Work in progress thread

Bruno

Bruno

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Some things I started toying with. These are 2 projects I started without a game plan. Just start off with a general idea and then see where things go. The first is an O2L6 Damascus blade. Originally I thought to make it a draco design razor. Not entirely sure if I will continue in that direction but I do want to set a string of gems in the edge of the tail.



This one is going to have a big gem set in the shoulders. Don't quite know yet what. And it started out as a regular razor but may yet become a fixed handle razor. I am thinking of a string of gems starting at the big one and running all the way into the tail.

 
Bruno

Bruno

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LOL :)

Btw this thread is open for everyone. If you want to show off work in progress on anything you're working on, have at it!
 
Bruno

Bruno

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This is what I forged out yesterday during the trial run of my forge after it was cold for so long, and one razor blank I'd already made a long time ago.
Top is a scrap of 7 layer Damascus I forged into a small kitchen knife. When I forge kitchen knives, I forge the blade down pretty thin, as well as the tang, but I leave the connection from the blade to the tang pretty thick. That makes forging less trivial that just making a flat knife outline.

The 2 blocks underneath are pieces of the Damascus Ed Schempp made for me. Every time I want to make a razor, I have to cut a slice from the loaf, and then hammer it flat until it had the correct thickness. I cannot forge razors to shape in this material because it has my logo embedded as mosaic Damascus and that would otherwise be mangled.

And finally there's a wootz razor that was forged to size a long time ago, I just gave it a second thermal cycling to improve the pattern.

 
Bruno

Bruno

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Today was my birthday. I took the day off, and spent most of that in my forge.
I am fairly happy with my productivity.

I made 3 razors. You may notice that the 2 top ones look pretty lumpy. Usually I forge much closer to size. But I got an order for 2 draco nobilis razors (one in damascus, one in wootz) that require a ton of special filework That has to be done using files in solid steel. And they have to be identical as well. So I just forged the outlines and made sure that both blanks will be able to turn into the same razor. The third is going to be an 11/8 chopper in O2.



The 2 next pieces are small kitchen knives, made from end cuts. The flat one is going to be a 3 layer potato peeler. The knife shaped one is wootz and will be a small general purpose kitchen knife.



And finally I took a piece of 100 layer Damascus, forged it down and turned it into a twist bar. This bar is about a foot long. The ends are split but that is fairly normal. The ends will be clamped into a vise and immediately cool down while you're twisting the rest. Outside layers sometimes come loose where the cold and hot part meet. I'll cut them off and still have enough of the bar left to serve as the body for 2 hybrid wootz / Damascus blades.

 
Bruno

Bruno

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These are the ones I heat treated today. Top is a wootz razor. Unlike other wootz razors, I decided to take a risk and use clay to make a hamon in the wootz pattern. I dreaded hearing the 'ping' but that never came. Felt pretty good about it when I removed the clay and was greeted by a crisp hamon line. The next two are in Damascus from Ed Schempp. It has my logo embedded as mosaic Damascus all the way through the blade. And the last one is a Howard Clark Damascus.

 
Bruno

Bruno

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2 Draco Nobilis razors in progress. The rough work is done. These are for a matching set. One is wootz, the other is damascus. The razors are almost exactly the same. There is only a little bit difference in the fins. That is the hardest part. This will be correct some more after heat treatment. Doing that when the steel is hardened, is a bit easier because you have less risk of cutting or filing too deep.

 
Bruno

Bruno

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Today i heat treated the funky wunky hybrid damascus and wootz razor. With this style of lamination always a tricky thing but the tink fairy did not come by for a visit.

I just completed the post-heat treament grinding. The blade is now ready for a bevel verification on the 1k hone. If that checks out, then it's on to tbe polishing stage.

28616334_1411765042263183_7793638886456429310_o.jpg
 
RezDog

RezDog

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As I was scrolling through this thread I noticed how it appears that the damascus pattern on the Howard Clark Damascus seems rather obvious, and I have never noticed it that strongly on a razor that has not been etched. It makes me anticipated the finished blade. Also I really like the shape of the wonky damascus wootz razor.
 
RezDog

RezDog

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As I was scrolling through this thread I noticed how it appears that the damascus pattern on the Howard Clark Damascus seems rather obvious, and I have never noticed it that strongly on a razor that has not been etched. It makes me anticipated the finished blade. Also I really like the shape of the wonky damascus wootz razor.
 
Bruno

Bruno

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The reason that it sis very noticeable on Howard's damascus is that Howard typically uses less layers, not more. The scale and oxidation is never very clear, but if the layers are big enough, you'll easily see it. If the layers are very thin, the scale and oxidation becomes an indistinct muck
 
Bruno

Bruno

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20180320_225941.jpg


Scales for my layest project. Juma ivory snake scales with an old denim kirinite wedge
 
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