Deker Knives & Damascus

So, over the weekend I forged out a billet identical to the first (so I skipped taking pictures of that…).

Today I took the two billets and combined them into one larger one. I only got a few photos though since my cellphone battery died on me…So, all the secrets of making a random pattern are still mine!

I had to fire up the temporary “big” forge since the final layup was just a little too tall for my normal forge.

All prepped and ready to get welded. With the added 9 layers of nickel in this layup this yields 99 layers. this left my brain to come up with a lot of song references while I was working on this. I still have “99 Luft Baloons” stuck in my head…

Gettin’ hot in here…

Then my battery died….

The final billet is 3/4″x2-1/4″x12″. There was a surprising amount of material loss putting this billet together. It started as 1 piece of 1/2″x3″x11″ wrought and then I added a piece of 3/4″x2″x10″. Sure, there was a bit of grinding things clean, but no more than usual. Lots of scale generated by the wrought though. I’m just not used to this much material loss on something as (relatively) simple as a random pattern…

I’ll post a picture or two of the completed billet tomorrow. Next step is to start making it into something… 🙂

I can finally announce that I will be a contestant on season 2 of The History Channel show “Forged In Fire“. Season 2 premieres on February 16th, 2016 at 10PM/9PM Central on The History Channel. My episode will be later in the season, but I encourage you all to watch the whole season. If my episode is any indication, it will definitely be worth tuning in for!

 

I was recently fortunate enough to meet Robert Burns from Wilderness Ironworks, and as always happens when bladesmiths get together, ideas started flying. So, we’re working on a collaboration project. After a little planning, I’ve gotten started on this project. So, we figure that we’ll share with folks as it progresses. To keep it a little fun though, I’m starting the work in progress thread without telling you all what we’re making. I think it will be kind of fun.

 

Starting with a big hunk of wrought from my special stash. I bought this quite a while ago from Karl B. Anderson. I started with one of the pieces on the left. 3″x1/2″x11″.

Look at that wrought goodness!

Into the forge!

Look at the strings of slaggy goodness as it gets forged down….

3″x1/2″x11″ becomes 2″x3/8″x22″

 

All cleaned up and shiny! Bet you can’t guess what’s coming next! 🙂

I’ve been working on a few things around here on the website and in the shop. If you’d like to receive an email when new steel or knives become available, you can now sign up for my newsletter and get an alert when new things are available on the site. Which brings me to another major update. I now have an online store here on the site. There’s precious little available right now, but rest assured I will have some steel for sale around the time of the Ashokan Knife Seminar in September where I will be demonstrating basic techniques in pattern welding. To that end, I’ve been trying to get as much shop time in as possible, but my work schedule and the oppressive heat have conspired against me. I’ll be out in the shop this weekend with a jug of water and the fan running despite the forcasts for near 100F weather.

One of the recent developments from the forge is a new pattern inspired by Mother Nature herself. On a visit to visit my friend Butch Harner, I saw a fantastic piece of redwood burl on his bench…

It inspired me to make a new pattern I’m calling “Redwood Burl I”. This was the first attempt at this pattern and I can guarantee that there will be some more tweaking of this pattern and lots more of it coming out of the forge. I’m very pleased overall with it so far. the photo below is of pretty poor quality, but I’m just so excited I wanted to share it. Better photos will be available when this pattern is available for sale.