Forging Damascus steel at home. Making Damascus steel. The process of making a knife in the workshop

The art of metal forging is currently undergoing a renaissance. The skill of such blacksmiths-gunsmiths as Leonid Arkhangelsky, Sergey Danilin, Andrey Koreshkov testifies that Russian weapon art and traditions of blade making remain unsurpassed to this day.

Set up a forge

So let's get started. First of all, you need equipment. Some of it will need to be purchased, some you can make yourself. You should start by determining the territory on which your blacksmith workshop will be located. If you have a suburban plot of land - wonderful, even in the most primitive version of the forge - in the open - forging from April to November is provided for you. In addition, open-air forging automatically solves the important problem of removing gaseous products of fuel combustion, most of which are toxic. In order not to depend on the weather, it is necessary to install a canopy on poles over the place of the future forge, the roof of which must be made of iron sheet, since the temperature even two meters above the mountain is sufficient for a quick fire. If you do not have the opportunity to work in the bosom of nature, then the forge can be equipped indoors. The main problems that arise in this case are the hood and fire safety. In addition, the use of a forge, for example, a garage requires much more capital investment and is associated with great organizational difficulties. Wherever you are located, flammable and flammable building materials and substances cannot be used near the fire of the forge, the floor, ceiling and walls of the room must be metal or concrete, and a powerful hood must be located above the mountain. Personally, I still prefer to work outdoors under a canopy and in my experience, this is possible even in winter.

Necessary blacksmith tools

Having decided on a place for the workshop, it is necessary to solve the "blacksmith's main issue" - the issue with the tool. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to buy a blacksmith tool now. Items that are essential to purchase include:

Mosaic Damascus

"Mosaic Damascus" is called steel, in which sections with different types of patterns are welded together. The possibilities for imagination are endless here. I propose to make a damascus, with a Sutton Hoo smoke pattern, after the name of a fossil Scandinavian sword.

Weld a package consisting of 7 layers of three steels - St3 (gives a white metallic color when pickled), U8 (black) and any spring steel (gray). Alternation can be anything. The finished plate should turn out to be wide and thick enough so that 8 bars of square section with a thickness and a width of about 7-8 mm can be cut from it. You may have to make several plates. The length of the bars should be about 30 cm. After that, mark sections of 4 cm on each of the bars. Heating and clamping the bars in a vise, twist half the bars in one direction (say, clockwise) and half in the other. Twisting will occur in sections, so that twisted sections alternate with untwisted ones. Try to keep the twisted and untwisted areas on all bars in the same places. After that, forge each bar again, restoring their square section along the entire length.

Now take four rods - two, twisted in each direction. Lay them side by side on a workbench, making sure the layers of metal in each bar are facing you. The twisted sections will touch and alternate. A bar twisted clockwise next to a bar twisted counterclockwise, and so on. You will get a package that resembles folded fingers. Lay a few thick nails across the bag on each side - these can be removed later - and weld with electric welding, fastening the bag. Weld also a rod-handle. Since the package thickness is small, it is possible to flux directly before forge welding. Heat the bag until scarlet, sprinkle thickly with borax on two flat sides, and heat further. Welding is performed at the highest possible, but excluding overheating, temperature, very light (to prevent delamination of the package in the form of a fan) with hammer blows. They are applied along the side surface of the package, and not along the wide plane. Mastering this art, which is called end welding, is not easy. First, it makes sense to practice on square steel bars so as not to spoil the complex puff steel.

As a result, you should get two monolithic plates. Each consists of four sections of bars twisted in opposite directions. By itself, such steel is not very strong, so it should be welded onto the base. The base can be either Damascus or simple (in this case, the best option is a plate from a tempered and forged spring). In size, it should match the resulting mosaic plates. The base is collected in a package with the resulting plates and welded together. It turns out a finished piece of steel, the surfaces of which have a beautiful pattern, similar to the smoke from a candle. A product made of such Damascus should be forged very carefully, trying to achieve the closest possible shape precisely by forging. When turning with a grinder or on a wheel, the pattern may deteriorate. Start grinding work only when the shape of the future product is indicated in almost all details. Watch for uniform deformation of the metal during forging so that the core and outer patterned plates do not move relative to each other.

Making a mosaic, and indeed any other Damascus, is fascinating. For the sake of pleasure from steel, unique in its beauty and properties, it is worth looking for your own ways, and not being afraid to start over again and again. Good luck in your endeavors, and may Velund, the ancient patron of Scandinavian blacksmiths, help you!

About the properties of the legendary weapons steels - Damascus, damask steel and Wutz - any civilized person knows at least by hearsay. They are evidence of the unique capabilities of the masters of the metallurgical profession.

What is the secret of these amazing alloys, who and when produced them and how did they process them? It seems that modern science has found the answers to these questions.

Continuation of the cycle of publications from the encyclopedia "Metallurgy and Time".

Previous articles in the series:

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"Cast iron" and "hardening"

The structure of a metal with high-carbon interlayers can be obtained by using crushed iron as a flux in forge welding.

At the welding temperature, the carbon of the cast iron instantly combines with the scale, taking away oxygen from it. As a result, instead of scale, carbon dioxide and reduced iron are formed, which immediately carburizes from contact with the carbon of liquid iron. Cast iron in this case serves as a more efficient source of carbon than charcoal, since it melts at the welding temperature and carbon is in it in a dissolved, more chemically active form. Spreading over the surface of the workpiece, liquid iron cleans it from scale, simultaneously losing its carbon and, as a result, hardening. During subsequent forging, part of the liquid iron is squeezed out, but thin layers of sufficiently viscous, carbon-depleted cast iron and high-carbon steel remain.

Further forging of the package is carried out at slightly lower temperatures so that the high-carbon layers do not melt, so some gunsmiths say that they do not weld the package, but “solder” it with cast iron. The carburization of a metal surface with molten iron is called "cast iron" or "hardening". The result is an alternation of layers of ductile iron, steel and extremely hard white cast iron, i.e. "Ultimate" version of Damascus steel. The classic Japanese way of making blades was precisely to use molybdenum-containing iron, steel (according to some reports, imported from China) and crushed iron.

Cast steel forging

The historical coexistence of two types of weapons steel - cast and welded - corresponded to two forging technologies. It is known that the wutz billet before forging had a small mass (no more than 1 kg).

The lightness of the initial workpiece allowed the craftsmen to carry out accelerated heating of the product and widely use the local heating of its parts for subsequent forging.

If you look closely at the state of the microfibers that emerge on the surface of the Wootz, you can see not only their “whirliness” as a result of the use of complex forging techniques, but also their fragmentation. This circumstance indicates the implementation at a certain stage of forging of a powerful "one-time" impact on the fibers, previously brought into conditions favorable for crushing. Apparently, it was this forging operation that decisively influenced the final quality of damask steel and the totality of its phenomenal properties.

At the same time, many experts note that the condition for the correct forging of damask steel is its “graduality”. The quality of the damask blade is the higher, the slower the forging is. Accurate forging at low temperatures, which requires numerous heatings, leads to an increase in the contrast of patterns. When heated, small carbides and sharp edges of large carbides dissolve, and upon subsequent cooling, carbon is again released on the surface of large particles in a high-carbon strong fiber. Therefore, the initially blurred pattern acquires sharpness and contrast.

Damascus forging

In heterogeneous Damascus, the type of macrostructure greatly affects the properties of the blade. Dozens, and possibly hundreds of grades of welding steel have been developed in different countries. Despite such an abundance, all these varieties can be ordered by dividing according to the principle of education into several groups: “wild”, “stamp” and “twisted (Turkish)”.

The "wild" pattern of Damascus is formed by random mixing of metal as a result of simple hand forging. The best craftsmen preferred to forge blades from “stamp” Damascus with a regular pattern. The "stamp" pattern was called in Germany according to the method of its formation by applying a special stamp - a stamp of a strictly ordered relief to the blade blank, as a result of which the layers were distorted in the specified order during forging. There are few types of patterns formed in this case: stepped, wavy, rhombic (mesh) and ringed. The stepped pattern is characterized by relatively narrow strands of lines across the blade.

