Loading…
12
I always thought a scrolled twist hurt the steel, until a bladesmith in Tulsa showed me his 3-bar billet
I figured twisting crushed the grain and weakened the bar, but he cut a scrap piece at the weld line and etched it in ferric chloride, and the pattern ran clean with no stress cracks after a 3-cycle quench in Parks 50, so now I am wondering if you all think a tight twist is fine for a working knife or just for show pieces?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
hannah_perry12d ago
Wait, so you're telling me a tight twist doesn't wreck the steel and I've been avoiding cool patterns for nothing? That Tulsa guy basically just flipped everything I thought about grain crush upside down with one scrap cut and an etch. A clean pattern with no cracks after three Parks 50 quenches is pretty hard to argue with, that's not just a wall hanger passing. I'd still keep the twist a bit on the looser side for a hard use blade, but the proof's right there in the acid.
7