moldy Jim
04-02-2001, 12:59 AM
Taikng my lead from Achim, I decided to play with some different off the shelf steel and see what I could do to give them a wootz type pattern grain.
According to what I have read, one of the biggest factors in creating wootz is the repeated heat cycling of the material. Bringing the steel up to slightly below the critical point and allowing it to cool down slowly causes the dendritic structure to grow and become more pronounced.
All the references and Achim's experience prove for over 50 cycles to achieve the proper structure.
Due to this fact I wanted to cycle the steels temperature as many times as possible during the week, and since
we have a programmable HT furnace at work I could set it up and run it while I was working for the company. (It helps to have a boss who is easy to get along with.)
Not NT, but then I don't have lots of free time so I figured for my first try I'd do it this way.
D2 looked like a good subject at first, had some nice qualities and was showing some interesting grain structure.
But after forging out a small blade and hardening it, most of the nice grain structure broke up into smaller segments.
Oh well, I'll try it again. Still it may just be it needs a different temp/hardening technique to work right. It won't be true wootz but it should give a nice texture.
O6 looks like a winner though!
In spite of not having any Vanadium, the Molybdenum looks like it did the trick.
Achim suggested I try the O6 straight and it did seem to work.
I still think I'll try mixing W1/W2, and O6 to match the ancient alloy sometime. I just need to get some high carbon W2, I have the others.
The little blade I made today has a nice subtle woodlike grain when sanded, and it becomes obvious when etched with hot vinegar. Not at all like pattern welded steel, the grain shows the forging flow very well.
Next time I'll try to do a ladder pattern grain and see what happens.
The edge is NASTY sharp!
It sliced a nice little corner out of the tip of my finger while I was wiping the etching acid crud off, went thru the paper towel and my finger real easy.
And that was before I sharpened it!
I'll see if I can get a pic to post tomorrow.
Very exciting to me!
Moldy
According to what I have read, one of the biggest factors in creating wootz is the repeated heat cycling of the material. Bringing the steel up to slightly below the critical point and allowing it to cool down slowly causes the dendritic structure to grow and become more pronounced.
All the references and Achim's experience prove for over 50 cycles to achieve the proper structure.
Due to this fact I wanted to cycle the steels temperature as many times as possible during the week, and since
we have a programmable HT furnace at work I could set it up and run it while I was working for the company. (It helps to have a boss who is easy to get along with.)
Not NT, but then I don't have lots of free time so I figured for my first try I'd do it this way.
D2 looked like a good subject at first, had some nice qualities and was showing some interesting grain structure.
But after forging out a small blade and hardening it, most of the nice grain structure broke up into smaller segments.
Oh well, I'll try it again. Still it may just be it needs a different temp/hardening technique to work right. It won't be true wootz but it should give a nice texture.
O6 looks like a winner though!
In spite of not having any Vanadium, the Molybdenum looks like it did the trick.
Achim suggested I try the O6 straight and it did seem to work.
I still think I'll try mixing W1/W2, and O6 to match the ancient alloy sometime. I just need to get some high carbon W2, I have the others.
The little blade I made today has a nice subtle woodlike grain when sanded, and it becomes obvious when etched with hot vinegar. Not at all like pattern welded steel, the grain shows the forging flow very well.
Next time I'll try to do a ladder pattern grain and see what happens.
The edge is NASTY sharp!
It sliced a nice little corner out of the tip of my finger while I was wiping the etching acid crud off, went thru the paper towel and my finger real easy.
And that was before I sharpened it!
I'll see if I can get a pic to post tomorrow.
Very exciting to me!
Moldy