Use two thick plates. One in 1095 and one in 15N20. Laser the 15n20 as you did, but etch the 1095 with a reverse image and press the designs together. Then you should be able to grind one away until you get to the welded pattern with little or no distortion. Its very easy with the fiber.
@@TimothyDyck I havent but we have several 50w fiber and I really cant see how it would fail. It would be easier as we have a surface grinder (converted to sander). You would only have to weld the one edge and it would have zero oxygen. As Randall said, any pattern should hold up 100% with sharp edges, especially if you weld with a press.
Your stainless foil stuck to the powder because it is clean. Makers who use stainless foil this way heat it to let it get a layer of oxidation on it first. The oxide will keep it from welding to the rest of the elements in the canister.
The "muddiness" of the 15N20 looks like it's because there is still a thin layer of 1090 powder on top because you can see a bright "halo" around the edge of each of the features which I suspect is the real 15n20 underneath.. Grind it a bit more and try the etch again..
The pattern welded "dirty" steel looks so much better than the etched and polished blank. The dirtiness comes from new alloys that you created in the welding process. The non ferrous materials kinda flow around while hot, and that's what makes it beautiful.
Do not give up on this idea. Think of the applications as far as designing a layout of metals to increase a knife's durability. What I envision is a knife that starts with pure mild steel going into a large honeycomb pattern moving across to a smaller honeycomb pattern. The opposite side is reverse. A hard steel ( the blade edge side) going into a large honeycomb pattern and then across towards the mild steel side with smaller honeycomb. A Damascus billet designed to have a hard edge and absorb shocks and be flexible.
Oh yeah. He definitely should iterate on this stuff. Firstly he will learn more about the process itself and it looks like there is still much to learn, Secondly all that institutional knowledge will let him try more and more daring designs and processes over time. This is very promising.
I can't remember the channel but spraying the inside of the box with white paint, made it super easy to remove form the Damascus after heat. My guess is that it's the titanium oxide in the white paint.
I’ve had an idea like this for a while. Unfortunately I’m just a layman who watches videos on UA-cam. But I was thinking something like family names or other text actually patterned into the blade instead of surface etched
0:58 you were correct in calling it "pattern welded steel". (Two different steels welded to create a contrasting solid billet when etched) True Damascus is a crucible steel and the patterns come from part of the process and the way the steel crystallizes. It has maddened me for years that people continue to call pattern welded steel; "Damascus". It's beautiful either way. But they are two completely different things. Fz making knives has about the truest thing to "Damascus" although through a different recipe; I have ever seen on UA-cam. Check him out.
This illustrates one of the things I love about the smithing community; we share our ideas! Since 3D printed/cellulose damascus patterns are now done by lots of smiths, this looks like an interesting variant; one could laser in a name, or corporate logo, or whatever and fill the impressions with 1090. Might work even better with the canoe canister technique.
Here's a thought: Can your laser sinter the powder? If so, lock down the workpiece on the laser bed and let it do it's thing, then just add powder without picking up the workpiece and run a sintering pass. You might have to look up the laser's working temps to see if it's capable of sintering this powder, but it might yield result.
I love these types of experiments! They always lead to new ways of thinking and inovations. Before you said that you didn’t want to do this as damascus, I thought it would be interesting to have the laser etching reversed where the skeleton around the triangles is removed, leaving the triangles as the high points. This should make it easier for the powder to get into all the recesses as well as have it be a fully connected lattice around the triangles. Nice work! Keep the creations coming.
Cool experiment! Tip on canister damascus, the guy from Fire Creek Forge here on yt says regular white spray paint works better than the foil for keeping the canister from sticking to the billet. I believe he mentioned that it was the titanium dioxide in the paint creates an unweldable barrier between the steel and the canister. Give it a try next time!
Oh definitely want to see more stuff like this! Its a wonderful idea, the first time you do it you learn what you did wrong and all that. The next one will be better!
Having done similar things with 1095 powder in thin cans for mosaics, it can be difficult to get the amount of size reduction during forging that you really need to fully consolidate the powder- particularly without the byproduct of unwanted distortion. Try it on the power hammer and forge it down a little farther, and soak the billet a bit at welding heat to help age the welds as well- should etch cleaner.
