How To Make Different Damascus Patterns in Pattern Welding

Damascus Steel Patterns

Sorry to bother you so late at night (over here anyway)

But I was wondering what patterns you can pattern weld I have seen your ladder pattern and other patterns on the internet and was wondering if you could give me a few tips.

That you for your time.

There are hundreds of patterns and variations to work on.
Most are based on layering steel, then either modifying the surface such as the ladder pattern (cutting material away) then flattening and grinding to expose the pattern.
Or
flat layers that are twisted, then shaped, and ground to expose the pattern.
Both of these techniques can become very complicated depending on the layer count and the manipulation.
There is a third technique
Called Mosaic Damascus
This can be done with powdered metal or machined "pixels" put together to create a "picture" in the steel. It is a bit of a different process using a hydraulic press for the fusion weld to maintain the structure of the picture.

The best thing to do is get 2 colors of modeling clay and layer them together like a damascus billet and then twist and manipulate them. Then use a knife to cut some of the outside material away to expose the pattern (sames as grinding on the steel). Experiment with this but keep notes as you go so when you find a pattern that you like you can reproduce it in steel. This is a fast low cost way to experiment with these techniques.

A couple of very good books on the subject are
Damascus: Forging Techniques
or
The Complete Bladesmith: Forging Your Way To Perfection

You may want to check out some the knifemaking forums for some other details.
I hope this helps.

David Robertson
Artist Blacksmith
www.artistblacksmith.com

How to Avoid Distortion Heat Treating Damascus

How Do I prevent Scale Build up When Heat Treating a Knife?

Well making my third Damascus knife 13 layers ,when i get it polished and to the point of tempering when i put it in the gas kiln red hot to loose magnetic it warped every which way .made out of all the same coil spring steel and hammer welded plus all sorts of slag all over it now so while it was red hot gently hammered it straight again and annealed . so how can i get it polished perfect and temper with out slag and distortion next time now after i sand and polish it again ? whats to keep it from happening the next time I go to temper it ???

Hi
This is a little tricky to answer as I have not seen all the steps that you have gone through.
Slow cooling (annealing) in vermiculite or wood ash to relieve the stresses is very important. This should remove much of the tension between the two different types of steel. This should help reduce the warpage when you heat for quenching.

If you are heating the blade in a gas forge hold it so that the back is up and it heats evenly from both sides this should help with the distortion as well. It should only be heated just past the magnetic point. It doesn't have to get super hot. Then pull the blade out and test with a magnet until it just pulls then quench the whole thing in the appropriated quench medium. Water or oil. Then temper evenly 425 degrees in a toaster oven. Then a quick sanding and hold the edge in a water bath (about 1/4 inch deep) and paint the temper colors on the back with a torch. Blue on the back straw on the edge.

Then sand to final finish always keeping the edge and the blade cold by dipping in water.

In short I rough grind and sand to about 80 grit before I heat treat. The final sanding is done after the blade is hardened. When I harden there will be some scale formation but it is really very little as it is only up to color for about a minute and not very hot. Just enough to lose the magnetism.

I know some people use a nickel foil to wrap around their blades so that it doesn't oxidize very much. I have not used this technique but understand it works well. You would have to source a knifemaking supplier for the nickel foil.

Hope this helps.

David Robertson
Artist Blacksmith