Haven't posted in awhile but I am in the process of a blade and ran into a bit of a problem. It is a BIG Bowie....12" blade.....01 tool steel and L6 in a low layer count, twisted slow, cut into four, restacked and welded.

I forged the blade to shape and started to shape of the profile a bit when I noticed about an inch long dark line right at the center weld, right at the clip.

What I did was to flux the area....come up to weld heat, and squish if gently in the press.

As I type I am waiting for the blade to cool.....so far it looks like it welded up shut.

I have seen people flux little shuts in cable and tap them shut a bit......does anyone here have any experience in what I just did on the billet?

I will post later and let you know my result.

Greg

Good to hear from you again
Greg i try doing it with a lot of flux and a small hammer --tap tap tap
I have had this to happen more than not when I did not cut enough of the billet ends off
BOWIE 0 days DAMASCUS FREE

Greg, you mentioned you "twisted" it,, here is what happened to me: I made up my first twist billet just a few weeks ago, a low layer count, twisted it at about 3/4" square.... my mistake... I did not grind it back sort of flat, so the "valleys" in the twists kinda folded in on themselves when I squished it flat. When I profiled out the blades, (yes I went that far) I now have these hole/voids that run in the same pattern as my twist lines. Not many, just a few per knife blade! YES,, very ugly! I will do things different next time, I also won't forget this "learning" experience. Perhaps this helps, I did not see these until I had the blades done to the point of profiling to shape. ----jon

Thanks for the replies!

Well....so far so good. My initial grinding on the blade shows that those areas shut themselves......this was done with the press.

If anymore appear I will use Ron's "tap,tap" method.....but I think this one is good to go.

So far it looks like stacking the slow twist flattened out the twist pattern an I have a waterfall look of bright L6 running through all the O1 in broad lines. I will post the blade pics here in a few days or so.

BTW....the press is running great Ron.....but my customers won't let me play :(

Greg
Im also a fan of the "tapy tapy tapy" method, to me it gives the steel more of a push togather, than the hit ans slide you can sometimes get with the press.

This may sound wierd, but Ive seen steel at a welding heat with plenty of flux slide apart under the press like they were covered in grease. This is whay I mean by hit and slide, when its under pressure, its "slick" with flux, and can shift. The taping method will let it go at its own rate.

Plus I belive by slowly closing the cold shut, you give any "crud" in there ample opritunity to get out.

This may seem like a quirky way to explain it, but its the best way for this old country bumpkin to get it across, hope someone can put it better!

God Bless
Mike