u/Dessitroya

Hi guys Andries here!

So here is the most recent knife I posted on this page, from its basic beginning stages.

I start with a piece of 80crv2 as the core material, at about 3.5mm, 2 pieces of 0.8mm copper liners and 2 pieces of low layer damascus

I then clean up all the weld surfaces to a 60 grit finish, and spray them with WD-40 as soon I have finished grinding, to prevent oxidation. The copper layers are also ground to be at least 1mm narrower and shorter than the other layers.

I then MIG weld the entire billet shut, to stop the copper from leaking out in forging. 2 layers of welding works best in my experience.

After welding I can heat up the billet past coppers melting point of 1085°C and start forging it out. I do all the forging by hand, and a billet like this, that has to go down to 4mm takes about 2 hours to forge down.

I then cut out the blade, surface grind, rough grind and then harden it.

Next I finish grinding the bevels before sanding and etching the blade. The acid etch takes about 30 minutes with my mixture to get the perfect finish.

The next steps are handle fitting but I won't go into that, just wanted to share my steel making process for those that were interested in trying it themselves!

Probably the weirdest handle I've ever made. 12 inch chefs knife with giraffe bone on one side, and abalone shell on the other

A lot of people have asked how I forge these billets and make these knives. I thought I'd make a quick post about it:)