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Tutorials - Making Cable
Damascus - No Hammer Marks
A personal technique to forge steel cable showing the strands but
leaving no hammering marks. |
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From some time now I had this idea in my head about
an integral cable damascus knife on which the only ground part were
the bevels, and the rest of the knife showed the exact shape of the
original braids of the cable.
I wanted the bolster to be round, without showing the hammer marks
and leaving the cable strands twisted as on the original instead of
a welded steel mass to acid etch later.
Once I had that idea, I started thinking how to make it properly and
surprisingly enough, the results were exactly as I wanted them to
be.
First thing I did, was cutting a piece of 1" diameter cable of
the same lenght of the desired knife (both blade and bolster)
Then I tied up the ends with a piece of wire to prevent it from coming
apart. After that I took off about half of the inner strand of the
cable to replace it with a barstock of steel of the same diameter
of the extracted strand. (Pictures 1, 2 and 3)
In this case, I used a threaded 3/8" barstock. (Pictures
4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) |
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| Picture 1 |
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Picture 2 |
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Picture 3 |
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Picture 4 |
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Picture 5 |
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Picture 6 |
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Picture 7 |
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Picture 8 |
Just done. (Pictures 9 and 10)
After that, I cutted the extra inner strand on the other end. (Picture
11)
Then I welded that end of the cable and took the wires away. (Pictures
12, 13, 14 and 15)
After that, I placed the cable into a 304 stainless steel pipe. The
purpose of the nut is to hold a stainless steel washer against the
pipe to close this end of the container.
The pipe works to (as well as to prevent the decarburization of the
steel) reduce the hammer marks by softening the hits, thus allowing
the preservation of the original shape of the cable. (Pictures
16 and 17) |
| Picture 9 |
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Picture 10 |
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Picture 11 |
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Picture 12 |
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Picture 13 |
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Picture 14 |
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Picture 15 |
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Picture 16 |
This end will get closed with an electric welder. (Picture
18)
To close the other end, I made 2 cuts on the pipe at 90 degrees from
each other so I can hammer it close. (Pictures 19, 20 and 21)
Forging the blade. Since I can't shape the tip of the knife because
it's inside the pipe, I "only" hammered it til the desired
thickness. If I over hammer it, the pipe might break. (Pictures
22, 23 and 24) |
| Picture 17 |
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Picture 18 |
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Picture 19 |
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Picture 20 |
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Picture 21 |
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Picture 22 |
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Picture 23 |
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Picture 24 |
Of course, I have to reheat the cable on the oven several
times before I can stop hammering. (Pictures 25, 26, 27, 28 and
29)
Forged cable, still wrapped on the stainless pipe. (Pictures 30
and 31)
In order to take the pipe away I used a grinder to cut the steel (wich
didn't weld to the cable as it was stainless) (Picture 32) |
| Picture 25 |
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Picture 26 |
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Picture 27 |
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Picture 28 |
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Picture 29 |
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Picture 30 |
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Picture 31 |
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Picture 32 |
Future blade now retieved from the pipe. (Pictures
33 and 34)
Shaped blade. (Pictures 35 and 36)
Beggining of the grinding process. The idea is to make a knife without
changing the original looks of the cable, but still very capable of
use. This will have this rustic finish but very utilitarian grinds,
both in the main edge as on the swedge. (Pictures 37, 38 and 39) |
| Picture 33 |
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Picture 34 |
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Picture 35 |
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Picture 36 |
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Picture 37 |
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Picture 38 |
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Picture 39 |
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