A few recent projects.

[mike miller]

I have several etching tricks i do, coffee works good to really darken the pattern after etching with a stronger acid, thats better as a 2 stage proccess, the last damascus knife in this post was etched with acid mixture, then over night in extra strong instant coffee. Sanding with high grits to knock the tops off the acid restant metals expecially on damascus. I use heated muriatic acid some times and for stainless damascus and if i want a rediciously deep etch. Just on that knife i used the formentioned method. My main goal was to get a solid forge weld. Im just getting into making my own shop made multi steels, i will be doing a lot of experiminting for sure. Im going to swap the 80crv with 1095 next time, 1080, 1084, 1095 seems to pop with the. 15n20, so i will try a combination of all those things, thanks for the suggestions. I just finished my homeade forge press thats the 1st thing ive made on it.

I was always hesitant on using 1095 with the 15n20 because of heat treat differences.1084 with 15n20 are almost the same steel with the 15n20 having added nickel so it's like heat treating a common steel. The phosphoric acid and vinegar was told to me by Brad Vice so all we buy are done that way by him.

 

[bullseyeblack]

So I recently finished a project I've been working on for a while when time allows a homemade forge press. I got around to making the 1st set of die for it just some 8" flattening die. Any way I wanted to try making something on it so I made a 15n20 clad 80crv2 San Mai billet. The forge weld turned out perfect, however I was wanting a stronger contrast between the steels. Any way the knife turned out solid but with less pop than I was wanting.



this one is 15n20/80crv2 laminated (San Mai) Contruction nothing fancy just a simple sturdy knife. with some Osage scales heated up with the torch just a tad. Sheath has a little experimenting also I never hand carve on a sheath cause I'm not very good at it, but since it was all an experiment I did a little hand carved deer skull, not very well placed but wanted to do it anyway.

 

[Bocephus123]

how much on that one

 

[TheReverseSide]

Beautiful work! The sheaves are also fantastic looking

 

[randallss7]

My 1st shop made Cu Mai blade, I won't say there wasn't issues, but I was able to chase those out and still make a good knife, all though somewhat smaller than planned...lol

this one is a laminated Cu Mai blade, outside cladding is mild steel, then copper layers, then a core of 52100 ball bearing steel. I dyed some blue epoxy for the inside of the pins, put guess I dyed it so blue it looks black, still looks ok. The handle is Osage orange with a burned and 1000g finish, bolster is copper.

 

[Bocephus123]

My 1st shop made Cu Mai blade, I won't say there wasn't issues, but I was able to chase those out and still make a good knife, all though somewhat smaller than planned...lol

this one is a laminated Cu Mai blade, outside cladding is mild steel, then copper layers, then a core of 52100 ball bearing steel. I dyed some blue epoxy for the inside of the pins, put guess I dyed it so blue it looks black, still looks ok. The handle is Osage orange with a burned and 1000g finish, bolster is copper.

very cool never seen that before!

 

[surjimmy]

My 1st shop made Cu Mai blade, I won't say there wasn't issues, but I was able to chase those out and still make a good knife, all though somewhat smaller than planned...lol

this one is a laminated Cu Mai blade, outside cladding is mild steel, then copper layers, then a core of 52100 ball bearing steel. I dyed some blue epoxy for the inside of the pins, put guess I dyed it so blue it looks black, still looks ok. The handle is Osage orange with a burned and 1000g finish, bolster is copper.

That is gorgeous