New wootz and mammoth ivory
- Thread starter Bruno
- Start date
Victor Creazzi
King of Bondo
Great patterning on that one!
Yes. Partially. There are 3 things to consider. The first is the smelting When the ingot solidifies, crystals start growing from the outside in. This results in a certain internal structure. This depends heavily on the exact design of the kiln, the crucible, the heat profile, etc. Imo this is extremely hard to predict or control, but simply something that you accept and play with if you want to affect the pattern.
The 2nd are the carbides. You need to form them during forging cycles and heat treatment. I have heard some smiths say that you can control this by forging technique, and others that this is BS. I am leaning towards the idea that you can do this. But it has to do with how much your forge at which temperature, and until what temperature you forge before putting it back in the fire.
And the 3d is the mechanical deformation, just like regular damascus. For example if you forge a bar, and the drill holes and cut grooves, and then flatten it, you get a ladder pattern known as mohammed's ladder. The visual effect is a macro effect on top of the natural wootz pattern.
These 3 effects are listen in order of difficulty of predicting the effect. The smelting aspect is hardest to control and predict, but also the most important in determining the end result. To put differently: if you start with X, then you can play with X, but in the end the result will be determined by X. The forging and heat treatment can help steer X a bit and in particular decide the amount of contrast. And then the 3d is the easiest and most predictable, but it can only put a macro effect on top of it.
The 2nd are the carbides. You need to form them during forging cycles and heat treatment. I have heard some smiths say that you can control this by forging technique, and others that this is BS. I am leaning towards the idea that you can do this. But it has to do with how much your forge at which temperature, and until what temperature you forge before putting it back in the fire.
And the 3d is the mechanical deformation, just like regular damascus. For example if you forge a bar, and the drill holes and cut grooves, and then flatten it, you get a ladder pattern known as mohammed's ladder. The visual effect is a macro effect on top of the natural wootz pattern.
These 3 effects are listen in order of difficulty of predicting the effect. The smelting aspect is hardest to control and predict, but also the most important in determining the end result. To put differently: if you start with X, then you can play with X, but in the end the result will be determined by X. The forging and heat treatment can help steer X a bit and in particular decide the amount of contrast. And then the 3d is the easiest and most predictable, but it can only put a macro effect on top of it.