding a bladeand have an ugly booger show up? ThisA billet of radial Damascus welded up

56 KNIVES ILLUSTRATED . ApRtL 2009 knivesi l lustrated.com

involves some heavy grinding betweenforging cycles and welding cycles, andthe work would be much faster if I justcut and folded depending on the flux towork miracles. I think it is worth it-afterall, you are doing the whole exercise tocreate something special, not "somethingspecial except for that small black spotnear the tip." I think etching a little deep-er to blend a booger is also unacceptable.

Another common problem is havingblisters pop up on the surface of the bil-let. I think these come from leaving lowspots on the surface of a layer. When theweld happens around the low spot, what-ever air or flux is in the low spot istrapped, and then later, when temps arehigh, there is enough boiling or expan-sion to cause a blister. Sometimes blistershappen when using thin material in theinitial stack and the only way I know toavoid that is this-put thicker layers onthe outside and clamp the stack tight be-fore placin,e the arc welds. We use arcwelds to hold everything together untilthe hrst forge weld is completed. To deal

with blisters after the fact, some peoplecenter punch and flux and go back for an-other welding cycle. When I had blistersearly on I found it best to grind themcompletely out. Either solution can com-promise your final pattern a little. Anoth-er good thing about heavy grinding afterthe forging cycle and drawing out is thatsometimes there can be blisters you failedto notice as a dark spot on the metal dur-ing forging, or that don't rise.

If a spot like this was missed earlier inthe process, during heavy grinding it willglow red because it is so much thinnerand is insulated from the surroundingmaterial. It is much better to deal with itrather than putting it back in the center ofa billet during a fold or re-stack.

A common problem with beginners issimply a bad weld. They can be the resultof temperature being too low while trying

The result

kn ives i I lustrated. com KNIVES ILLUSTRATED . APRIL 2009 57

to weld, missing a place when setting theweld (hand hammer or power the blowsneeded to overlap), flux not reaching anarea, starting a weld sequence when theoutside is hot enough, but the inside ofthe billet is not, or just dirty work.

Normally the billet is worked square. Ifyou ever have a question about how goodyour welds are, turn the billet on the dia-mond and work it. If the welds are good,the piece should forge like a solid bar ofsteel. If they aren't, it will come apart.You want to find poor welds as soon aspossible, and deal with them or scrap thepiece before more time is invested.

A less common method of creating apattern-welded piece is working withpieces of steel and/or powdered metal en-closed in a steel container. Some of the ad-vantages include: fewer limits on what canbe done in design;the powdered metal al-lows for working with odd shapes; if donecorrectly, perfect, solid welds.

The disadvantages I've found are ttreexffa work in seffing up ttre can conectly,long soak times that mean exfta fuel usage;

powder is expensive; powdered metal canbe hard to find; removing the sacrificialcontainer can be labor-intensive; the pieceoften requires accordion cutting (which isalso labor- and time-intensive. The bestthing about "working in a can" is thereis a variety of things that can be donein the metal that aren't possible withnormal methods. [Editor's note: Weare hearing that there are signfficanthealth risks in improperly handlingpowdered metal. Top-quality respira-tors are essential. Be sure you under-stand the safety procedures and healthdangers before you open a container ofpowdered metal.l

If you have the tools and don't mindhot, hard, dirty work, try pattern welding.You might become as captured by the sub-ject as I am. Work hot, keep your workclean and try new things. @

Len Landrum

kn will help you learn about steel.

www. I andrumkniv e s. c om

Darren Ellis:

Gas forge helphttp : //home. c omc ast. net/- eellis2/

E lli s C u s t o mKnifew o rk s / ind e x. hnnl

Ron "Bowi" Clayborn:

Always willing n ,horc

knowledge about Damascus.

www. thunde rmo unt ainfo r g e. c om

Author",!ii,,TlJJ#,i,helped me start out.

www.atarcom/old

Ed Caffery:

Vdeos with information that will

help all Damascus mnkers.

www.caffreyknives.net

Knifenetwork.com:

A great resource full of knowl-

edgable people willing to help,

www.hifenetwork.com

Mick Maxen:

Study everything he posts.

www. b riti s hblade s. c om

Tool Balancer:

www. sprin gb alanc ers. c om

If you plan to make more than the

occasional piece of Damascus,

you need one. There are usually

several on eBay.

Matt Walker

[email protected]