I love the experimentation. You may be on the cutting edge of a new damaskas trend. I have a 50w fiber laser and full forge. This gives me so many ideas for how to combine the two. Off to the shop.........
Could you fill the holes with the powder, then cover the steel with paper masking tape? This would prevent the powder from falling out & the paper would get vaporised when you heat it. That way you could make a casing that fits it like a sheath to a knife. If the powder is fine enough, you could use vibration (an ultrasonic cleaner without water, or a power tool touching the metal) to get it to fill even very tiniest of holes - like a thin groove the thickness of a ball point pen. That way you could create patterns like the branching veins in a leaf (0.20mm grooves), or natural fractals (think cracks in drying mud, or an image of lightning), even the scales of a lizard. If this works, this would make utterly unique damascus patterns that would be really popular. You could even "sign" your work with a laser-etched fingerprint hidden on the tang.
It would take a lot longer, but if you started with thicker bar stock and flat ground both sides the laser etch would probably be the same depth all around, and you could get a deeper etch to start with to fit more powder, or what wody422 suggested and stamp the pattern. Or both, stamp, then use the laser to crisp it up if necessary. And I bet those two spots were just a bit of stainless that somehow welded to the stock that didn't get fully ground off.
I like the forged inlay more, the subtle halo on the light parts, the stippling in the dark parts, not as clean sure, but much better looking to my eye, reminds me of mandala drawing vibes
One piece I have learned from others, and my own experience with Damascus is that the majority of the weld happen in the fire. It’s important to get the welds set quickly if you have open steel that is susceptible to oxidation, but if the weld surfaces are covered, like in a canister, it’s not as crazy important to get it to a press or hammer the second it’s out of the fire.
I prefer the darker damascus but that's just me. The laser etching does create quite a bit of heat but over a tiny area, and the heat doesn't penetrate deeply into the metal. I don't know if it would compromise the heat treat, but because of the large area being etched I'd probably do it before heat treating. Beautiful work!
This would be a much bigger project but what if you did damascus as normal but then used the laser to cut that billet into some crazy shapes to then be rewelded. Something like the process of making W damascus but using the laser to make the cuts instead of the band saw. I agree that that is a cool concept that would look stunning on a knife, michaelcthulhu makes crazy steel projects using a similar style, but i think the idea that you had in the first place is an idea worth toying around with since it is so unique and its more about the process of the making that makes it more special. You can achieve the effect with the blueing but its not "true" damascus. Obviously a huge time commitment since it takes so friggen long.
Maybe you could line up some sort of limited edition thing with ridge wallet, seems like something that style of patte would be good for. Otherwise one of those longer plate bottle openers, could wack out a long line of those with the laser
The gun blue has been done before. I've seen it on an ax where it was laser etched then blued and another that made a vinyl mask with a laser then deep etched it. But, I've not seen damascus steel laser etched & blued. That would be pretty kool!!
This is just like sintering. Granules that are strongly compressed at high temperatures. The result is a porous mass, which explains the roughness. Cutting inserts made of tungsten carbide are also produced in this way.
You should have used the laser to cut all the way through the first piece and totally fill it with 1095 powder. That way as you work it and and actually create a blade it won't be ground away. Possibly using a wavy pattern so you don't have to worry about the pattern distortion as it is forged. Very cool idea! I wouldn't give up on it yet.
Awesome! The Damascus has a lot more authenticity to it but the laser version looks excellent and would probably be a better option for production. Id love to make a knife from your Damascus piece if you'd be interested in a collab?! It takes some work but you could get a black/mirror contrast to it with the right techniques. For a bold pattern like that the pre etch surface finish is important. If you took it to a full mirror, then you could etch, polish, etch polish until you've got mirror highs and matt lows, then coffee or orange juice etch to darken the matt areas. Super frustrating process if you're set with getting it perfect.
