Copper River

Jesse, that is outstanding. Would you consider sharing how you did the billet to get the copper between the layers of steel? What is the core steel?

Again I say "Outstanding work", not only on the copper highlights in the blade, but the total knife.
 
Thanks Ken. Core steel is 1084, the damascus is 15n20/1095. I stacked the premade damascus, copper and 1084 together and welded the outside of the stack. The weld had many porosities from the copper. I think on the next one I'd make the copper 1/8" smaller all around trying for a better weld. The other learning lesson is I think I overheated one end of the billet (tip) and squeezed more of the copper out.
 
That's a sweet knife! The spine looks fantastic! Is the "island" where "Latham" is written made from weld bead?

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
 
I thought that might have been how you did the billet - sure does look good.

I did my first copper billet in the forge and had a problem with the copper melting. The last few billets with copper I've done in the HT oven so the copper can be kept just below the melting point. With the oven I've both welded the edges to seal the copper, and also with no welding, just wrap in SS foil, heat and set the weld in the press. Well, it's not actually "welded", but more like "pressure soldered".

I "think" I like your method of having the copper about 1/8" inside, then seal welding the billet.

Again, a job well done on that Bowie.
 
Interesting, but I am still not sure I would want a non hardenable metal in my blade, especially that close to the edge. But, to be fair, I feel the same way about wrought iron, low carbon steel and pure nickel. Not singling out copper.
 
jmforge said:
I am still not sure I would want a non hardenable metal in my blade, especially that close to the edge.
Click to expand...
I have a tendency to agree. One of the things I learned on this project is I didn't start with enough core thickness. The core started as .215, the damascus layers were about the same and the copper was a little over .062.
 
I did this with a friction folder the Copper I used was a bit to thin IMO. Next one plan on using some L copper pipe and splitting and flatting it.
 
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