Scheme of the manifestation of the pattern (a) and the main types of heels for the manufacture of stamp Damascus (b)

A common type of "stamp" pattern is rhombic, which has two varieties. One of them is obtained by cutting the surface of the workpiece with a chisel crosswise, which is why the pattern looks like a mesh woven from threads, thrown over the blade from “wild” Damascus. Accordingly, the pattern is called "mesh". The second variety is the pattern, which in Germany is called "small roses". It looks like clear concentric rhombuses and is stuffed with a stamp having pyramidal protrusions. The ringed form of the "stamp" pattern is called the "peacock eye" in the United States, although it is more similar to the "peacock tail", since numerous concentric circles are arranged on the blade in a clear order.

"Turkish" or "pink" damascus

The “Turkish” Damascus pattern is considered especially beautiful. So in the XVII-XVIII centuries. it was named in Europe when they saw sabers brought from the East from local varieties of welding metal. Its other name is “pink” damascus, due to the similarity of the type of pattern with rose flowers.

A distinctive feature of the "Turkish" Damascus was that the blades were forged from pre-tightly twisted bars of inhomogeneous metal. At the same time, the patterns turned out to be extremely diverse and bizarre. Berualdo Bianchini, the author of the book “On Damascus Blades of the Turkish Type”, published in 1829, wrote: “... the mass used today to create Damascus blades is exactly the same as that used to make completely ordinary blades, i.e. . a uniform mixture of steel and iron in a ratio of two to one.

Stages of pattern development in twisted Turkish Damascus

The drawing of twice refined blanks into a strip and the subsequent forging of the blade between two dies occur in the same way as in the manufacture of a conventional blade. The only difference is that the Damascus stamp must be provided with various reliefs that are desirable to be transferred to the blade. In hammer forging, successive sheets of steel and iron in the blade are pressed into the recesses of the die, resulting in recesses or relief, which, when then cut, give the desired pattern.

Gun steel hardening

The modes of heat treatment of damask steel products have always attracted the close attention of researchers. It is this stage of the technology of its production that is surrounded by the largest number of legends and mysteries that have come down from the depths of centuries.

And in relatively recent times, for example, in the 19th century, many metallurgists attached great importance to the methods of hardening damask steel and even attributed them to the main secrets of making damask weapons.

No one could then explain why the metal becomes stronger and harder, but there were a great many recipes for hardening: almost every master had his own secret.

It is known that both spring water and mineral spring water were widely used as a quenching medium. The temperature of the water and the salts dissolved in it had a great influence on the rate of cooling of the products, so the place where the water was taken and its temperature during quenching were kept strictly secret. Due to the fact that blades made of steel with a high carbon content, after hardening in cold water, easily broke on impact, in Persia, edged weapons began to be hardened in wet canvas. A hardening method is known, in which, before heat treatment, the blade for thermal insulation was coated with a thick layer of special clay with various impurities. The composition was removed only from the blade to be hardened in water. The resulting "demarcation" line in each workshop was given a kind of original drawing, by which it was possible to distinguish the master who made cold weapons.

Piss of a redhead boy and buttocks of a young slave

Metallurgists searched and were able to find media in which steel cools faster than in water. Thus, urine and other salt solutions take heat from hot metal faster than the coldest water.

Noticing this feature, medieval metallurgists developed various hardening options and sometimes achieved considerable success. Here is how Theophilus describes the hardening of steel, which cuts “glass and soft stones”: “They take a three-year-old ram, tie it up and do not feed anything for three days. On the fourth day, he is fed only ferns. After two days of such feeding, the next night the ram is placed in a barrel with holes punched at the bottom. A vessel is placed under these holes, in which the urine of the ram is collected. The urine collected in this way for two or three nights in sufficient quantities was withdrawn, and the tool was tempered in the indicated urine of the ram. There are legends according to which damask blades were hardened in the milk of a mother feeding her son, in the urine of a red-haired boy, a three-year-old black goat, etc.

According to legend, in ancient Syria, the blade was heated to the color of dawn and 6 times thrust into the buttocks of a young slave. Known methods of such hardening have become cooling in the body of a pig, ram or calf. In Damascus, saber blades were heated to the color of the rising sun and tempered in the blood of a killed Nubian slave. And here is the recipe for hardening a dagger, discovered in one of the temples in Asia Minor and dating back to the 9th century: “Heat (the blade) until it glows like the sun rising in the desert, then cool it to the color of royal purple, plunging into the body of a muscular slave. The strength of a slave, turning into a dagger, gives the metal hardness.

Ancient blacksmiths also knew how to protect metal from oxidation during the heating period for hardening. The blacksmith took bull horns, burned them on fire, mixed salt into the resulting ashes and sprinkled the products with this mixture, which were then heated and quenched in water or lard.

The Mystery of Cast Steel

Paradoxically, a person has not yet been able to fully understand the essence of damask steel, the nature of its unique properties and the features of the technology for its production. And this is despite the fact that for a long time he used products made of damask steel, improved it, lost the secrets of manufacturing and rediscovered the secrets of damask steel, just as he did in the middle of the 19th century. Russian metallurgist P.P. Anosov.

It should be noted that P.P. Anosov, repeatedly noting in his works the high quality of the damask steel he received, which is not inferior to the best Asian damask steel, never said that he had revealed the secret of the Indian wutz; moreover, he abandoned the concept of “Damascus steel” that was established at that time and put forward a new one - “Russian damask steel”.

Many prominent European scientists sought to unravel the secret of cast weapons steel, including Michael Faraday, the son of a blacksmith. In 1819, he examined samples of cast steel and came to the conclusion that its exceptional properties are due to the presence of small amounts of silicon and aluminum. Although this conclusion turned out to be erroneous, Faraday's article inspired Jean Robert Bréant, assayer at the Paris Mint, to conduct a series of experiments in which he introduced various elements into steel. It was Breant who first suggested in 1821 that the unusual strength, toughness, and appearance of cast weapon steel must be due to the high carbon content. He found that its structure had light areas of carburized steel against a dark background, which he called simply steel.

The production of ancient weapons from damask steel, surrounded by a legendary halo of super-dignities and sacred secrets, as is already well known, was carried out from Indian wutz. It was delivered to the markets of Persia and Syria in the form of a "cake" of cast steel cut in half. The carbon content of the wutz was very high. Thus, the chemical analysis of Wutz, carried out by order of P.P. Anosov, showed a carbon content of 1.7-2.0 wt%. and more.

The Indian Wootz blank had a diameter of about 12.5 cm, a thickness of about 1 cm, and a weight of about 1 kg. In addition, wutz ingots had peculiar patterns that were different from those on finished blades. According to most experts, the best blades were forged in the 7th-12th centuries. The blade of the Indian blade, after sharpening, acquired an incredibly high cutting ability. A good blade easily cut a gauze handkerchief in the air, while even modern blades made of the best steel can cut only dense types of silk fabrics. True, even an ordinary steel blade can be hardened to the hardness of a wutz, but it will be fragile like glass and will shatter into pieces at the first blow.

Unfortunately, in ancient India, the secret of smelting and the technology of making blades were so carefully hidden that, in the end, they completely lost them. Already in the XII century. Taban, for example, could not be made either in India, or in Syria, or in Persia. At present, not a single master, not a single company in the world can reproduce the best grades of Indian steel, samples of which are still preserved in some museums in Europe. The loss of the secrets of the production of Indian wutz in the presence of a wide market for its blanks indicates a limited number of craftsmen who owned the technology for the production of wutz, as well as rather high productivity indicators for their time, yield and reproducibility of the technology for producing wutz. With this in mind, we can assume the following: the technology for the production of an ingot of Indian wutz was quite simple (as, probably, it should have been, otherwise it was worth it to hide it so carefully), and the shape in the form of a cake was in those distant times the only correct one for representing the finished semi-product .

In the Middle Ages, when determining the advantages of a particular blade, real craftsmen evaluated the size of the pattern (width of fibers) of damask steel, the nature of the relief, weave and number of fibers, the color of the etched background of the blade and its ebb, the height and duration of the sound of the blade when struck, elasticity and etc. It seems to be largely understandable that these quality control criteria had a deep meaning, providing information, in particular, on the cutting properties of the blade. The width of high-carbon fibers characterized not only the method used to produce damask steel, but also the cutting properties of the blade, its elasticity and ability to self-sharpen.

