80CrV2/304 Stainless laminate WIP.

[irbailey]

Last night I decided to have a go at something I've been thinking of for a while. I don't generally like forging, as it seems a hard way to do what can be done quicker with a grinder.
The only thing I do like about it is the fact some interesting material can be made with relative ease. After all, if an idiot like me can do it, anyone can.
So, here we go....
First picture is the main ingedients - two pieces of 304 stainless and one piece of 80CrV2.

Next step is clamping the pieces together ready to weld them.

The pieces are then welded together with a normal arc welder. I do three sides and then spray WD40 into the billet before welding the final side. This will burn and get rid of any oxygen in the billet. No oxygen means scale won't form. If it does, the weld won't work, and that's not good

I usually use my one brick forge for heating etc, but I figured that for this I'd better get my state of the art forge out. (Least it was in 1847)

Here's a picture to shock all you proper forgists out there! My coke that was last changed in about 1984. It's a mixture of proper coke, coal, wood, and god knows what else. It does make steel turn orange though and that's what matters.

Here's my power hammer. Unfortunately the power comes from my left arm. Thankfully, for reasons best not discussed on here, my left arm is very well developed.

Here's my fat hand working the bellows. The handle I welded onto the billet can be seen sticking out of the 'coke'.

[irbailey]

After some serious sweating and hammering, the billet looked like this.

Once I was happy with the size of the billet, I 'forged' the blade shape using a different kind of hammer called a grinder.

I slightly flattened the sides on the grinder and then took it to the milling machine to mill the scale off and get a nice parallel billet.

Here's the mill in action

Once I had a nice flat parallel piece of steel I marked out the tang and grind lines. The tang will be rivetted hence the shortness. I wanted to get as much blade as possible and rivetted tangs are a good way of doing it.

Before I started to grind, I dunked the blade in a 1:4 solution of Ferric Chloride to etch the core. I usually dunk it in and leave it to soak for however long it takes me to roll and smoke a cigarette.

If the forging went ok, the edge should run nicely up the centre of the billet like this...

[irbailey]

Now it's time to do some grinding....

The bevels are ground using a nice fresh 60 grit belt. Once this is done, the blade is popped back into the FC and I have another fag break. Once it's taken out it should show up the laminate pattern we're looking for.

Here's the reverse side.

The spine.

And finally the edge.

That's it for now. Let me know if you want to see the rest. I don't want to bore you.
Thanks for looking,

Ian

[Scrumpy]

Fantastic post mate but its a bit like watching a porno and asking if you want to see the cum shot!

YES, post the rest!!

[irbailey]

Now you 'cum' to mention it, I guess it is.
Fair enough, next installment should be fitting the guard, etc on Sunday.

Cheers for looking,

Ian

[ZDP-189]

Excellent tools and excellent work. I'm jealous on both counts.

[Celt_Ginger]

Lordy, it's like watching the old Black and Whire Flash Gordon or the Lone Ranger on Saturday mornings......... Tune in for the next exciting episode. Can't wait.

[Bernie Garland]

Top Knife and post Ian

Bernie

[robbi]

brilliant post mate, thanks for taking time out and doing it, really informative.

[Scrumpy]

Where do you get 80CrV2 from new? Or are you hacking up an old saw blade?