I personally think the welded one looks better, looks more authentic. On my phone there seems to be illusions of edge highlights. The pure laser etched one just looks factory made. Cool idea, and nice results on both of them though. Especially for a first try
My thought is you should try this in the same way youd do ladder Damascus. So do a traditional 50 layer(or however many) billet of Damascus. THEN cut your cool design and forge it flat again. Could come up with some wild looking patterns. Id probably not lazer the triangles with 90° angles to lower the risk of cold shuts but id love to see what you could get as far as pattern. Like a wild version of raindrop Damascus
Make the holes all the way through white paint a piece to wel on the back, fill the holes with powdered copper, then weld a white painted piece on the front. The holes all the way through will help the inserts bond in better, unlike the more inlay style in this video.
Very cool idea! I would bet some Damascus experts could help you make this a reality; one thought I had (I'm just a fan with no forging experience so grain of salt) was that the stainless shims might have been the "grease" residue and that more grinding/sanding might be needed; if it was indeed grease, I apologize and would recommend a good surfactant like Dawn soap. Keep up the good work and God Bless you and yours!
Laser, silicon bronze braze, and grind? Should be able to Heat Treat still too. Might be a fun experiment! Always love the experiments you come up with!
I have two, somewhat competing thoughts: On the one hand, one of the beauties of Damascus steel (to me anyways) is the wavy, distorted layered pattern, which isn't present in something with a precise stencil style pattern, so one half of my brain says that just laser etching a pattern and bluing the relief is the way to go to achieve something like this. On the other hand, pattern welded steel is awesome in its own right, even if you don't have the classic layered Damascus look. To that end, if you could arrange to use a water jet cutter (or hunt down one of the companies who make water jet cut parts to order) you could cut your pattern completely through the blank and eliminate the risk of grinding through a shallow etched weld, and ensuring the design is symmetric on both sides. If you wanted you could probably even cut your 15N20 blank, then have the negative of the pattern cut from 1090 and slot the two pieces together, negating the need for powder at all. If you do go for a reattempt at welding, I suspect that you're always going to have some distortion of the pattern just by virtue of the way the welding works mechanically. The two soft bits of metal have to be mushed together until they fuse, so any variation in temperature, force applied, material composition, variation of any kind really is going to wiggle the joint differently along its length. Even if you heated two flat bars and squeezed them uniformly, the resulting joint wouldn't be perfectly straight, so the chance of getting a pattern to fuse without distorting is vanishingly small I imagine.
try doing Damascus steel first as a base. Then 3d scanning the pattern and engraving the Damascus pattern in different depth with the laser, to give it more of a dynamic look. You can even infuse the engravings with different metals to make it "flow/mix" in to the Damascus pattern.
I like your innovative thinking here. what about cut that pattern out, do that invisible fit between two metals, assuming they won't cold weld (or could they?) then see what would take to get them to weld Great idea with the stainless foils too that's a nice forge! first time viewer here
this is an insane cool idea! I can see this making some bad ass knives and such. Would love to see you or Alec Steele or Will Stelter make something out of this idea.
I'd love to see where the pattern goes through natural forging strikes and such. Laser is cool, don't get me wrong, but there's definitely something interesting about watching the laser precision chang through hammer strikes and nature and see that final pattern reflected on a knife, or something.
What about using the laser to etch grid point pretty deep like little centre punch holes for guides points to drill all the way through the stock with a drill press. You could use different sized drill bits and completely fill up the holes in the stock with different types of powder. I’ve been thinking of something like this for years.
This is a pretty method for pattern welding. Just like the 3d printed cannister stuff. Wonder if water-jet might work too? If you the same shape out of 2 metals and weld them
The laser etch looks good but as I see more and more maker stuff, there is so much laser etched everything....it makes truly hand made things so much more precious IMHO.
Great Idea Tim, I was thinking as I watched... Why not use the laser to leave a thin border around the edge of the 15N20 bar steel and reduce the rest of the surface by say .040" or [40 thousands of an inch] and the pattern cut it all the way thru. Then TiG weld a sacrificial surface plate on one side, pour the 1095 powder steel in making sure to let it fill up that bottom side w/the powder thru the cut in pattern; the thin border keeps the sacrificed cover plate slightly off the bar for the steel to fill in completely then TiG weld the other side plate on and forge weld it. I think this will give you more material to work with when welding so the pattern will come out better after grinding off that thin layer of 1095 and the 2 "side plates" Having done all that will ensure if you are making a knife outta it the pattern won't disappear when grinding the blade profile. I hope I explained my thoughts well enough.