Obviously, after sharpening and polishing the blade made of damask steel, its cutting edge already had a jagged relief, due to the hardness and wear resistance of its components that changed along the edge. Considering that each high-carbon fiber of damask steel has a profile of a certain curvature when it reaches the cutting edge - a factor that significantly increases the cutting ability of the blade, then the ancient craftsmen were simply obliged to evaluate the orientation of the fibers relative to the cutting edge of the blade and its handle.

The first to strictly scientifically explain the nature of damask steel and connect it with the properties of this amazing steel was the outstanding Russian metallurgist Dmitry Konstantinovich Chernov. He believed that during hardening, steel decomposes into two different compounds of iron and carbon, which “play a very important role in assigning such steel to blades: when quenched, a harder substance is strongly hardened, and another substance remains weakly hardened, but since both substances in thin layers and fibers are closely intertwined with one another, then a material is obtained that has both high hardness and high viscosity. Thus, it turns out that damask steel is incomparably higher than the best grades of steel prepared in other ways.

Legendary Composite

So, bulat is a composite material. Note that the idea of creating such materials was borrowed by man from nature.

Many natural structures (tree trunks, bones and teeth of people and animals) have a characteristic fibrous structure. It consists of a relatively plastic matrix substance and a harder and more durable substance in the form of fibers. For example, wood is a composition consisting of bundles of high-strength cellulose fibers of a tubular structure, bound by a matrix of organic matter (lignin), which gives the wood transverse rigidity. The teeth of humans and animals consist of a hard and viscous surface layer (enamel) and a softer core (dentin). Both enamel and dentin contain needle-shaped inorganic microcrystals of hydroxyapatite, located in a soft organic matrix.

Now we can say with confidence that damask steel was discovered not by chance and much earlier than is commonly thought. Metallurgists of the Bronze Age could not but pay attention to the fir-tree structure of bronze ingots. Having received the first ingot of iron with the same fir-tree structure, the ancient masters probably began to forge it like bronze. Of course, he crumbled. However, this did not stop the ancient metallurgists, and after some time, having gained experience, they managed to find a solution.

The uniqueness of damask steel lies in the fact that it represents a fundamentally new class of composite materials. It cannot be attributed to any of the known and scientifically defined types of natural and artificial composites, among which it is currently customary to define fibrous, layered and dispersion-strengthened. The special properties of damask steel are achieved as a result of the joint thermomechanical processing of the fibers and the matrix and the subsequent thermal strengthening of the composite through the mutual action of its individual components and the processes occurring in them.

In conclusion, we note that, under certain conditions, a patterned ingot can be obtained from a homogeneous melt. This is achieved by slow crystallization of a high-carbon alloy, in which large grains-crystals grow, the size of which can reach several millimeters. Along the boundaries of these dendritic crystals, carbides are separated, forming a cementite network. Forging such a coarse-grained metal at low temperatures makes it possible to crush a continuous cementite network into small particles and form a pattern visible to the eye. The patterned metal obtained in this way is currently called by researchers "dendritic" steel - according to the dendritic nature of the crystallization of the ingot, or "liquation" damask steel - according to the mechanism of pattern formation due to carbon segregation. Modern blacksmiths forge blades from "liquation" damask steel when heated to temperatures not exceeding 850 ° C. This is a prerequisite; otherwise, with a stronger heating, the carbide particles completely dissolve and the magical patterns disappear.

greetings to all brain artisans! After almost a year of "communication" with a hammer and anvil, I finally acquired the necessary experience and tools to create forged crafts, such as a small "Damascus" knife from this brainarticles.

And I started, by the way, with a small sledgehammer as an anvil, which I hit with a small hammer.

Now we will talk about creating with your own hands a small, forged, and not carved, knife with the help of a homemade forge, anvil, hammer and determination. I do not pretend to be a professional, and this, of course, is not the only way to get welded Damascus, this is a story about how I managed to make it.

Damascus steel today is called welded Damascus, obtained from welded metal plates of various brainsteel, subsequently forged and twisted. It's like sticking plasticine of different colors together and twisting it to make a wavy pattern. After forging, such a workpiece is subjected to etching, in which dissimilar metals of the workpiece are corroded unevenly, thereby forming a beautiful contrast. The original Damascus steel is obtained in a different, very specific way (although it looks similar to modern Damascus), and few people know how to create it, this fact has created Damascus's reputation as a metal supposedly endowed with magical powers. And the reason for this “strength”, similar to that of samurai swords, is a process that allows you to get a more uniform, and therefore with the desired qualities, steel, which cannot be achieved in other ways, and makes it possible to include low-quality and high / low carbon steel in the workpiece. Which gives a much better quality blade.

ATTENTION!! The knife can be dangerous, please do not give it to people with mental disorders!!!

Step 1: Materials and Tools

- steel plates of two or more grades (preferably high carbon content) that will contrast with each other, I took high carbon 1095 steel and 15n20 steel, with a small nickel content, which will add brightness and contrast after etching
- flux (borax, which can be purchased at a hardware store)
- a piece of reinforcement, a long bar (will be welded to the workpiece as a handle)
- wood of your choice for the knife handle
- epoxy resin (hardening in 5 minutes is the most)
- brass rivets
- composition for wood processing of the handle, I used linseed oil
- oil for hardening metal (vegetable)
- ferric chloride

- an anvil (preferably a real steel anvil, although in the absence of one, some other solid objects will do: a piece of rail, a sledgehammer, a large metal blank, an old mooring bollard, or just a large strong, hard and even surface. Remember how it all started with stone strikes on a large stone)
- hammer (I used a weight of 1.3 kg, with a transverse striker)
- ticks
- welding (optional, but desirable for welding the plates to each other and welding the handle, if you do not have welding, you can wrap the plates tightly with wire)
- forge forge (capable of heating the workpiece to the temperatures required for forging, which is very important for high-quality fusion of plates with each other, more on this later)
- belt sander or file with a mountain of patience
- oven or other method of hardening
- drill or drilling machine
- vice (a very useful thing)

Step 2: Assembly of the workpiece

Steel plates are cut to fit brain size, mine for example 7.6x1.2cm; at the same time, the larger the workpiece, the more difficult it is to form it with a hammer. Before welding them into a stack, the plates are cleaned from all sides of rust and scale. Next, the plates are stacked in a pile, alternating steel grades, so my workpiece consisted of 7 plates, three of which are 15n20, and four are 1095.

Aligned with respect to each other, the plates are tack welded (do not pay much attention to my seam), and then a handle is welded to the stack to make it easier to operate with the workpiece during forging. There is nothing wrong, especially after the stack of plates has been welded, to use only tongs. I forged mine anyway.

Step 3: First stack forging

A little about my forge: it is made do it yourself from an empty (as a precaution, I specially bought a new one) gas cylinder, inside it is lined with a 5 cm layer of kaolin wool and refractory cement. It is heated by a Ron-Reil type burner, about which there are many good brainarticles. The forge itself is not particularly large and heats up to the desired temperature without any problems.

So, the workpiece from the plates is heated to a cherry-red color, the heat for this is not very strong. heated billet homemade sprinkled with borax, which immediately begins to melt and must be allowed to seep between the plates. This will remove scale and prevent oxidation by preventing oxygen from contacting the metal. This action will ensure the purity of the metal of the workpiece.

Then the workpiece is heated again in the hearth and the procedure is repeated a couple more times, not forgetting to clean the scale if necessary. And after that, the workpiece is heated to the forging temperature, how much I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s somewhere in the region of 1260-1315 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the workpiece will have a very bright yellow-orange color, about the same as moderate daylight.

In order not to waste time, make sure that the anvil and hammer are at hand and there is enough free working space.

Then the workpiece is quickly placed on the anvil and with light, soft blows, evenly over the entire area, the plates begin to be forged together. Next, the workpiece is again placed in the hearth and heated to forging temperature, and then forged with medium-strength blows.

And after that, the workpiece is pulled out so that it can be bent.

Step 4: Folding the workpiece

It's time to increase the number medulla in the workpiece. To do this, the workpiece is forged to a length twice the original, but it is important to stretch it evenly, and not just stretch it. In the middle of the stretched workpiece on a cut, with a chisel or other suitable method, a transverse recess is made 3/4 or 4/5 in thickness, along which the workpiece is then folded in half at the edge of the anvil, turned over and forged along the entire length, while making sure that the halves are not moved relative to each other along the side edges.

