yep, thats one way

Karl

Kerosene was mentioned in this thread and since it is a proven method for forge welding,and since you will not start on this until you get to your new shop, I would suggest setting the chain up for your billet less the handle and placing it in a sealed container filled with kerosene.

By doing this, the kerosene will have time to work into all the tight places within the chain.

Brian

Hello Karl...

Some more thoughts...

You could holler at Audra and Mike Draper, or Dave Banks. Any of them would get you in touch with John Strohecker (all 4 in Riverton, Wyo.). John has built a lot of motor cycle chain damascus... mostly boxed and a lot of it with a fine-pattern 1095/15N20 edge. John is a Harley guy and he knows about losing friends and the reason for the project you have. John is a heck of a nice guy, too.

Using bright powdered metal really helps the pattern differentiation. Kelly Cupples has both dark and white powders and has, in the past, had the white with graphite powder in it... 0.80% C, I believe. Before Kelly offered carbon-boosted white powder, I got some directions from him and did it myself (chainsaw damascus). It's a simple thing to do... percent weight of powdered metal to percent weight of graphite and some WD-40 to stick the graphite to the metal bits and keep it from settling out. Carbon diffusion would equalize the carbon level through all the pieces in a short-ish time... even without folding. As in, once the billet is solid, soak it for a while. I can't say exactly how long, but my belief is it would be a reasonable enough period.

Mike