Knife class at Bob Warner’s part deux

CTaylorJr

Well-Known Member
Some of you may remember the first lesson I took at Bob’s which turned me into a semi monster, for those that don’t, look here… http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?10949-Had-my-first-forging-lesson-Sunday!

Since then Bob and I have talked back and forth about the next direction to go and we decided on my trying Damascus. Some of the pics are from my phone, and a few are from the good camera the wife has. I only took the phone with me since breaking the wife's camera would be like her throwing my tools in the lake... :what!:

The first thing we did was welding some cable so I could get the basic welding principles down. Yes, some will say that forge welding cable is NOT a good first start, but if you have a seasoned instructor you can make it work for sure!

I only got one shot of the cable process since I was excited about the rest of the day; and that pic is too blurry to even make out the table! :12:


After successfully welding the cable Bob threw me for a loop and said, “ok, next lesson, we’ll do something with the cable next time”.

Next up was layered Damascus! Using materials I would NOT have thought of, we made a billet and then twisted it. We took pieces of a band saw blade ( from a horizontal type saw) and pieces of pallet strapping, stacked them up, tacked them together, and then heated to welding temp. After fluxing a couple of times, and losing most of the hair on my left arm, it was time to weld. After welding them together on the “anvil table” we heated again and then twisted the billet. I plan to use this one as a duplicate to the purse knife I am now making for my wife. After coming home and showing her the piece she is in agreement, this will be her next knife! This is a shot of the end ground off and dipped into FC for a short amount of time. If the end looks like this I feel confident the twist will really be something to see when done.
DSC_0334.jpg


My next job is to take this billet, make it into the knife blade in mind, and then present it to my “professor” to see if I am coming along as required. At this point I am SURE some will say, “well he needs to show you how to do it!” He has shown, and now it’s time for me to produce IMO…

Next up was MOKUME, my new passion! We cut (I cut :biggrin: ) a LOT of copper and brass into 1” x 2” lengths, sanded, and then stacked in between torque plates. The torque plates were put under tension with a large “C” clamp, and then wired together.
stack.jpg


After stacking and securing, we put the critter into the forge. Bad iPhone pics, but best I could do…
forge.jpg


Now, since we were working fast, and trying to make sure everything worked correctly, I didn’t get any pics of the “in process” part. After welding the pieces together, we then cut “V” grooves into the billet (offset on each side), heated again and then flattened in the 30 ton press. Bob made a point to me on this lesson; a press beats a hammer most of the time for work such as this!

The pics below of the final mokume billet are the result. This is half of the final billet since we split it. This is only sanded to about 80 grit, but you can already see the pattern.
DSC_0332.jpg

DSC_0329.jpg


As the week progresses I plan to cut a portion of this billet out for a guard on the wife’s knife, once polished I’ll show the end result.

As I’ve told a few other’s; if you get the chance to book time with Bob it is worth every penny! He is patient and very knowledgeable, not to mention he is one that realizes that all knife makers were new at one point... I should also add that he doesn’t make too much fun of you when you let something get a bit “too hot”… At least the first time… :what!::biggrin::52: <--- I'm pretty sure those were the faces I made as Bob laughed it off... :nothing:

Charlie
 
Charlie,

Glad you had a good time. It is fun to see the light bulb come on over your head. Burning the hair off your arm or watching you pick up something hot is kinda fun too.

Bob
 
Cool! Thanks for 'taking us along' with you Charlie,
I love seeing fellas learn like this,and in the near future hope to find someone in my area that I can learn from!
Keep up the good work buddy!
 
Back
Top