[TheForge] Re: Powder Damascus

[Chuck Robinson]

Mike & Roger,
Rogers description is pretty accurate except, I would add that, the tube
should be about 6" long ( there is a lot of end waste).
I super glue my nickel foil to a cardboard square that snugly slides down
into the tube. the end plates should be 2X the tube wall thickness.
You must tamp down the powder in the tube to make it dense enough that the
nickel foil doesn't distort during the pressing operation.
You had better leave a small weep hole when you weld the top cap on to
relieve the pressure as the WD 40 gasses off.
The can is slowly heated and pressed many times to  consolidate the powder
until it finely completely reaches welding temperature.
Some one mentioned aluminum foil, no way, the material must be selected for
compatible melting points. The advantage of this process is that you can add
inconel. stainless and other metals that can generally only be forge welded
in an inert environment.
 The initial forged billet is usually stacked and re-welded several times to
develop  a more interesting design.
Some smiths also use dies to distort the design after welding, this usually
results in a more organic design.
Then there are folks like Rich Furrier who mix up designer tubes of powdered
steel and powdered  alloying elements and use the cans to weld up custom
alloyed steel billets. they make one of a kind blades out of exotic steel
alloys not available commercially.
You probably have been exposed more info about PMMD than you really ever
cared to know.
I uploaded a pic of a PMMD belt buckle to the recent works file Pic #27
Chuck