Then the heating/forging process from the previous step is repeated: flux, heating, cooling, heating, forging, horn. The procedure for increasing the number of layers is repeated until the desired number of these layers, so I folded it 4 times and got 112 layers. (If you want more layers, please, the pattern will then be smaller. The formula for calculating the layers is: the initial number * 2 to the power of the number of folds, that is, 7 * 2^4 = 112).

Next, the billet heated to forging temperature homemade is placed in the groove of the anvil, twisted well, and then it is again given a rectangular shape. But before twisting, the billet is punched at the corners so that its shape becomes more rounded, because when twisting and back forging into a rectangular billet, inclusions and impurities from the resulting folds can form if the billet temperature is less than forging.

After that brain blank it is forged again (I repeated it several times), and cooled, and to make sure that the forging was uniform, I cleaned one of the ends of the workpiece. During the forging itself, especially at the first stage, it is important to keep the temperature of the workpiece high and be careful, otherwise you can tear off the layers from each other (otherwise this is called delamination, which is not good at all).

Step 5: Model and Rough Profile Formation

Now you need to imagine the profile of the future knife and roughly forge it from the workpiece. The more accurately you can forge the profile and bevel, the less hassle with grinding (on a machine or file). There are many on this topic. brainarticles more experienced blacksmiths, so I don't go into details. The bottom line is that the workpiece behaves approximately like plasticine, when it is heated, it is necessary to punch it in the right direction.

Step 6: Sanding the Profile

Fine shaping of the profile is carried out with a grinder and a file. Stock up on tea, because most likely it will take a lot of time, unless of course you have a grinding brain machine.

Step 7: Sanding, sanding, sanding...and reflecting on the meaning of life

Step 8: Finished Profile

After the profile crafts formed, it still needs to be finished with a file with a finer grit, I used the 400s. The edge of the blade is sharpened almost, but not completely, it is necessary to leave it slightly unsharpened so that the edge material does not deform during hardening. After that, holes for riveting are drilled in the knife handle and wooden dies are prepared for this handle.

Step 9: Exciting Moment

hardening.
She will either "create" your blade or destroy it. It is important to concentrate and be careful, otherwise you can deform and destroy the blade. The way I used is not the most thorough method. brain hardening, but only it was available to me with the tools I had, and the oil was the best I could get.

Before hardening, the blade must be normalized. This will relieve stresses built up during forging and twisting and reduce the chance of warping during quenching. This normalization is done by heating the blade above its critical temperature (when it is no longer magnetized, so it is useful to have a magnet handy) and cooling in air. The process is repeated three to five times, so I did it 5 times. In addition, this action will help you train to remove the blade from the forge, because no hitches are allowed during hardening. This action is shown in the photo with my dangling knife. And this part is also cool in that during cooling, oxidation occurs, which begins to reveal the pattern of steel.

Hardening: the blade is again heated above the critical temperature, and then quickly removed and placed, primarily with the tip, in warm vegetable oil (for such grades brainsteel like mine). To heat the oil itself, you can simply heat something metal and throw it into a container of oil, for example, I used a crutch for sleepers. Mix the oil, so you get a more even hardening. If your steel is high carbon, then do not use water for hardening, it will only ruin the blade, because water cools too quickly, which is not suitable for high carbon steel.

WITH under the tree now it should be treated like glass, because if the blade has been tempered correctly, it is so brittle that it can break if dropped.

After that, it's time for vacation.

Step 10: Metal tempering

Tempering is the process of hardening a blade to increase its life and strength. This is achieved by heating the blade at a certain controlled temperature. Leave your brain crafts I spent in the oven for an hour at 205 degrees Celsius. “Bake” until the display shows “ready”.

Step 11: Etching

I apologize in advance for the lack of photos of this and the next steps, but the process is quite simple. Ferric chloride is prepared according to the attached brain instructions, and then the blade is aged in it, as much as indicated in the same instructions. In my case, this is 3 parts water to 1 part ferric chloride, and aging for 3-5 minutes. The process is really exciting, and its result looks like a Batman knife.

Step 12: Handle and Sharpening

Again, there are many techniques and instructions on how to how to do knife handle and sharpen it, so I can do without brain details. Let me just say that for my crafts I chose cherry dies, which I glued to the knife handle with epoxy glue and secured with two brass rivets. Sanded it with 400 grit and coated it with linseed oil.

For sharpening, I do not use any special, labor-intensive method, but mostly use an ordinary grindstone.

Step 13: Time to give yourself a pat on the back, the knife is ready...

This is my finished knife, about 15cm long. People might think this is pretty funny, but I have no idea how this fancy pattern came about.

Thank you for brain attention I hope this is useful to someone!

The articles published by master blacksmiths widely cover the issue of the history of their art, the theoretical basis for the manufacture of, say, cast damask steel, but I am sure that many people read these articles in order to get an answer to the questions: "How is it done?" what to start?" and similar ones, but, at best, they stumble upon a statement of the fact of the complexity of such art and its accessibility only to the initiated. In this article, I will try to highlight the art of a blacksmith-gunsmith from scratch, for those who want to start doing this fascinating activity, but do not know where to get close to him. The article will be devoted mostly to complex-technological composites. The fact is that I began to get acquainted with the art of forging from independent attempts to get Damascus steel, therefore, first of all, I count on readers who, as they say, "rave about Damascus." I will touch on the basic forging techniques very moderately, ~ firstly, enough literature is already devoted to this; secondly, in order to learn how to simply forge, you can find a private forge and work as an apprentice for several months, but it is difficult to become an apprentice to an eminent blade maker who makes patterned composites. I hope that this article compensates for this injustice a little. I will also not touch on the problem of hardening in this article - competent hardening of steel, especially Damascus steel - the material is limitless, but basic information on hardening steels with different carbon contents can be gleaned from metal science textbooks. I want to make a reservation right away that these materials are in no way a guide to the manufacture of edged weapons, which, let me remind you, in accordance with Art. 223 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is a criminal offense. A plate of hand-forged Damascus, polished and etched, will bring you at first no less satisfaction than a knife or sword. I am going to talk about how to make the MATERIAL, and I am not responsible for the further use of this material. In the absence of a license to manufacture weapons or if it is impossible to find a job at an enterprise that has such a license, you can always find a way to do what you love without violating the norms of the Criminal Code and the Law of the Russian Federation "On Weapons". Basic tools. So let's get started. First of all, you need equipment. Some of it will need to be purchased, some you can make yourself. You should start by determining the territory on which your blacksmith workshop will be located. If you have a country plot of land - wonderful, even in the most primitive version of the forge - in the open - forging from April to November is provided for you. In addition, open-air forging automatically solves the important problem of removing gaseous products of fuel combustion, most of which are toxic. In order not to depend on the weather, it is necessary to install a canopy on poles over the place of the future forge, the roof of which must be made of iron sheet, since the temperature even two meters above the mountain is sufficient for a quick fire. If you do not have the opportunity to work in the bosom of nature, then the forge can be equipped indoors. The main problems that arise in this case are the hood and fire safety. In addition, the use of a forge, for example, a garage requires much more capital investment and is associated with great organizational difficulties. Wherever you are located, flammable and flammable building materials and substances cannot be used near the fire of the forge, the floor, ceiling and walls of the room must be metal or concrete, and a powerful hood must be located above the mountain. Personally, I still prefer to work outdoors under a canopy and in my experience, this is possible even in winter. Having decided on a place for the workshop, it is necessary to solve the "blacksmith's main issue" - the issue with the tool. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to buy a blacksmith tool now. Those items that are simply necessary to purchase include: Locksmith workbench with a vise. The vise is desirable powerful and rigidly fastened to the table top of the workbench. The acquisition of both usually does not cause difficulties.

