Cable Damascus?

[Mike Davis]

How do you guys think that cable damascus would hold up on a kitchen knife? To the best of my knowledge, cable is either 1080, 1084 or 1095. I am thinking about squishing some down and trying it...And can make some cool bolster materials out of it also...

[jmforge]

Make sure you buy good cable. The names of the various types, like "improved plow" will actually tell you what it is made from, but I can't remember the secret code. There is some cable that is a mix of 1084 outer layers and 1095 core, IIRC

[JMJones]

I would think that cable will perform just fine, I think the hard thing with a kitchen blade is that it is really difficult to forge cable and not get little voids. This may be an issue with cleanliness and bacterial getting in there.

[jmforge]

Some people say that one of the greatest myth perpetrated by metal pounders is that cable is easy and a good stating point to learn how to forge weld.

I would think that cable will perform just fine, I think the hard thing with a kitchen blade is that it is really difficult to forge cable and not get little voids. This may be an issue with cleanliness and bacterial getting in there.

[WillC]

I've not tried cable, but I imagine its very easy to get flux tapped in there. I imagine de-greasing then pickling it first would be the only way to clean it. For flux apparently Kerosene works too? I've not had anything i've wanted to try it out on yet in case it doesn't.

[JMJones]

I dont think karosene will work for cable, it apparently works well when everything is close fitting and the steel does not have to move much at all to weld to the adjacent peice. Cable it just the opposite, lots of twisting and squishing to get it to weld. I have done cable a few times and had some sucess and some failures, I feel it is much harder to do correctly than standard pattern welded billets.

[PierreRodrigue]

Cable is a chore to weld up. Some of the stuff you can get, is made up of many strands of a single steel type. When its etched, there is very little definition in the pattern. Some of the bigger sized, say 1 1/8" and larger, have three types of steel strands in the mix, when its etched there are 3 different colors, with the nice bright "spiderpattern web" pattern between strands. Problem I find, is in large dia. cable, alot of the companys have a heavy grease worked into the cable, and its difficult to degrease the wire rope sufficently to reduce inclusions when welded. If you can find good cable, and get a great weld, it makes a beautiful billet, and will take a hammon, clay coated in a typical fashion.

[Mike Davis]

I have about 25 feet of cable from a local crane yard, that is 2" in diameter. I will get it forged down in a power hammer. I am mostly concerned with the edge stability. I dont want it to chip out, but i think that might be an issue with cable. Best way i have found to clean it, is an overnight (or 2) soak in kerosene and a forge blast afterwards. Seems to get any crud out of inside it. The cable i have doesn't realyl seem to have any grease or oils inside the strands. It is surprisingly clean. Also i have a bunch of 1.5 inch stuff.

Thanks for the comments guys, keep em coming!

[WildBoar]

Stephen Fowler made one for me recently. Need to get pics up one of these days There are a few voids on each side; not sure if that's a deal-breaker for anyone. Not an issue w/ home kitchen.

[PierreRodrigue]

If you got a nice clean large dia. cable, and the means to absolutly twist the snot out of it to tighten it, even if it takes two or 3 soaks, and either press it or power hammer to desired billet thickness, that gives me the best, cleanest pattern, I'm not a fan of stacking or layering cable. As for the edge, if the weld took, the edge should be very durable. I have yet to have one fail.