Raindrop Damascus Question

[LightHunter222]

Hi Guys and first off a greeting from across the pond!
I have been trawling through this and the AB Forums to try and answer my question first before signing up and posting this, and i would like to say how much i have learned, there is just SOOO much collective wealth of experience here, its really bloody precious!! And especially the Super Advanced non Heat Treatment using Distilled Mountain Lion Urine! That really was 'taking the piss' lol!!
I have had a love and fascination for blades and general dangerous things since i was a small kid, and i love metal, strange i know, but i do!
It has been a dream of mine to forge Damascus steel, and although i have worked metal ever since (cutting grinding drilling welding filling etc inc gold and silver (and also usefully wood and leather!) i have not YET forged.
I have had a knife in mind that i've wanted to make for some years, a general purpose Camp/Hunting blade, and although i have full intention of making a small forge (im just trying to find a decent anvil atm) I've skipped that part for the moment and bought a small billet of Raindrop Damascus (10 3/8" x 2 1/4" x 7/32'nd's (260mm x 56mm x 5.5mm) and want to make this blade (one piece, full tang with just small wood handle scales, the Bowie in the picture i just thought i would include as it was to hand, is the most beautiful piece of steel and retains a 'shave sharp' edge even after significant use) and has been with me since a kid and is part of my family!!)
(pic attached hopefully!!)
My question is, in order to preserve the pattern and gain the most strength from the material, would it be best to wait and draw the billet out to shape in a forge, or just set to and get grinding? The billet is roughly the size of the blade i want to make, but there will be quite a bit of waste of this gorgeous steel...

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Really appreciate any input/feedback and thanQ for reading this! : )

Klaran o-connor

 

[tattooedfreak]

Forge if you want, but I would cut it out and stock remove and use the leftovers as lanyard fobs or small letter openers or something like that. By the way, you should fill out your info. Stand by for a standard message from the Count, pay attention to it.

 

[LightHunter222]

Thanks TF, i hear ya

 

[Salem Straub]

Another vote for stock removal. You don't want to try forging your first blade out of raindrop, too easy to mess that nice billet up. Plus, your pattern would get distorted. Use a bandsaw maybe and try to get some useable scrap pieces when you profile, like tat says above. Could be useful for some nice fittings.

 

[LightHunter222]

Good plan.
Recon that makes perfect sence, thankyou!
And yes if i use a piercing saw or jig saw maybe (i have alot of patience and no band saw yet) i could save some pieces.. good plan
i have a bench grinder, angle grinders and some excellent files and loads of emery paper!
Soo looking forward to this and really want to make my own forge aswell, i saw a paint tin forge on youtube that looked pretty easy to make.. Any ideas on do-it-yoself forges, and wondering what folk use as a propane torch? im sure theres some excellent threads on here already, i'll have to have a search around : )