Anvil. Luckily, they haven't stopped making them yet. In principle, you can work on any suitable piece of iron weighing at least 20 kg. and with a flat surface, but this is fraught with some difficulties. First, on the unhardened surface of a homemade anvil, nicks from the hammer will soon appear, which will then move to the surface of the workpiece. Secondly, you will be deprived of the opportunity to use those special surfaces that the branded anvil has (horns, etc.). Therefore, I advise you to still purchase a ready-made anvil, and the larger its mass and the area of \u200b\u200bthe working surface, the less you will be constrained in your creative imagination. The anvil is mounted on a wooden block sunk into the ground in such a way that, standing next to it, the blacksmith can touch the surface of the anvil with the fingertips of his lowered hand. Naturally, the base deck should not stagger, and any fall of the entire structure or the anvil itself should be excluded. Sledgehammer set. At first, I advise you to get the following set of sledgehammers that can be purchased at hardware stores: a small sledgehammer weighing 1-2 kg, an average weighing 5 kg and a large sledgehammer for working with a hammer weighing 8-10 kg. All sledgehammers must be extremely securely mounted on the handle and wedged. The combat surfaces must be flat, they should be maintained in this state, if necessary, leveling the plane on the grindstone. In addition to this set, you should also get a set of large hammers weighing 0.5-1 kg for fine work. In some cases, you will also need hammers with a spherical combat surface, which can be made from ordinary ones using an electric grinder.

Blacksmith pliers. This is a difficult question. You most likely will not be able to buy real blacksmith tongs. Making your own is also very difficult. To get out of the situation, I advise you to purchase several large carpenter's tongs and refine them. Some ticks are left unchanged. In the second, sharpened sponges are ground down to obtain a flat grasping surface. At the third, semicircular cutouts for round blanks are cut in the sponges. Long (70-100 cm) handles are welded to all pliers (it is convenient to use thin water pipes for this, putting them on the pliers handles and scalding them with electric welding.) It should be noted that due to shock loads, the pliers fail quite quickly. It is necessary to monitor the serviceability of ticks - the quality of work greatly depends on them.

Chisels. You will need several large quality chisels. A real blacksmith's chisel is designed like a hammer and has a handle perpendicular to the body of the tool. It will be very difficult to hold a short chisel over a hot workpiece, so the chisels must either be quite long (about 40 cm), or they must be equipped with handles, simply by welding a pipe or a thick rod to the chisel body at about the middle of the length, which can be both parallel, and perpendicular to the cutting plane of the chisel. You need to work with such a chisel with an assistant.

Power tool. Absolutely necessary will be an electric grinder (or, as an equivalent, an angle grinder ("grinder") with a set of cutting and peeling wheels) and an electric welding machine (Rusich, which runs on a conventional power supply, is convenient). Observe safety precautions when working with these devices!

Forge. With this set of tools, you can already get to work. However, there remains one more device that is rightfully considered the main one in the forge. This is a blacksmith's forge. The question of how to arrange a horn in practice is perhaps the most difficult and often it is the absence of a horn that stops beginners. Let's solve this issue too. I congratulate the reader who has the opportunity to purchase a standard gas or electric forge. However, most do not have such an opportunity, so I offer simple and effective designs of a forge that gives the required temperature, tested on my own experience. The main parts of any hearth are: a fire bowl with or without a grate, and a device for supplying the air necessary for the combustion process. With this device and there are difficulties. Proven path - vacuum cleaners. For a medium-sized forge, two Soviet-made vacuum cleaners are enough to ensure an acceptable temperature. This option is also the most inexpensive, since even two new domestic vacuum cleaners will still cost less than any other air supply device. In addition, vacuum cleaners provide good pressure and air supply intensity. They, for convenience, should be equipped with a single switch. It is desirable that it be in the form of a pedal and be constantly under the blacksmith's foot. It should also be possible to turn off one of the vacuum cleaners, for example, to reduce the blast during some blacksmithing operations. As for all kinds of blowers and fans, they are, of course, good, but it should be borne in mind that insufficient air supply is possible, as a result of which fuel combustion will be inactive and the required temperature will not be reached. Two vacuum cleaners supply sufficient air to a rectangular fire bowl measuring 300 x 200 mm, which is quite enough for forging long products and provides the most economical fuel consumption. Therefore, in the further description of the hearth device, I will rely on such dimensions of the fire bowl. The device of the forge is possible in two main ways, which will be described below.

The first option is the so-called "Japanese horn". It is built right into the ground. To work with him, you will have to make a low bench nearby or sit on the ground. This is due to the peculiarities of the Japanese forge - the Japanese do not forge while standing, but sitting, and all the tools and the anvil are located directly on the bare floor. However, no one bothers to put the Japanese horn on a stand and raise it above ground level. The most important feature of such a device is the absence of a grate. Air is supplied from the side directly into the mass of burning fuel. This design is easy to clean, gives a good temperature and can be recommended for use without any reservations. The second option is the usual European open bugle. It consists of two parts - the lower one, into which air is supplied, and the upper one - directly to the fire bowl, separated by a grate. Since the products of combustion of fuel (ash and slag) enter the lower part of the hearth through the grate, the grate must be removable to ensure cleaning, for which a steel corner with a shelf width of 5-6 cm is welded in the middle of the height along the perimeter of the hearth, on which the grate is laid . This horn is also convenient to use. The body of the forge, whatever it may be, is most conveniently welded from sheet iron with a thickness of at least 5 mm. Such a forge will work for a long time and its walls will not burn out soon. The grate is welded from reinforcement with a diameter of 10 mm or more, and the distance between the bars should be less than their diameter. I recommend setting the hearth on a base made of refractory bricks on kiln clay, at a height convenient for work. To reduce heat transfer, it is also recommended to line the side surfaces of the hearth with the same brick on refractory clay. This design is durable and aesthetically pleasing. The figures show the recommended dimensions for two versions of the hearth, the air supply to which is carried out by two vacuum cleaners. At the same time, pipes for supplying air are welded into the body of the forge, the outer end of which is adapted for connecting a vacuum cleaner hose. For a better distribution of air, the pipes are introduced into the hearth from opposite sides, but in such a way that the air flow of each of them is not extinguished by the flow of the opposite one. As an adapter from the vacuum hose to the horn tube, you can use a piece of a bicycle tube with a length of approx. 150 mm, one end of which is pulled with force onto the horn pipe, and an aluminum tip of the vacuum hose is attached to the other. This method ensures tightness and minimal air loss. Firewood, charcoal and coal can be used as fuel in the hearth of the described structures. Firewood often does not provide the required temperature, charcoal is good and preferred in most cases, but quite expensive. Therefore, despite some drawbacks (the main one is the abundance of impurities that degrade the quality of steel), coal is most often used, best of all, shiny anthracite. Before use, it is crushed into cubes with a side of up to 3-4 cm. There are many ways to kindle a forge, I recommend starting with obtaining a stable flame by burning bark, wood chips, paper and small wooden logs with only one running vacuum cleaner, and then gradually add small pieces of coal and , after their ignition, increase the blast by turning on the second vacuum cleaner. After a little training, you will learn how to fire the bugle the first time. So, all the difficulties in acquiring tools, installing and adjusting the forge are behind us. However, blacksmithing is a dangerous craft, so it would be useful to remind you of safety precautions. I have already spoken about fire safety rules and the prevention of carbon monoxide poisoning. In addition, there are some other rules. First, get yourself a thick canvas or leather apron that protects your chest and legs up to the knees, and use it at all times, as well as gloves (or mittens) made of the same dense material. This will help you, if not avoid, then minimize burns from hot metal drops. Eyes must be protected by goggles made of transparent glass (there will be nothing left of plastic in the atmosphere of the forge very quickly) with seals on the sides of the glasses. In addition, the horn usually gives off a high flame, so hair, especially long hair, should be protected with a headdress. The forge should always have containers with cold water and sand. Fire extinguishers are highly recommended. Remember that the main skill of a blacksmith is the ability to work without injury to yourself and others! You should also take into account the location of all elements of the forge relative to each other. Materials. In conclusion of this section, I will briefly describe the set of materials that will be needed in the work. First, it is, of course, steel. The more different grades of steel you have at your disposal, the better. When working on the manufacture of Damascus steel, you will not need all stainless grades. Steel is most conveniently used in the form of plates, but if you have round bars, then you can forge them into plates as a training and testing equipment. Try to keep the plates even, the same thickness and with a minimum number of nicks. The main steel grades that are easiest to find and that you will need are as follows: StZ - low-carbon steel 0.3% carbon, (mainly used for the production of hardware), tool steel U8, U9 (files, hacksaw blades - 0.8 and 0.9% carbon, respectively ), spring steel from any springs (0.5-0.7% carbon depending on the brand), cast iron (for example, from radiators - 6% carbon). When purchasing blanks at the breakups or somewhere else, always be interested in the grade of steel and its chemical composition. You will need this when you later determine the composition of your composite. I repeat, the more samples of different steels you have, the better, but it is desirable that you have reliable information about each of them. In addition, stock up on pieces of reinforcement with a diameter of 10 mm of different lengths - they will be required for the manufacture of auxiliary devices, such as handles, which you will weld to the workpiece and, thereby, dispense with the use of pliers. You will also need some chemicals. This is, in particular, borax, which is used as a flux and is sold in welder shops or chemical stores. To start, you will need about 1 kg of borax. Acid is required to develop a pattern on the surface of a Damascus steel product. Traditionally, a 5% solution of nitric acid is used, but 9% table vinegar and 10% ferric chloride solution can also be used. All of these reagents give almost the same result. Observe the safety rules for storing chemicals - they should be stored in unusual containers with large inscriptions, in places inaccessible to unauthorized persons, especially children! Finally, you are fully equipped and ready to go.

