here are the 60 degree dies for my press :

Here's the wedges w/ the six fingers of the snowflake:

Since I wanted to insure the integrity of the hexagonal snowflake, I placed all into a can. Unfortunately it required a 4" can which meant enlarging the opening in my forge by 1/4" inch. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

I filled the center of the snowflake design with a 4% nickel powder and the remainder with powdered 1084:

Believe me that a 4" x 4" x 6" billet takes a long time to come up to welding heat and the radiant heat while working it was like nothing that I have experienced. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the steel workers of old that worked with huge billets.

Here's the welded billet ready for drawing out. I'll try to get this done tomorrow and show the progress. We're supposed to get our first winter storm of the season tomorrow which should make for a good day to do some forging.

Gary

Very cool, Thanks for taking the time Gary. I look forward to the rest of this.

Awesome, Gary!!

Thanks, buddy.

But it kept the shop nice and warm. Very neat Gary, I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

Brion

Great WIP! Gary,

I'm looking forward to the results!

Russell

Thank you Gary for taking the time to post this Work in Progress! It looks very interesting and I am looking forward to seeing the rest.

We could use some of the heat at our place as it is 6 degrees tonight and dropping.

No matter what the calendar says I think that I can say that winter is here in Branson as there is a layer of ice & sleet covering everything. It's been a good day to have the forge going though. I got a little farther on today with this WIP.

Here's the can drawn out (or at least one half of it). Rather than drawing it into a rectangle as I normally do when preparing to do a tile cut I left it square so as to not distort the pattern any more than necessary.

The snowflake pattern distorted a little on me but not terribly. The nickel powder crept out of the center a little on me but I figured that some of that would be unavoidable. I had the outside of the wedges MIG welded but there was no good way to weld the inside seams. The original pieces fit closely in the middle but obviously moved some while getting everything welded.

From here I plan on doing a tile cut. Then once I have that welded and the blade pointed, I'm going to weld a twist pattern to the top & bottom of the blade to give it a bit of the look of a wreath surrounding the snow flakes. I'll try to keep you updated as I go.

Gary

Gary, are you using the press for all your welding, and shaping or do you use a power hammer and the press?

I haven't done a pattern that complex. It looks like it would very difficult keeping the center in the center.

Looking forward to the rest of this project.

Russell

|quoted:

Gary, are you using the press for all your welding, and shaping or do you use a power hammer and the press?

I haven't done a pattern that complex. It looks like it would very difficult keeping the center in the center.

Looking forward to the rest of this project.

Russell

I use a press for most of my welding. I tried using multiple small squeezes to keep the integrity of the pattern keeping the billet as square as possible throughout the process. The hard part was keeping the six wedges in place. If it had been four instead of six it would have been much easier.

Gary

Gary, It is going to make a really cool pattern. You said a couple wedges slipped on you. I have not done any can damascus as of yet, But here is an idea, but could you make your can 6 sided as well, and weld it up and work it down as a 6 sided billet then square up at the end to minimize the slippage. Like I said, I have not done any in a can, so let me know if it could even be done as a 6 sided billet.

That's cool Gary! Looking forward to seeing how it comes out!

|quoted:

Gary, It is going to make a really cool pattern. You said a couple wedges slipped on you. I have not done any can damascus as of yet, But here is an idea, but could you make your can 6 sided as well, and weld it up and work it down as a 6 sided billet then square up at the end to minimize the slippage. Like I said, I have not done any in a can, so let me know if it could even be done as a 6 sided billet.

Hi Landon,

The main reason that I put it in a can was to turn the hexagon into a square so it could be tile cut. It was the only way that I could think of to accomplish this. Had I welded it solid as a hexagon and then forged that into a square it would have distorted the design. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> When I first committed to this project I didn't think about all snowflakes being six sided.

That's where the challenge (and the fun) comes into it though.

The winter storm kept me out of the shop today but I may get out there tomorrow. [Here we've got 10 of snow on top of 1/4 of ice.] Guys like Dan or Karl may be used to that kind of weather but us hillbillies here in Branson don't see that kind of storm very often.

Gary

Gary

We have at least 12 inches of snow on the ground with more on the way and it was 2 degrees when I walked down to the shop this morning.

Wow. All this talk about snow and ice. I just finally got around to picking the last of the vegetables in the garden today.....we had a cold snap here as well. It got down to 25 degrees last night. After I cleaned out the peppers, a couple of tomatoes, and the onions I pulled up the cantaloupe and cucumber plants and added them to the compost. That's life in the desert..... <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//blink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' />