Try taking both pieces through the forging process to make something like a knife. Try and make both of them the same to see the different results that you get from it
The gun bluing could wear off over time, but would be an easy re-apply. For my damascus blades - I give re-etch instructions to my customers - via coffee etch. (Safer than playing around with ferric or muriatic) so far - no complaints and food safe!
Next time make a small can you can slide the steel in to the middle. Coat the can in white out and for the love of god let it dry good before use. then slide it in the middle and just go back n forth side to side until full. Also I have never used the powder steel but from results I have seen using a jig saw or air hammer or saws all on the side of it shakes it very well insuring all spaces get filled. The gun blue looks good. I would like to see a portrait or something in more detail.
If i were a buyer not knowing the amount of time, effort, and skill that goes into the damascus/pattern weld, and you showed me 2 identical pieces with significantly different price tags and told me they would preform the same, i would buy the cheaper one. If the intention is production for sale the one that cost less to make would be the one to move forward with.
It's a cool concept but I don't personally like it for a pattern on a blade but I think it would be awesome as a pattern for a guard or as a spacer between different handle materials. Just do the edge if possible. Or engrave a touch mark and then do the forge weld. I think that would be amazing
Have you thought of using 3D printer/pla to create a pattern with powdered steal? Steve Schwarzer did it at a suggestion from a student. PLA just turns to carbon at forge welding temps. Use PLA 3D printed structure as a way to separate the two powders in the can until they are forge welded. At least that is the theory.
Should look into how tight you can get stuff with wire EDM and how the parts become one. Think of the damascus patterns you could make from layering and welling billets that are just blocks of EDM puzzles.
Use two thick plates. One in 1095 and one in 15N20. Laser the 15n20 as you did, but etch the 1095 with a reverse image and press the designs together. Then you should be able to grind one away until you get to the welded pattern with little or no distortion. Its very easy with the fiber.
Very interesting idea! Have you tried it?
This would be awesome!! But also pushes the envelope on Damascus images and text rather than boring Damascus patterns which we've seen 20000 times...
@@TimothyDyck I havent but we have several 50w fiber and I really cant see how it would fail. It would be easier as we have a surface grinder (converted to sander). You would only have to weld the one edge and it would have zero oxygen. As Randall said, any pattern should hold up 100% with sharp edges, especially if you weld with a press.
Yes! This idea right here! Should be very doable I think and your imagination would be your only real limit when it comes to the patterns.
This is basically how the woodwork guys do inlays.
Your stainless foil stuck to the powder because it is clean. Makers who use stainless foil this way heat it to let it get a layer of oxidation on it first. The oxide will keep it from welding to the rest of the elements in the canister.
You should say this again up in the comment he replied to, by replying directly to him. He'll be more likely to see it.
The "muddiness" of the 15N20 looks like it's because there is still a thin layer of 1090 powder on top because you can see a bright "halo" around the edge of each of the features which I suspect is the real 15n20 underneath.. Grind it a bit more and try the etch again..
I like the imperfect forge welded one, it's definitely a lot more work but I think it's pretty cool!
Cool, it's like a forge welded inlay!
The pattern welded "dirty" steel looks so much better than the etched and polished blank. The dirtiness comes from new alloys that you created in the welding process. The non ferrous materials kinda flow around while hot, and that's what makes it beautiful.
Completely agree. The other one looks like a cheap chinesium copy of pattern welded steel.
Could do a unique pattern "rain drop" Damascus with that laser.
That would be cool.
This was my first thought as well. That laser could make some pretty bitchin raindrops.
Do not give up on this idea. Think of the applications as far as designing a layout of metals to increase a knife's durability. What I envision is a knife that starts with pure mild steel going into a large honeycomb pattern moving across to a smaller honeycomb pattern. The opposite side is reverse. A hard steel ( the blade edge side) going into a large honeycomb pattern and then across towards the mild steel side with smaller honeycomb. A Damascus billet designed to have a hard edge and absorb shocks and be flexible.
