For an example of what a completed feather pattern looks like, here's a link to another maker's very nice feather pattern. LINK
The idea with this pattern is to create a stack of different steels, then slice through them with a dull cutter, "dragging" the edges in the direction of the cut.
Imagine if you had a stack of sliced cheese, alternating cheddar and swiss. Then imagine you cut the stack with a very dull knife and then pushed it back together. Where the two cut edges meet would have the feather pattern.
I started with 16 layers of 1070 and 15n20. Just like a normal billet of damascus, I welded it into a solid piece, drew it out until it was 16 inches then cut it into four pieces. Stack, weld, repeat until it was 256 layers in final billet.
I cut the feather with an old rough forged blade from a file. I may have made it too sharp, as the "feathers" didn't seem to drag enough. I'm hoping they elongate as I forge the cube into a blade.
This was a lot of fun and a good learning experience.
The next step is to forge the cube into a knife. I'll post an entry when I have a finished blade.
Cheers,
--Dave
16 Layers of 1070 and 15n20 to start
Drawing out to 16 inches
Cut into 4 chunks and stacked. This was done twice.
Forged on the edge into a square for cutting the feather in.
Old knife forged from file driven 3/4's of the way through billet.
Soaking. Getting ready to re-weld after cut.
Re-welded, forged into a cube.
Polished and etched, just for the heck of it.
