Can you explain, straight radial?

[jonwelder]

Dear Matt, Great posts!! Can you explain the straight radial? Perhaps I should start with that! -----Jon

[Cadillac Forge]

here an old post from ron bowie claiborne it explains more than you asked but you should find it helpful
""Start out with 1/4 in thick pieces and thin nickel ?10 will give you a little over 2 ? high and use 11/2 ? wide
The 2 ? ? reducing to the 1 ?" as you do this the 1 ? ? will try to get wider keep it to the size that you started with till you have it square at 1 ?" `s fold like building the w about 5 times or check to see if it looks like squares /.on the end
Place under the v Dies and radial the billet
to radial is to cut a bar down the middle a set of v dies one on top one on the bottom when this is done it make the pattern bend to the middle at the v`s leaving the outside about the same .when this is done looking at the end of the billet it will look like a butterfly wings ,cut the billet in half ,you know have 4 peace`s that are long but the ends are a triangle shape , grind side clean of slags place the peace`s back together building a square , tack weld these peace`s on the ends to hold in place -weld this back up with a set of squaring dies now looking at the end of the billet you have the spider web look you can at this time cut it to tile it or accordion it or stack it you also can progress it but you have one way. They are others .
Start with 4 peace of steel ?? x ?? place a thin peace of nickle in the middle like a cross
progress this each time you re-stack it grind the sides place nickle in it keep going till you have 16 squares this should happen in the first re-stack , then follow the radial process
another way is to place in a can the point is to get the square welded and radial
if you know a way I would be glade to hear it but its easer than I have made it sound ,
its late i may read this tomorrow and fall out , just so you will know , the trick is getting the spider and fly on the web that can be done too but not tonight if we can keep you thinking you will come up with great patterns
Bowie 15 day Damascus free but weakening"""""
a straight billet take a simple damascus lower layer count works best then""Place under the v Dies and radial the billet
to radial is to cut a bar down the middle a set of v dies one on top one on the bottom when this is done it make the pattern bend to the middle at the v`s leaving the outside about the same .when this is done looking at the end of the billet it will look like a butterfly wings ,cut the billet in half ,you know have 4 peace`s that are long but the ends are a triangle shape , grind side clean of slags place the peace`s back together building a square , tack weld these peace`s on the ends to hold in place -weld this back up with a set of squaring dies after welding the pattern will be in the ends of the new billet you can build off of that or tile or accordian cut it for use even if you mess it up or as i often do get frustrated with the weld up to the point of failure and just wad it up -force it to weld
draw out a billet and have always been happy with the unusal patterns so its never a waiste just another lesson hope this helps bb

[Matt Walker]

Thanks Bruce,
Here is a drawing Bowi made for me, to go with your post.

Jon, It really is simpler than it sounds. You're pinching in two (or cutting with a real dull tool) to get the butterfly shape. What Cadillac is saying about wading it up if it goes bad is what I was trying to tell you in the other thread. Have faith in the squaring dies. Believe they are magic.
Matt

[jonwelder]

Matt, Thanks for the replys,, I follow you right up to re-welding the radials back and squaring up,, but at this point, doesn't the "radial" pattern get lost when you make it into something like an accordion cut? Just trying to figure things out ahead of time. I built a low layer count billet tonight, will weld/forge it down tomorrow. --Jon

[Matt Walker]

Jon, Yeah there is some distortion in accordion cutting. The end pattern will still be exposed. And some distortion may not be a bad thing. Depending on what you want and personal preference. Look at the bowie currently on Ed Caffrey's home page. http://www.caffreyknives.net/index.html
I'm not sure what all he has going on there but it looks like a radial accordion cut running up the upper center of the blade. I think it's cool how one radial flows into the next.
The other option is working with tiles depending on your confidence and willingness to gamble. Some friends and I recently worked with modeling clay for most of a day. I highly recommend trying it. And if you haven't seen Ed's videos yet, get them before you go much further. If they had ben available when I started working with this stuff I would have been saved a lot of learning the hard way.
Good luck .. Matt

[Burke]

Jon you can do a four way restack of the radial billet and then use the ferry flip to create a bar for a blade. It looks like the pattern in Ed's blade is a radial pattern that has been stacked up in a natural progression method and then accordian cut.