There are many articles written about Damascus steel, but since you are going to do it, it is worth repeating some theoretical points. Damascus steel is made up of alternating layers of high and low carbon steel. An important role is played by the average carbon content in Damascus.

It can be calculated as follows. Suppose you have cooked a package of 30 grams of StZ and 70 grams of U8. So your Damascus is 30% steel with 0.3% carbon and 70% steel with 0.8% carbon. Having made a simple proportion, we calculate that (0.3 x 0.003 + 0.7 x 0.008) x 100 = 0.65. Therefore, the average carbon content in the package is 0.65%. Not enough. And it should also be taken into account that during the first heating of the package to the welding temperature, about 0.3% of carbon burns out, and with each subsequent heating, about 0.03% more. This means that it is necessary to use more high-carbon steel grades, or to increase the relative content of U8 in the package. Using this formula, you can calculate the average amount of carbon in the package and, accordingly, choose the appropriate hardening mode. An operation called carburizing can increase the carbon content. It should also be remembered that a contrasting pattern is obtained when using steels, the difference in carbon of which is equal to or greater than 0.4%. The pickling of the finished product is carried out in one of the above reagents. In this case, the product must already be hardened (hardening increases the contrast of the pattern) and polished. The fat-free product is completely placed in the pickling solution, the operation is continued until the pattern is clearly and completely manifested. Medium-carbon Damascus The main difficulty in obtaining Damascus steel is high-quality welding of the original package. It is important that it has a sufficiently large number of layers (about 200 will be enough for a start) and the absence of defects. The main defects in the forging of Damascus are burnout and lack of penetration. Overburning is a defect in which a section of the workpiece is heated above 1200 degrees Celsius for a significant time (20-30 seconds). As a result, the steel reacts directly with the oxygen in the air - in fact, the steel burns. The burnt section of the workpiece is not subject to further processing and is usually removed. Since Damascus welding occurs at temperatures close to the burnout temperature, this defect occurs frequently and can sometimes ruin the entire job. Lack of penetration is a defect in which the layers of steel do not weld together due to unremoved scale, insufficient convergence or insufficient welding temperature. On the finished product, lack of penetration looks like a crack among the Damascus pattern. To catch the moment when the steel is already heated to welding temperature, but has not caught fire yet, only experience will help. Get ready for the fact that before you succeed, you will burn a lot of blanks. Remember: better undercooking than overburning! Lack of penetration is eliminated, although it is difficult, and the burnt workpiece can only be thrown away. In the following, when describing forging processes, I will often determine the temperature of the workpiece not in degrees, but by indicating the color of the heated metal. I hope this will help to reduce the number of lack of fusion and burns to a minimum. I know from my own experience that a beginner wants to get a blank in which there are many layers as soon as possible. Etch it, and personally see for yourself the presence of a mysterious pattern characteristic of Damascus. Therefore, we will start with a technology that we will call "Damascus for Beginners". We will need 10 double-sided hacksaw blades for metal. They are wider than single-sided and more convenient as raw materials. Such canvases are made of U8 steel. When buying, try to find out how the blades are made - entirely from tool steel, or hard coating is used on a soft base. Only the former are suitable for our purposes. Also, stock up on enough soft iron tape to upholster wooden crates. Strips of any steel other than stainless steel will also be needed. U8 is still desirable. You can use old files with a thickness of about 2 mm, a length equal to half the length of the hacksaw blade and a width equal to the width of the iron band. You will put these strips in the bag as outer layers, which will prevent the thinner inner ones from completely turning into scale. You can also use softer steel, such as StZ, as outer layers, but this will lower the average carbon content of your Damascus. Use an electric sharpener or grinder to remove the teeth from the hacksaw blades. After this operation, they will become equal in width to the iron tape. Each canvas must be cut into two equal parts along the length. You will get 20 pieces of hacksaw blades. Cut 20 pieces of iron tape with metal scissors. Finally, it is desirable, using a pharmacy scale, to weigh a piece of iron tape, a piece of a hacksaw blade and a thick steel plate. You will need to know the weight when calculating the composition of the resulting steel. Now let's do an operation called package typing. This operation is thorough and long, so it is better to perform it while sitting. Lay a piece of steel, 2 mm thick, on the table. Its surface does not have to be cleaned of rust, but if it is a file, it is necessary to grind off its working surface. Moisten it with ordinary water and apply a fairly thick layer of borax (about 2-3 mm). An iron strip is placed on the layer of borax, moistened, a layer of borax is applied. On it is a piece of a hacksaw blade, moistened, a layer of borax is applied. Thus, layers of iron, borax and steel alternate until 5 pieces of hacksaw blade are used. On the upper section of the iron strip, put a piece of thick steel, the same as at the very beginning of the package. Now pull the package very carefully with clamps along the edges and, trying not to spill out the drill, weld its beginning and end with electric welding. Then, to reduce the possibility of delamination, boil in several places along the length. In this case, pieces of steel wire or nails can be applied across the side surface of the package and welded. This will serve as an additional guarantee against delamination. In the process of welding, it is necessary to add borax powder to those places from where it woke up or flowed out when heated by electric welding. The final step in creating the package is welding the handle to one of its ends. This will be a piece of rebar about 20 cm long when using tongs, or 1 m when working without tongs. Try to make the handle welding place as strong as possible. If the handle falls off when the package is heated in the forge, it will be very problematic to get it out of there. When you succeed, most likely, the package will no longer be usable due to overburning. It is even advisable to grind off one of the ends of the rod used as a handle to a small thickness and wedge it between the layers of the package, and then scald it. As one of the layers, you can use a rod forged onto a plate at one end. Its long tail forms a handle. This option is the most reliable. Whatever the case, you should get 4 bags of the same design. As an alternative to electric welding, the following technology can be used. The package is first assembled without a drill, after which through holes are drilled with an electric drill at the beginning and at the end of the package. Further, according to the technology described above, the package is assembled with borax and bolted through the drilled holes. This technique is in some cases more effective, as it provides a reliable tightening of the package. And with the use of electric welding, in a hot forge, the package can fall apart. Some authors of literature on Damascus steel advise assembling the package without borax at all, which plays the role of a flux during welding, and sprinkle the package already warmed up in the forge with borax. I wouldn't recommend this for beginners. In the middle of the package, there may be places to which the molten borax will not flow. In them, lack of penetration is formed. As you gain experience, you will reach a degree of skill where you can flux and weld a package assembled without borax, but at first it is better to play it safe. In addition, the use of technology with pre-loading of the drill allows laying steel with an uncleaned surface into the package - with a layer of rust, scale, etc. And in the latter method, all layers of steel must be thoroughly cleaned. So, you have collected four packages. Inspect them carefully - all the cracks between the layers should be tightly packed with borax. Make sure the long handles are welded to the bags as securely as possible. Fire up the horn. When the flame is steady and the forge is at full blast, carefully place the first bag into the mass of burning embers. It is very important that the bag heats up evenly. It must be constantly monitored, rotated around the longitudinal axis and moved if the heating is uneven. Remember that the workpiece in the hearth seems to be hotter in color than it really is.