Oh yeah. He definitely should iterate on this stuff. Firstly he will learn more about the process itself and it looks like there is still much to learn, Secondly all that institutional knowledge will let him try more and more daring designs and processes over time. This is very promising.
I can't remember the channel but spraying the inside of the box with white paint, made it super easy to remove form the Damascus after heat. My guess is that it's the titanium oxide in the white paint.
I’ve had an idea like this for a while. Unfortunately I’m just a layman who watches videos on UA-cam. But I was thinking something like family names or other text actually patterned into the blade instead of surface etched
0:58 you were correct in calling it "pattern welded steel". (Two different steels welded to create a contrasting solid billet when etched) True Damascus is a crucible steel and the patterns come from part of the process and the way the steel crystallizes. It has maddened me for years that people continue to call pattern welded steel; "Damascus". It's beautiful either way. But they are two completely different things. Fz making knives has about the truest thing to "Damascus" although through a different recipe; I have ever seen on UA-cam. Check him out.
This illustrates one of the things I love about the smithing community; we share our ideas! Since 3D printed/cellulose damascus patterns are now done by lots of smiths, this looks like an interesting variant; one could laser in a name, or corporate logo, or whatever and fill the impressions with 1090. Might work even better with the canoe canister technique.
The enthusiasm and precision with which you approach everything is great
Here's a thought: Can your laser sinter the powder? If so, lock down the workpiece on the laser bed and let it do it's thing, then just add powder without picking up the workpiece and run a sintering pass. You might have to look up the laser's working temps to see if it's capable of sintering this powder, but it might yield result.
Without an inert atmosphere it would oxidize the powder.
Damn, I just posted the same thing and then saw your post.
I love these types of experiments! They always lead to new ways of thinking and inovations. Before you said that you didn’t want to do this as damascus, I thought it would be interesting to have the laser etching reversed where the skeleton around the triangles is removed, leaving the triangles as the high points. This should make it easier for the powder to get into all the recesses as well as have it be a fully connected lattice around the triangles. Nice work! Keep the creations coming.
That is a really cool idea! I can’t wait to see where else you go with this. Great video as usual! Cheers👍
That’s what experimentation is about, Tim! Great job!
I get excited every time I see you uploaded a video! Give me more!!
Cool experiment! Tip on canister damascus, the guy from Fire Creek Forge here on yt says regular white spray paint works better than the foil for keeping the canister from sticking to the billet. I believe he mentioned that it was the titanium dioxide in the paint creates an unweldable barrier between the steel and the canister. Give it a try next time!
Oh definitely want to see more stuff like this! Its a wonderful idea, the first time you do it you learn what you did wrong and all that. The next one will be better!
Having done similar things with 1095 powder in thin cans for mosaics, it can be difficult to get the amount of size reduction during forging that you really need to fully consolidate the powder- particularly without the byproduct of unwanted distortion.
Try it on the power hammer and forge it down a little farther, and soak the billet a bit at welding heat to help age the welds as well- should etch cleaner.
I love the experimentation. You may be on the cutting edge of a new damaskas trend. I have a 50w fiber laser and full forge. This gives me so many ideas for how to combine the two. Off to the shop.........
If you had some really thin metal, you could engrave your business card on it and used the bluing technique. That would be a killer business card.
Could you fill the holes with the powder, then cover the steel with paper masking tape? This would prevent the powder from falling out & the paper would get vaporised when you heat it. That way you could make a casing that fits it like a sheath to a knife.
If the powder is fine enough, you could use vibration (an ultrasonic cleaner without water, or a power tool touching the metal) to get it to fill even very tiniest of holes - like a thin groove the thickness of a ball point pen. That way you could create patterns like the branching veins in a leaf (0.20mm grooves), or natural fractals (think cracks in drying mud, or an image of lightning), even the scales of a lizard.
If this works, this would make utterly unique damascus patterns that would be really popular.
You could even "sign" your work with a laser-etched fingerprint hidden on the tang.
