What thickness of nickel for damascus?

L

Leon Husock

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Jul 17, 2019
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I want to make some damascus with pure nickel for the bright layers; I don't want the nickel layers to be too thick in the finished product and impede performance on the edge, but since they're the only source of contrast I also don't want them to get crushed down so thin they almost disappear. Would .010" be a good thickness? Does anyone have firsthand experience with this?
 
I've done this using .005" nickel and it turned out nice. The nickel lines really show up. I did low layer count - perhaps 12 or so layers and didn't stack for rewelding to increase layers. I don't know how stacking for perhaps 100 layers would turn out. Good luck and be sure to post some photos.
 
Gotcha. I was definitely planning for higher layer-count, so maybe I'll bump it up to .010". I've made Damascus before using .005" nickel layers in addition to 15n20 to sort of artificially boost the layer density without making the billet bigger, but never as the only contrast.
 
For .060" steel, anything from .1mm to .2mm (.004 to .008") will work fine.
15 sheets of steel and 14 strips of nickel makes a good starter billet for newer makers. Once you have welding down, you can do 40 layer of steel with nickel between them.

TIP:
When cutting and stacking, put a strip of nickel between the stacked layers.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
For .060" steel, anything from .1mm to .2mm (.004 to .008") will work fine.
15 sheets of steel and 14 strips of nickel makes a good starter billet for newer makers. Once you have welding down, you can do 40 layer of steel with nickel between them.

TIP:
When cutting and stacking, put a strip of nickel between the stacked layers.
Click to expand...
I've been making my Damascus with .94" 15n20 and .187" 1095, just because I like that ratio of silver to black, so that's what I've got on hand. That said, if I wanted to use that 1095 I'd have to buy .02" nickel sheet which gets pricy, so maybe I'll buy some thinner stock to mess around with.
 
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