Sad day in mudvile

today I weld up the billet and failed . It went well at first

 the weld looked good even if i need to work my control a bit as it's not as straight and even that i like,

The I started to work it down and shape it and it failed miserably this billet will go in the pile to be used for something else but it will not work as I had planed. I think it was the L6 too much of it in the wrong place. I'm going to go ride my beast and pout for a day or two and start over.as they say if you don't try you can't fail.... or secede . sign next week we try again.

today cleaned up the 1080, and the L6  and cut to size

Now I stacked and tied up the billet

It's now ready to weld I have it in a borax soak just because of the amount rust on the 1080, and L6.
I figure I should have it welded by the end of the week depending on work load.

today is a day of hmmmm. cleaned up the Wrought Iron bar  and looked at the L6 and 1080 . How am I going to stack this the 1080 and L6 is 0.04" the wrought Iron is 0.1"  so I see two patterns
1) WI,,L6,1080,L6
2)WI, 1080,L6 1080
Pattern one will be more flashy with less carbon migration.
Pattern two will be more subtle and will have more carbon migration.
as this is the body of the knife carbon migration is not really an issue. 
time to sleep on it.

Composite Knife Project 

I decided to make my first composite knife and friends asked me to make a record of it. So this is it.

After careful thought  (that is I walked into my shop and looked at what I had laying around) I have decided that the materials will be L6 , 1080, and Wrought Iron.

Wrought Iron can not be ordered in given sizes so step one is to forge some of my Wrought Iron into  the right size to be stacked for  the billet. 

Starting piece Wrought Iron Flat side view

Starting piece Wrought Iron Side view

 

 

Forged out  

Finished Wrought Iron flat view

 I finished at about 10th of inch wide, I debated on  going  thinner but Wrought Iron has it's own  pattern.  If I go too thin then I might lose it so I stopped at 10th of inch

Finished Wrought Iron side view