It would take a lot longer, but if you started with thicker bar stock and flat ground both sides the laser etch would probably be the same depth all around, and you could get a deeper etch to start with to fit more powder, or what wody422 suggested and stamp the pattern. Or both, stamp, then use the laser to crisp it up if necessary. And I bet those two spots were just a bit of stainless that somehow welded to the stock that didn't get fully ground off.
The entire video I was thinking there must be an easier way of doing this.
And you came up with it in the end.
I like the forged inlay more, the subtle halo on the light parts, the stippling in the dark parts, not as clean sure, but much better looking to my eye, reminds me of mandala drawing vibes
Timothy, you are onto something here. As you unraveled, this notion leads to many possible avenues. Good work!
I absolutely love the "muddy" look of the first one!
Cool idea. You just gave me another interesting idea for using the laser for damascus.
My favorite blacksmith on UA-cam
Like a forge welded inlay. Still had a super cool look to it.
do it with copper dust!
One piece I have learned from others, and my own experience with Damascus is that the majority of the weld happen in the fire. It’s important to get the welds set quickly if you have open steel that is susceptible to oxidation, but if the weld surfaces are covered, like in a canister, it’s not as crazy important to get it to a press or hammer the second it’s out of the fire.
I prefer the darker damascus but that's just me.
The laser etching does create quite a bit of heat but over a tiny area, and the heat doesn't penetrate deeply into the metal. I don't know if it would compromise the heat treat, but because of the large area being etched I'd probably do it before heat treating.
Beautiful work!
This would be a much bigger project but what if you did damascus as normal but then used the laser to cut that billet into some crazy shapes to then be rewelded. Something like the process of making W damascus but using the laser to make the cuts instead of the band saw. I agree that that is a cool concept that would look stunning on a knife, michaelcthulhu makes crazy steel projects using a similar style, but i think the idea that you had in the first place is an idea worth toying around with since it is so unique and its more about the process of the making that makes it more special. You can achieve the effect with the blueing but its not "true" damascus. Obviously a huge time commitment since it takes so friggen long.
A way to keep the layers separate is by using a dirty flame from an acetylene torch to put a bunch of soot on the surfaces you don't want to stick.
Maybe you could line up some sort of limited edition thing with ridge wallet, seems like something that style of patte would be good for.
Otherwise one of those longer plate bottle openers, could wack out a long line of those with the laser
Why not make normal three layer Damascus and then laser etch away both sides of the outer layers. Then flattening out again?
The gun blue has been done before. I've seen it on an ax where it was laser etched then blued and another that made a vinyl mask with a laser then deep etched it.
But, I've not seen damascus steel laser etched & blued. That would be pretty kool!!
I love when you find a way to streamline a process. 👍🏽
This is just like sintering. Granules that are strongly compressed at high temperatures. The result is a porous mass, which explains the roughness. Cutting inserts made of tungsten carbide are also produced in this way.
You should have used the laser to cut all the way through the first piece and totally fill it with 1095 powder. That way as you work it and and actually create a blade it won't be ground away. Possibly using a wavy pattern so you don't have to worry about the pattern distortion as it is forged. Very cool idea! I wouldn't give up on it yet.
It's always good when blacksmithing Matthew McConaughey uploads something new
Awesome! The Damascus has a lot more authenticity to it but the laser version looks excellent and would probably be a better option for production. Id love to make a knife from your Damascus piece if you'd be interested in a collab?! It takes some work but you could get a black/mirror contrast to it with the right techniques. For a bold pattern like that the pre etch surface finish is important. If you took it to a full mirror, then you could etch, polish, etch polish until you've got mirror highs and matt lows, then coffee or orange juice etch to darken the matt areas. Super frustrating process if you're set with getting it perfect.
Maybe that was my problem! I never polished the 15n20 up enough. Thanks for that tip!
You created an optical illusion called the Hermann grid illusion. You'll always see dark spots on the bright lines between the shapes.
So cool. It reminds me of some sort Star Wars mandalorian artifact. I don’t know what you are making but I want one.
I personally think the welded one looks better, looks more authentic. On my phone there seems to be illusions of edge highlights.
The pure laser etched one just looks factory made.
Cool idea, and nice results on both of them though. Especially for a first try
This is pretty similar to plug damascus essentially. Really cool way of doing things!