It is very important to learn how to catch that single moment when you need to pull out and forge the workpiece. Usually, the beginning of this moment is characterized by the appearance of small sparks, like a Bengal fire, that emanate from the surface of the workpiece. Be on the lookout - these sparks indicate the approach of the maximum welding temperature and the beginning of the burning of the metal. Wait until sparks fly from the entire area of the workpiece, and not just from any one area. At this point, quickly remove the workpiece (its color should be from lemon yellow to white, with an abundance of sparks). Place it on the anvil, and with frequent blows of a small sledgehammer, hammer it from end to beginning and back. Turn over and forge again from end to beginning and back. If everything went well, the welding has already taken place. For a guarantee, forge the workpiece with even flat strokes until it reaches the red color. Forge welding is possible at and at lower temperatures, for example, with a light orange glow of the metal, but the risk of cold lack of penetration is increased. If the shape of the workpiece after this series of forging is not perfectly rectangular, heat it again, just until orange. Adjust the shape of the workpiece so that it is as close to rectangular as possible, and both surfaces are as flat and even as possible. The thickness of the workpiece after this, the first welding, should be about 4-5 mm. In this way, forge and weld all four packages. After that, the four plates obtained can be reassembled into a bag and boiled, but I recommend stopping, taking a break and at the same time examining the quality of the weld. When the forgings have cooled down, grind off a small layer of metal from the side of the package with a grinder or electric grinder.

If you see only the shiny surface of solid steel, the welding went well.

When dark lines are visible - the boundaries between the layers, it means that lack of penetration was allowed. With one or two small lack of penetration, the process can be continued. Most likely, delamination will not occur, and lack of fusion will be eliminated during further welding. If the lack of fusion is large, then the package should be heated up, cover the uncooked place with a layer of borax, continue heating to welding temperature, and forge the uncooked place over the entire width of the plate again.

So, you have in your hands four plates of 13 alternating layers. Having collected them in a bag and boiled, we get a plate in 52 layers. While hot, cut it with a chisel lengthwise into 2 or, if the width allows, 3 parts. While the process of cutting with a chisel scares you, you can cut the plate with a thin cutting wheel, however, in this case, some of the metal will fall into the sawdust. Collecting in a package and welding the resulting plates, it is theoretically possible to obtain any number of layers. But it should be borne in mind that initially rather thin layers of metal were laid in the package, therefore, with more than 200 layers, the pattern will be very thin and difficult to distinguish. Therefore, I recommend stopping at 150-200 layers. At the final welding, try to make the package take on a smaller length and width, but a greater thickness than those that you have outlined for the future product. This is necessary for the final metal forming process. So, you have received the original piece of Damascus steel. It contains about 0.6% carbon - the Japanese consider such steel to be optimal. This is the so-called "wild" Damascus. When etching a product from it, you will get a pattern of almost parallel lines of different thicknesses. This Damascus is also called "striped". You can be satisfied with it, or try to somehow complicate the pattern.

Option one: "Peacock's Eye".

This is a pattern in which concentric circles, ovals or squares meet. The pattern is achieved in the following way. Before molding the product from the resulting plate, on its side surfaces with a drill or a grinding wheel, in the right places, shallow (1-2 mm) recesses of a round or elliptical shape are cut. After that, the heated plate is subjected to forging, in which its surface becomes flat again. In this case, the lower layers come to the surface and form concentric figures. The use of this method gives quite ample opportunities in the formation of a pattern.

A fundamentally different way is "TURKISH" or "TWISTED" Damascus.

To obtain it, you must try to ensure that the source material - a package with the required number of layers, takes the form of a round or square bar. To do this, you can cut a wide thick plate or cut it lengthwise into strips, the width of which is approximately equal to the thickness. The rods are heated to a light orange color, after which one end is clamped in a vise, and the other is captured by tongs with flat jaws. It twists along the longitudinal axis in several turns, but so that the bar does not burst. The resulting spiral billet is forged into a plate, at a temperature close to welding, with flux to eliminate possible delamination. The product formed from such a plate has a complex pattern in the form of concentric four-beam repeating stars. When working with Damascus, there are a huge number of pattern options. There are no limits to artistic imagination. Therefore, do not be afraid to experiment and look for new patterns and ways to get them. We will touch on this topic in the section on mosaic Damascus.

Welded steel:

This type of welded steel is characterized by a high carbon content, which brings such Damascus closer in strength and cutting properties to cast damask steel. This carbon content is achieved by using iron powder in forge welding. Cast iron contains up to 6% carbon. It is convenient to use cast iron from steam heating batteries, but its quality is not high. In any case, you should know the composition of the cast iron being used, at least the data on its carbon content. Cast iron is highly brittle, so it is quite easy to split it into small pieces with a sledgehammer. Then crush them on an anvil into a powder, the particles of which should be about the size of a grain of rice. Crush the cast iron carefully so that the particles do not scatter in different directions. For the right amount of welded damask steel, you will need several glasses of crushed cast iron, so be patient. In addition to cast iron, the composition of such steel includes StZ in the form of water pipes and U8-U9 steel from files. File steel must be crushed into pieces about the size of a fingernail. It is easily pricked with a hammer. Using the above formula, calculate the weight parts of all components. Finished steel with all corrections for carbon burnout should contain no more than 1-1.2% carbon. Homogeneous steel with such a composition is very brittle, but due to the heterogeneity of the composite, it is possible to harden it to a higher hardness. Take a 1/2 or 3/4 inch water pipe - this, as I said, is StZ steel. You will need several pieces of pipe about 20 cm long. Using an iron wire ruff, thoroughly clean the inside of the pipe from rust. Weld tightly one end of each piece of pipe. Mix crushed iron and U8 steel fragments in the proportion that you calculated (during the calculation, do not forget to take into account the weight of the pipe). Usually, U8 requires more weight than cast iron. Now fill the pipe segments with the resulting mixture. Compact the iron-steel mixture as thoroughly as possible with a pin of the correct diameter. The stuffed mixture is rammed in the pipe by strong tapping with a hammer on a pin inserted into the pipe like a piston. When the pipe is full, weld the other end of it and weld the handle to it. You can use the pin with which you tamped the mixture, leaving part of it in the pipe and firmly welded. Having stuffed all the pipe sections, take an electric drill and drill 10-20 holes of small diameter in each pipe, evenly placing them on the surface. These holes are needed to exit the air remaining inside and excess molten iron. Ignite the forge and heat the pipe section to the maximum temperature. In this case, a slight burn of the pipe surface is not terrible, since the walls of the pipes are quite thick. Make sure the heat is even. When the pipe section turns white, hammer it with a heavy sledgehammer (the help of a hammerer is desirable) several times from end to beginning and back. Bring the resulting plate to a thickness of 3-4 mm. Forge the rest of the pipe sections in the same way. In the resulting steel, there are still a lot of internal lack of penetration, voids and its composition is very heterogeneous. Therefore, you will have to weld the resulting plates many more times. First weld them together. The resulting plate must be divided in two alternately along and across and welding should be repeated at least 10 times so that the steel becomes even in composition. At this stage, I advise you to gradually begin to master one technique. It will allow avoiding the procedure of cutting the plate into pieces and assembling it into a bag using electric welding. The plate is cut with a chisel along the desired line by 1/2 of the thickness. Then, on the edge of the anvil along the notch line, the plate is bent by 90 degrees. On the plane of the anvil, the fold is brought to an acute angle. After heating, the bent plate is carefully fluxed with borax, especially those surfaces that will be welded. After applying the flux, the forging is heated to welding temperature and forged. In fact, the plate simply folds in half. It must be remembered that it folds alternately - either along or across. Suppose there were five pipe sections that you forged into plates. Having welded them together, we got a 5-pack. After the first fold in half, it will have 10 layers, after the 2nd - 20, after the 3rd - 40, after the 4th - 80, after the 5th - already 160! Thus, after the 10 welds I recommend, you will have several thousand layers. From such a package, it is already possible to form a finished product. I do not recommend using any tricks to complicate the pattern on welded damask steel - it already has its own, unique characteristic chaotic pattern. You can read about the features of hardening welded damask steel and the amazing technology that allows you to achieve the formation of microscopic diamond crystals in the layers of such steel in the article by V. Basov "Damask steel - the life line". Mosaic "Mosaic Damascus" is called steel, in which sections with different types of patterns are welded together. The possibilities for imagination are endless here. I propose to make a damascus, with a "smoke Sutton Hoo" pattern, after the name of a fossil Scandinavian sword. Weld a package consisting of 7 layers of three steels - StZ (gives white m

Buying a knife made of high-quality steel, of course, is not a problem. If there is not enough assortment of ordinary or branded blades, you can find a specialist working on an individual order.

