Composite Damascus Kitchen Knife Sets WIP

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Thanks Guys, glad these are coming together, here is a further video for you on the forging stage....
[video=youtube;yRX922iojlU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRX922iojlU&feature=youtu.be[/video]

yes!
 
Thanks everyone :) I will try and remember to do some more little dances on videos this year, that way I can have a xmas special blacksmith dance compilation at the end of the year:D
Have a great weekend:)
 
Coming together. First set of 4 blades are now heat treated and temper cycles complete, ready to rough the grinds tomorrow. More on those blade later...

Meanwhile getting the handle bits and pieces together....

Endcaps cut....


Look a little something like this.



Will be hard soldering the spacers to the damascus once all the bits are but and square.



Little makeshift soldering hearth, I use full size oxy acetylene in the workshop, expensive but so useful for these tasks.



Part of the basket weave was forged rectangular so it can be cut in a way that the basket weave runs along the two sides.



Like this.





Quick grind











Leave some to be forged down again for the westerns.....





Next Step, grinding and silver soldering the spacers to the damascus ferrule and endcap.

Thanks All :)
 
So to the soldering, I decided to have both the copper and the nickel silver. Nickel silver next to the damascus and the copper next to the bog oak at each end. The nickel silver is soldered to the damascus and the copper soldered to the nickel silver. Really you have a tiny line of silver between as this is hall markable silver solder not easy flow or a low temp alloyed mix.

So first the nickel silver to damascus.








And trimmed back.



Lapped clean and flat ready for the copper....



Some pretty heated copper shots :)



 
Thanks Matus glad your enjoying following the processes. I enjoy taking pictures of metal as well as working with it. I must be a bit odd really :)
 
It's difficult to appreciate how much is involved in this until you see the WIP's. Amazing Will.
 
Will, just out of curiosity, are you preheating the fire brick or just using it as a sync to not overheat the silver / copper? I do a lot of steel to copper, but never with jewelers solder, Ive never thought about using a something to maintain copper temperature so you can focus on the steel side.
 
The firebrick holds the heat and refracts it back. Thick to thin, with thick placed on top to promote capillary action...I'm never heating the copper directly, you just preheat the large piece, in this case the ferrule, watching the flux until the temperature is right and then let a touch of solder on each side suck into the tiny joint. You could preheat the firebrick a little, but it soaks it up and refracts back an even heat just from the work itself, thus its all done with the torch. I have preheated the ferrules before in the electric kiln, but you risk contaminating the flux, this way with both pieces pre fluxed and pushed together its all very clean, you just let the conduction of the metals and the refraction on the fire brick do its thing. ;)
 
It's amazing work, Will, really.
Using cool knives not so many of us realize what a job hides behind it.. My respect, Will.
 
Thanks Andrey, I really enjoy these fiddly bits, its a great contrast from thumping out damascus on the power hammer:groucho:
 
The blades now nearly at target width and taper....... I dis some differential temper as otherwise the spines would also be very hard. Now showing a very nice graduation from spine to mid knife, with the edge material at 64hrc.
Another whole day grinding and these will be nearly there and ready for finishing processes.
I could not resist a quick dirty etch on the little one.......the laddered edge looks good, but as planned the pattern is so fine, it will really need a fine finish to show fully. So looking forward to that :)



















 
X👀👀👀👀👍👍👍👍👍
 
Grinding grinding this week.

These are a bit special, in the vein of my hollow face Cleaver line of work, which was inspired by the idea of wanting a perfect Takeda "heavy laser" grind. But the grind has moved on a bit with considerable more thinning in the centre of the knife, making the knife thin in the right places with s distinct break in angle about 12mm up from the edge. Its a combination of my heavy convex grind and the hollow face grind I have evolved.

Wide bevels cut





And beginning to thin the centre....



Thinning continues bringing the apex down and thinning into it, until the desired height is reached and the grind touches the spine......



And beginning with the soft fuller...











At this point I work the hollows and the bevel until we have around 0.1mm on the edge. At this point I put a bevel on the knife, just a rough bevel on a diamond stone, then you can see exactly what your thinning.







