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Shawn's forging shed

Got into the shop Monday and actually got some stuff done!
Cleaned up some junk.
Got a bench set up for doing sanding and handles.
Took my anvil off the stand and put it in the car to take to work. (Milled the face and foot and gave it a coat of paint.)
Ripped the refractory out of the forge and relined it.
Test fired and ended up putting a billet in to make sure it was working properly.
Forge welded and started to draw out said billet.
And got a few handles finished and one more glued on to be ready for shaping.

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I actually have the last one I posted and the one here with the walnut handle sold. Which is good because I need to make a belt order haha. Gotta find a home for the purple one and order some more steel.
The billet I'm working on now is sort of a san mai. A san mai is 3 layers. Often a hard core with softer outsides. This one is an 80crv2 core but the outer is some low layer Damascus that I had left. So if it works out it should give some interesting pattern. Hopefully that will be soon. Still need to figure out what blade shape I'm going to do with it.
 
Awesome work Shawn!

- Edit - BTW I must say that Shawn’s kitchen knife that I received nearly 5 years ago now is still going strong. Its gone through some wear and tear but it’s still on the original edge and still is the best knife in the kitchen. It’s tackled everything from rock hard acorn squash and tough melons, to steaks and more delicate veggies.
 
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So, I have been having some issues with my blades. The last 3 finished blades I have posted have actually been layered Damascus. I could not get them to etch at all. The san mai i have been working on showed pattern before finish grinding, but not after. Even 3 times of sanding and etching.
Needless to say, I was getting quite discouraged not knowing what I was doing between rough grinding and finishing that was screwing them up.

Well, after selling two blades at a loss, I took the san mai with no etch to the leather guy to get a sheath made. He must have wet formed the leather without protecting the blade, because it was rusted when I got it back.
So i took it to the shop to sand it for the 4th time.
I have been wet sanding with pb blaster. It's sort of an oil and like wd40 right?
NOT!!!
Didn't cross my mind that it is a penetrant. It was impregnating into the steel deep enough it wouldn't wash off and it was resisting the acid.

This time I sanded with wd40 and actually got it to etch. Not a perfect etch, but considering, I'm not extremely disappointed. This one is for me to abuse anyways. I did get off center a bit somewhere either forging or grinding, but for my first san mai, I'll take it.

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Had your knife out at work that you made me a couple few years back. A couple guys picked it up and was really liked it a lot. Your work has become really good Shawn!
 
That knife looks great! Lots of guys sitting on the couch watching forging shows that will never make a blade, but you are really going after it!
 
I know I haven't been posting much, but I have been busy.....
These are all forged, rough ground, quenched, tempered, and ready for finishing.
The 2 little kitchen knives are orders but the rest i just felt like making. The through tang one has a piece of caribou antler waiting to be used as the handle with either copper or brass. (Haven't decided which yet.)
Hope everyone is doing well!

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Tried something new today. My friend Walter who is an abs journeyman bladesmith and won forged in fire told me to try this...
With approximately 25 forge welds under my belt, im beginning to question if he really likes me or not...
So I mentioned maybe trying twist Damascus. He told me that he would do twisted W's and that's what I should try.

Basically that is taking a stack of alternating steels and getting it to stick together.
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Then you put it in the square dies and squish the corners down without making the ends blow apart.

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THEN..... You lay it down and forge the SIDES! That is the wrong way! I guess this really tests how well you forge welded the first time as well as how well you handle stress.....

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After it cools down, you can cut it and sand it down to see how bad you screwed up.

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And I guess you are supposed to cut that bar into pieces and stack them back together again to get the W pattern.

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Still have to forge weld the pieces back together, and then decide if im going to be brave enough to try twisting it....
But my blood pressure is too high right now. :ROFLMAO:
 
Now that Christmas is over, I can show a few of my in progress things. Since @CBLindsay kind of called me out, I got wondering if I could make these or not.

So the original plan for them was the twisted W's that I showed the process of making the billet earlier.
I had never done a twist before, so after getting the W part done I quick drew out a normal billet and twisted it just to make sure I could do that before wrecking all the work I put into the W billet.

It actually worked, so now I have these mostly done... I still need to finish grind and sand them, and put a proper etch on them, but they are close.

These are size scaled with what Iwasaki is listing for Wa (large) Kamisori, and only have a quick etch just to show the pattern.

Here are two from the normal twisted billet. (One left and one right handed.)

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And the two from the twisted W's billet. (Also one left, and one right.)

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Those are awesome Shawn, I’m so happy to see you gave it a try. That knife you gave me for Christmas last year is wicked sharp and has held up great. You definitely have the right skills!
 
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