Thanks John,
The pattern basically is a 1"square of 1095 surrounded by 15n20 on four sides. Weld, cut into four, stack, drawout, cut into four and stack and so forth.
Once you arrive at the desired size of squares on end view, drawout but keep about 1/2" thick billet then use ladder dies. I also drilled some holes to get the circles.
I then forged the bar a bit then ground down to smooth billet and you have a basic spirograph. I'm going to try a bit different technique and I'll do a WIP soon.
Like the "W" pattern it can be manipulated to give some great patterns. I think the spirograph approach is the start of many Devin THomas designs although I could be wrong. Mick Maxem has a disscussion on British Blades site where he accordions the billet. I think you could arrive at the same end product by doing the initial squares in a can similar to mosaics. Actually you can get a great spider pattern by compressing the squares at an angle. Bill Fiorini taught me this pattern at a Batson Conference 10 years ago.
Paul Spurgas