How I make Stainless Damascus

So I don't have pictures of the set up. But basically what I have rocking is alternating sheets of .018" 304 and 316 stainless. The addition of a small amount of nickle in the 316 alloy gives the contrast.

The sheets are about 1" x 1.5", sandwiched between two 3/8" thick stainless blocks, compressed to 16 tons with a hydraulic press, and bolted in place. It doesn't look like it here, but I can't stress enough the cleanliness involved in the set up. The plates must be completely free of oxides, oils, everything.

I sanded the pieces to 400 grit, then red scotchbrite, then used lint free cloth and lacquer thinner, followed by denatured alcohol. Definitely wear nitrile gloves to keep away finger oils.

I've since upgraded forges, but this one is a 25lb propane cylinder lined with sealed ceramic fiber blanket.

Stainless creates incredibly hard and durable oxides when it's heated like this. Ideally this would all be done in a stainless steel foil pouch, backfilled with charcoal to absorb free oxygen and heated in an electronically/atmospherically controlled oven to about 2400 degrees F.

I have a homemade gate to hell, but it works too.

The rule of thumb for heat treatment is 1 hour per inch of thickness, so I soaked this piece for about 2 hours at near melting temperature.

After the plates are removed, oxides cleaned up, and forging to a block.

Voila

You can see the third layer up I accidentally doubled up a piece of 316 and ended up with an extra thick layer. Oops.

It's then drawn out and twisted many times to make the pattern

And then flattened

Here's a heel from the block, I carry this on my keychain now.

The most exciting part, the first reveal. Here I'm etching in ferric chloride to get a pattern preview.

Another pattern shot.

Measure 4 times and cut.

Then take it...

and make a circle.

Silver soldering the joint.

Now it's together but not cleaned up yet. I use a 2x72 belt grinder from Grizzly Industrial for most of my finish work.

Awwww yissssss

Finish products