"W" Pattern Damascus WIP my way

[Mike Turner]

Glad I could clear that up PaMtnBkr .

Thanks Kentucky .

So time to get back at this.

While the billet is still hot I attack the can with a grinder at the corners so I can open it. Doing this hot it grinds much faster.

After grinding the corners I take a chisel and hammer to it and open it up.

Once open I dump the billet out of the can.

Now I weld a piece of rebar on the billet so I can draw this out.

Warmed up just a tad don't you think , well she is nice and hot so hammer time.

All drawn out and ready to cut up.

Well time for the money shot don't you think , for those that are trying to follow we are at 16 layers of "W's" and this next weld will put us at 64 layers of "W's"

Next up we build another can to weld this so stay tuned and if you have question feel free to ask .

 

[Brian Ayres]

I was going to bed, but am hoping stay tuned means if I stay up a bit longer I get to see more beautiful steel smashed to shape....
Do you grind the billets flat before re-stacking and welding? Or is the dry weld in a can enough to keep the weld clean between the billets?

 

[Mike Turner]

Go to Bed Brian no more updates till tomorrow night .

 

[A C Richards]

Very Nice. Do you flatten/grind/mill the stack any more or run with it the way it is?? OOPS looks like Brian asked the same question....

 

[A C Richards]

Who's Cruiser in the driveway??? Looks pretty cool.

 

[JGguns]

That's awesome stuff Mike! Does it have to be layered again or could it be worked as is? Looking forward to more updates man.

 

[Mike Turner]

Brian and Chuck, this go around I have not ground the scale off yet so yes I still need to grind the mating surfaces clean. Do I make them exactly flat and parallel? No! I do things the same way wet or dry, now what may help you to know as the billet is heating I do pull it out and give it a gentle squeeze to push things together.

Chuck, the FJ is ours you should see the rest of her , she is made to be a rock climbing billy goat.

JGguns, most certainly I could have stopped here and you could go extremes in either direction with the stacking. I have made some that I stopped at 4 layers of "W's" and I have also gone to 2038 layers of "W's". There are a few ways to get the pattern into a bar one is to cut and flip 90 degrees and that would work great with this pattern right now. I will be cutting a chunk off and forging it out so the pattern will stretch out some so I need to compress it more to get the "W's" to a similar size when it is forged out. Hope that helps.

 

[javand]

Mike, since you went ahead and cut that billet before grinding the scale off, how are you going to clean it up? I usually use an angle grinder with a stone cup wheel before cutting it, is why I ask, but I have considered pickling the scale off, cutting, then just surface grinding them reasonably fast (with stone wheel, not belt). Maybe more time consuming but easier on the arms?

 

[Mike Turner]

Hey Javand, I will still use a angle grinder to clean these up, I don't use belts to clean up scale that stuff eats belts. At times I will surface grind but on billets like this I am not going for perfect flat billets. Well heading off to the shop now to get this welded up again.

 

[Mike Turner]

So moving on with some boring parts of this that are just repetitive but since I am doing a live WIP I don't want to cut parts out, plus I have had a few questions about cleaning scale off since I cut the bar up first this time around.

So here I am preparing to clean the scale off with an angle grinder.

One thing I should mention if you heat your bar up and brush it while it is hot you will remove a lot of scale and crud that you would have to grind off, look close you and you can see the scale is very thin and comes off very easy.

All cleaned up and ready to tack weld together.

All clamped up and ready to tack weld.

All tack welded up on one end and ready to go into a can, I don't weld the other end at all. I find it unnecessary plus I don't want any extra foreign metal in my billet.

Selected a section of square tubing for my can and cutting it to length.

More to come soon.

 

[JGguns]

What a great thread, thanks for taking us along! Can't wait to see this stuff finished up. Is the steel tubing a certain steel or is it just mild steel?

 

[Big Chris]

This is great. I will have to come back and see more. Forging is extremely interesting to me and this damascus making is the best.
Do you have some pictures of the 2038 layer billet you could show?

Thanks
Chris

 

[Mike Turner]

Thanks guys glad your liking the thread.

JGguns, the box is just mild steel tubing and I try and get it at .090" or less if I can get it, this stuff here is about .125". I don't cry to much as I get this stuff out of the remnant pile.


Chris, just for you here is a picture of the 2038 layers of "W's" billet and a knife I forged from that piece.

Revisiting the 2038 layers of "W's" billet, this piece is 1" X 1 1/2" X 1 1/2".

Integral knife forged from the 2038 layer "W" billet

And a close up.

Well just stopped for supper so stay tuned we will have an update this evening .

 

[JGguns]

That is gorgeous Mike! Man the Damascus rocks!

 

[Mike Turner]

Thanks JGguns,


So here we have some more can building, first up is splitting the tube.

And we cut the other side to part the tube into 2 sections that look like "L's",

This shot is just for the FJ lovers out there .

I cut some used heat treat foil to fit and went to stack it and forgot I need to narrow up the width.

So we made some marks and off to the bandsaw to narrow this up.

Now we can stack the can all back together.

And now we can clamp this so we can weld it.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned we will have more tomorrow.

 

[Mike Turner]

Making a push to get this one done this weekend, so here we go.

Here I tack weld the can together so I can remove the clamps and weld it up.

Welded both sides down the length time for the end caps.

I cut out 2 end plates from a large plate.

I weld on one end.

I then weld a piece of rebar on the end and sorry for the over blown shot.

Then I cut a piece of cardboard to put in the can to eat the air up.

Placing the cardboard in the can.

And then I weld the other end plate on and this is ready to forge weld.

More to come.

 

[JGguns]

Almost there! Can't wait for the end result.

 

[Mike Turner]

Had a TV Celebrity friend ( Jeremy VanSchoonhoven ) of mine in the shop today, helping him build a new shoeing forge so I had him take some action shots.

Starting to forge weld this with my 26 ton press.

Then I remove it from the can and weld on a piece of rebar to finish forging this down.

Jeremy trying to get into the photo good think for bokeh .

And here we have the bar all forged to size so we can cut it up for the final weld.

Billet all cleaned up ready to be cut up.

Stay tuned we have a money shot coming.

 

[JGguns]

It's amazing just how much work goes into this stuff. Can't wait till I can buy a piece from you you bud! How thick is the final piece gonna be?

 

[Mike Turner]

And now for the money shot.

And a close up.

Well we have one more weld to do so off to the shop I go to build one last can and get this bar finished, stay tuned.