However, you can go the other way - make a knife yourself. The first time to forge the perfect blade, most likely, will not work, but who knows ...

And a homemade cable knife is a worthwhile undertaking, the result can be a quality blade with a visible pattern on the blade, formed by mixing layers of metal during forging.

Material selection

In our time, only true connoisseurs of this craft are engaged in the manufacture of blades. However, even a novice blacksmith and anyone can try to forge a homemade knife.

The easiest way to do this is from a piece of thick reinforcement, an old file, or a piece of an automobile spring. It will be a little more difficult to forge a drill or a bearing cage. You can get an interesting result from a triggered chain from a chainsaw or a car engine.

Another material that, after forging, can become a quality blade is cable. Its veins are made of carbon steel, capable of holding a good point after hardening. If you manage to keep the braided pattern after forging, you can get a very original blade, vaguely reminiscent of wild Damascus steel.

What you need to know to figure out how to make a rope knife? Two important nuances: the first is whether the properties of the high-carbon material will be preserved during processing; the second is whether a visible pattern will appear on the blade, gracefully turning into a sharpened point.

Damascus steel

Previously, sharp, plastic and reliable blades with a patterned pattern on the blade were called damask blades (according to one version - from the Fulad province in Persia, where they were made). Such characteristics and visible effect were achieved by various methods.

Steel could be smelted in a crucible by metallurgical casting, experimenting with the composition of the material. Another option is to “weld” steel strips of different hardness in a forge and then forge the resulting workpiece. Blades forged by blacksmiths using a special technique began to be called Damascus.

They differ precisely in the method of manufacture and technology, and not in the characteristics and degree of expression of the pattern. Having unforged a knife from a cable, you can try to create a blade with your own hands, vaguely resembling such material. And although the pattern on the blade is not an end in itself, it is still a distinctive feature of Damascus steel.

Blacksmith tools and materials

To forge a knife from a cable with your own hands, you need to master the craft of a blacksmith at least at a minimum level. To do this, you need a pair of hammers: one is massive (up to 2 kg), the other is lighter (up to 0.5 kg) for fine work, tongs, an anvil and a home-made furnace (forge) with forced air supply.

You can not do without a grinder, electric welding in the manufacturing process. You will need a vice and charcoal from rocks that give great heat can serve as fuel for the crucible, because the workpiece will have to be heated to temperatures above 1200 ° C.

For better "welding" you can use borax as a flux. It removes scale and prevents carbon from burning out of the material. It is also necessary to prepare the oil for hardening, to ensure safety.

The ability to use someone's blacksmith shop or forge enterprise with a mechanical hammer will greatly facilitate the task.

Preparatory operations

To make a knife from a cable, you first need to make a sketch or sketch of it on paper. Then you have to find the right material. We need to check it and at least remotely determine the composition of carbon in it.

It depends on this whether the future blade will take hardening, whether it will hold a point and whether it will be possible to carry out blacksmith “welding”. The test is carried out for sparks. A moderately dense orange sheaf of them will mean that welding is possible, carbon in the steel contains about 1%, which is enough for hardening.

Next, you need to cut a piece of cable of the required length. At this stage, they are determined with the method of manufacturing the handle. It can be from a single piece of cable without forging. The knife will look original, but have a decent weight.

Another option is to weld a reinforcement bar to a piece of cable by electric welding. It is convenient to hold on to such a handle, heating the workpiece in the crucible and processing it with hammers. Then you can make a type-setting handle on it or, having riveted it, install decorative overlays.

Before starting work, the cable is pulled together with steel wire clamps in several places. This is done so that the thin wires do not unwind during the heating process.

A workpiece is placed in a kindled crucible and allowed to warm up to 800 ° C. At this stage, the strands of the cable are released (annealing), the material becomes pliable. Additionally, oil and dirt burn out.

After cooling, the workpiece is clamped in a vise and one of the ends of the cable is scalded by electric welding. With an adjustable wrench, it “twirls” along the weaving to maximum density. The other edge is scalded with simultaneous fastening of a piece of reinforcement for ease of use.

Wire clamps are removed, the workpiece is heated to 1200 ° C, sprinkled abundantly with borax. This is necessary for a better penetration. After reheating, forge "welding" is performed. With a heavy hammer, the cable is forged along the plane, periodically sprinkled with borax.

The workpiece is constantly heated. The more often this is done, the more intensively the forging takes place, the better the material “welds”. After rough processing, they proceed to forging the blade, the future cutting edge, and the shank. At this stage, a smaller mass hammer is used more, giving the workpiece a shape resembling a sketch of the future blade.

The complexities of technology

It is necessary to constantly monitor the temperature of the workpiece, not allowing it to cool. Working with a heavy hammer, especially without proper practice and experience, can easily damage the curls of the cable in places where a distinct weave pattern should remain. Unwanted hits with an edge or a corner of a sledgehammer on a heated workpiece leave deep dents that are not always possible to grind off.

During operation, the process of burning out carbon from the metal is inevitable. There are craftsmen who forge a knife from a cable on dense wood laid on the plane of the anvil. When in contact with a heated metal, it smolders, the oxygen of the air at the point of contact is burned, which reduces the degree of carbon burnout from the material. In addition, by forging a cable on a tree, you ensure that the workpiece cools down more slowly, you can do more work in one cycle.

Special approach

Forging a knife from a cable is possible using another technology. There are craftsmen who pack an annealed and compacted cable blank of the required length into a piece of stainless steel pipe before forging “welding”. Its diameter is selected in such a way that the cable enters it very tightly, with some effort.

Both ends of such a case are welded by electric welding, fusing the ends of the cable with the pipe. The workpiece is heated to a temperature of 1200-1300 ° C and in this form is forged. The alloyed stainless steel of the pipe with the cable is not welded, but serves only as a protective cover against uneven forging. In addition, the hot cable does not come into contact with atmospheric oxygen and the carbon in it burns out minimally during forging.

If you use a hydraulic press, then you can significantly facilitate the forging "welding". After heating to 1300 °C, the case with the cable inside is placed under load and left to cool. If you use matrices, then you can immediately form thickenings under the neck for the transition from the blade to the handle and the butt of the shank. During the next heating by forging through the case, the shape of the blade is finalized.

After cooling, the pipe is cut off on the emery from the end, where the point will be. The case is carefully opened with a chisel. Further processing of the workpiece occurs on the emery wheel. Pre-cut off excess sections, make blade descents without final sharpening.

heat treatment

The hardening of the blade is just as important as the choice of steel. According to the technology, a cable knife after forging has tension, it must be removed. To do this, the workpiece is heated to 800 ° C and allowed to cool.

Hardening is carried out when the blade is heated up to 1200 °C. It is lowered with the tip down into the heated oil and held motionless. The blade must then be released. It is cleaned of carbon deposits, heated to 200 ° C and again lowered into oil.

Some craftsmen harden knives through oil (dipped for two seconds) and then placed in salted water.

Pickling and finishing work

After heat treatment, the cable knife is polished, and the blade blade and shank for attaching the handle are finalized. To develop the pattern, the workpiece is dipped into a solution (5%) and left for etching. The processing time depends on the desired effect and can be up to one hour.

If before that a stencil is glued onto the blade, on which the manufacturer's logo (initials or any pattern) is cut out, as a result it will be printed on steel and will testify to the authorship of the blade. After that, fine grinding with fine-grained sandpaper and polishing of the blade is performed.

Before this operation or after, the selected type of handle is mounted. These can be overlays made of precious wood with an interesting texture, typesetting washers of various materials in any sequence, or, for example, a piece of deer antler.

It may not be possible to make such an original and masterfully made knife from a cable (photo above) the first time, but if there is a desire to master the craft of making blades, one should strive for such a result.