Down to 240 grit now I thin into the bevel until the sharpening bevel disappears........ and grind the hollows to 240 grit above. We are at 0.05mm on the edge now and below this it becomes impossible to measure with my wobbly hands.

Next I move to a JNS 300 put a finer edge on the knife, and continue on the grinder with 320 grit......... from there the system continues shaping by hand...... Takes a while, but then everything is perfect.
 
Am I confusing multiple knives or is this honyaki composite Damascus?
 
Edge material is a very high layer damascus, which quietly contradicts those who would suggest damascus is just for show as these two make a steel far more capable than either are on their own, very edge stable at very high hardness 64/65hrc in this case. The rest of the blade in made up of 4 bars, 3 twisty and one basket weave in 01 and pure nickel, twists are nickel 15n20 and 01. It kind of is honyaki, all hardenable steel bar the tiny slithers of nickel......thus the differential temper......:biggrin:
 
brain exploded
Edge material is a very high layer damascus, which quietly contradicts those who would suggest damascus is just for show as these two make a steel far more capable than either are on their own, very edge stable at very high hardness 64/65hrc in this case. The rest of the blade in made up of 4 bars, 3 twisty and one basket weave in 01 and pure nickel, twists are nickel 15n20 and 01. It kind of is honyaki, all hardenable steel bar the tiny slithers of nickel......thus the differential temper......:biggrin:
 
In simple terms, one steel is capable of very high hardness the other is a few points lower and has very high toughness. On their own at this same heat treat and temper steel A would not even hold an edge it would be completely unstable at these hardnesses, Steel B would be reasonably hard 61/62 and very tough, (high nickel content) When combined in a very fine pattern, they are infact at different harnesses but behave very much like one steel, hardness tests everywhere evenly, steel layers are small enough to support each other, So Steel B stabilizes steel A giving toughness and steel A gives the high hardness. I learnt this through trial an error, playing with these steels together and their heat treatment. I think its my favourite steel, (made up of two steels):laugh: Im loving the 1.2442 though.......
 
There are very few things in this life that I would make this statement about. I have always purchases lesser quantity, and higher quality items. I have always had a deep respect for those capable of creating not only beauty, but function in the same piece.

I would open up my savings to buy one of these knives.

I have seen several knife makers who want the big bucks, but the quality simply isn't at the level of thier prices.

You sir, have set the bar a notch or twelve higher.

Those are incredible pieces.

Congratulations.

The owner is a lucky person.
 
Thanks very much I hope I'm worthy of such high praise, I certainly do my best and have really thought about the performance of these knives in the designs, not that you would use pieces like this everyday, but you could and I really want them to impress when they are used. High end pricing for me means a huge amount of hours going into the work, you never get rich doing this, but you can have allot of fun:)
 
Will, I love the amount of detail you put into your WIP threads. You really are a master of your craft. Looking forward to seeing how these come out.
 
Really liking the idea of this grind Will, and love this damascus and bolster. Love to talk about this further when you're ready.
 
In simple terms, one steel is capable of very high hardness the other is a few points lower and has very high toughness. On their own at this same heat treat and temper steel A would not even hold an edge it would be completely unstable at these hardnesses, Steel B would be reasonably hard 61/62 and very tough, (high nickel content) When combined in a very fine pattern, they are infact at different harnesses but behave very much like one steel, hardness tests everywhere evenly, steel layers are small enough to support each other, So Steel B stabilizes steel A giving toughness and steel A gives the high hardness. I learnt this through trial an error, playing with these steels together and their heat treatment. I think its my favourite steel, (made up of two steels):laugh: Im loving the 1.2442 though.......

Will, when will next bunch come??
 
Final finish now, its been quite a couple of weeks, just about knackered, but will save a little for the final touches and etching. The set is very nearly finished, and Im finishing off the test piece to add to my store.























Thanks for looking:)
 
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Cool stuff, buddy [emoji41][emoji12]. As always, actually.. You have amazing skills, Will[emoji41][emoji106]🏻[emoji120]🏻
 
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