My thought is you should try this in the same way youd do ladder Damascus. So do a traditional 50 layer(or however many) billet of Damascus. THEN cut your cool design and forge it flat again. Could come up with some wild looking patterns. Id probably not lazer the triangles with 90° angles to lower the risk of cold shuts but id love to see what you could get as far as pattern. Like a wild version of raindrop Damascus
Make the holes all the way through white paint a piece to wel on the back, fill the holes with powdered copper, then weld a white painted piece on the front. The holes all the way through will help the inserts bond in better, unlike the more inlay style in this video.
Very cool idea! I would bet some Damascus experts could help you make this a reality; one thought I had (I'm just a fan with no forging experience so grain of salt) was that the stainless shims might have been the "grease" residue and that more grinding/sanding might be needed; if it was indeed grease, I apologize and would recommend a good surfactant like Dawn soap. Keep up the good work and God Bless you and yours!
You should try laser through the bar, then add your powdered steel. Great work as always.
Laser, silicon bronze braze, and grind? Should be able to Heat Treat still too. Might be a fun experiment! Always love the experiments you come up with!
Inlay Damascus very cool!
This is such a cool idea
I have two, somewhat competing thoughts:
On the one hand, one of the beauties of Damascus steel (to me anyways) is the wavy, distorted layered pattern, which isn't present in something with a precise stencil style pattern, so one half of my brain says that just laser etching a pattern and bluing the relief is the way to go to achieve something like this.
On the other hand, pattern welded steel is awesome in its own right, even if you don't have the classic layered Damascus look. To that end, if you could arrange to use a water jet cutter (or hunt down one of the companies who make water jet cut parts to order) you could cut your pattern completely through the blank and eliminate the risk of grinding through a shallow etched weld, and ensuring the design is symmetric on both sides. If you wanted you could probably even cut your 15N20 blank, then have the negative of the pattern cut from 1090 and slot the two pieces together, negating the need for powder at all.
If you do go for a reattempt at welding, I suspect that you're always going to have some distortion of the pattern just by virtue of the way the welding works mechanically. The two soft bits of metal have to be mushed together until they fuse, so any variation in temperature, force applied, material composition, variation of any kind really is going to wiggle the joint differently along its length. Even if you heated two flat bars and squeezed them uniformly, the resulting joint wouldn't be perfectly straight, so the chance of getting a pattern to fuse without distorting is vanishingly small I imagine.
Good idea, removing the stainless foil for quenching. This jacket traps air, slowing the quench.
try doing Damascus steel first as a base. Then 3d scanning the pattern and engraving the Damascus pattern in different depth with the laser, to give it more of a dynamic look. You can even infuse the engravings with different metals to make it "flow/mix" in to the Damascus pattern.
You could make a sci-fi themed knife made of "Composite Super Materials" using this technique.
the first try looks cool for post apocalyptic sci fi look. if you were into making fantasy blades it would be great for a signature style.
I like your innovative thinking here. what about cut that pattern out, do that invisible fit between two metals, assuming they won't cold weld (or could they?) then see what would take to get them to weld
Great idea with the stainless foils too
that's a nice forge! first time viewer here
this is an insane cool idea! I can see this making some bad ass knives and such. Would love to see you or Alec Steele or Will Stelter make something out of this idea.
Great job. Thank you 😊
I'd love to see where the pattern goes through natural forging strikes and such. Laser is cool, don't get me wrong, but there's definitely something interesting about watching the laser precision chang through hammer strikes and nature and see that final pattern reflected on a knife, or something.
It would look front thirsty on a viking style Axe
Thanks for the brilliant video very interesting
Laser etch then fill with copper, brass or gold inlay.
Nice work. I think there is room for both methods, depending on what you're after, or a client would want.
I loved it really cool 👍 Greetings from Norway.
What about using the laser to etch grid point pretty deep like little centre punch holes for guides points to drill all the way through the stock with a drill press. You could use different sized drill bits and completely fill up the holes in the stock with different types of powder. I’ve been thinking of something like this for years.
This is a pretty method for pattern welding. Just like the 3d printed cannister stuff. Wonder if water-jet might work too? If you the same shape out of 2 metals and weld them
The laser etch looks good but as I see more and more maker stuff, there is so much laser etched everything....it makes truly hand made things so much more precious IMHO.
the smudge isnt grease, its the remnants of the stainless steel sleeve that didnt quite grind off due to a miniscule fluctuation in the surface
I think the Damascus looks better than the cold blue one!
A sacred geometry patern would be cool as well
U got your self some new mosaic damascus my friend
Well, I actually like the forge welded sample. Has much more handcrafted vibes. The laser one is perfect. For better or for worse. ;)
Great Idea Tim, I was thinking as I watched...
Why not use the laser to leave a thin border around the edge of the 15N20 bar steel and reduce the rest of the surface by say .040" or [40 thousands of an inch] and the pattern cut it all the way thru. Then TiG weld a sacrificial surface plate on one side, pour the 1095 powder steel in making sure to let it fill up that bottom side w/the powder thru the cut in pattern; the thin border keeps the sacrificed cover plate slightly off the bar for the steel to fill in completely then TiG weld the other side plate on and forge weld it. I think this will give you more material to work with when welding so the pattern will come out better after grinding off that thin layer of 1095 and the 2 "side plates"
Having done all that will ensure if you are making a knife outta it the pattern won't disappear when grinding the blade profile.
I hope I explained my thoughts well enough.
Cool concept! Looks like some sort of Mandalorian currency.
Please!!! Don't give up on this idea... You could be the new damascus father 😎👍🏻
I bet it would be awesome to cut a pattern into a Damascus billet once it’s been drawn out to it’s final thickness.
Try taking both pieces through the forging process to make something like a knife. Try and make both of them the same to see the different results that you get from it
I wanna see you try more ☝🏽👏🏾👏🏾💯🔥🔥🔥keep exploring new ideas bro 💡
The trick with the stainless steel foil is that it has to be oxidized before going into the canister or it will bond to both metals
Hey man, new subscriber here, I love your editing! I’m a new you tuber making vids and I’m loving everything you’ve got going on. Great energy too.
Do a two steel forge weld and fold it till they get very thin and then use the laser
The gun bluing could wear off over time, but would be an easy re-apply.
For my damascus blades - I give re-etch instructions to my customers - via coffee etch. (Safer than playing around with ferric or muriatic) so far - no complaints and food safe!
Next time make a small can you can slide the steel in to the middle. Coat the can in white out and for the love of god let it dry good before use. then slide it in the middle and just go back n forth side to side until full. Also I have never used the powder steel but from results I have seen using a jig saw or air hammer or saws all on the side of it shakes it very well insuring all spaces get filled. The gun blue looks good. I would like to see a portrait or something in more detail.
If i were a buyer not knowing the amount of time, effort, and skill that goes into the damascus/pattern weld, and you showed me 2 identical pieces with significantly different price tags and told me they would preform the same, i would buy the cheaper one. If the intention is production for sale the one that cost less to make would be the one to move forward with.
easiest if you take the canister sans the patterned metal, and paint the inside with spray paint. once dry put in the metal and the powder.
You should braze brass into the etching
WIth rounded edges that would be an awesome paperweight. I got the money right here.
Based on the initial description of the process, I would call this an inlay.
I think it's really cool and pretty
It's a cool concept but I don't personally like it for a pattern on a blade but I think it would be awesome as a pattern for a guard or as a spacer between different handle materials. Just do the edge if possible. Or engrave a touch mark and then do the forge weld. I think that would be amazing
Have you thought of using 3D printer/pla to create a pattern with powdered steal? Steve Schwarzer did it at a suggestion from a student. PLA just turns to carbon at forge welding temps. Use PLA 3D printed structure as a way to separate the two powders in the can until they are forge welded. At least that is the theory.
I'd be interested if specific patterns would add structural strength as a benefit.
Should look into how tight you can get stuff with wire EDM and how the parts become one. Think of the damascus patterns you could make from layering and welling billets that are just blocks of EDM puzzles.
Wow Tim that work out awesome mate ,
You can etch it dark with the laser and skip the gun bluing.