San Mai blade hand forged

[Bjankowski]

I don't have a power hammer or the room to put it in my shop, so all my forge welding is done by hand, one day I will when I move into a bigger shop. This one has 1095 core sandwiched between 15n20. I don't know how to post a video on here, I do have a video of me making it on my Facebook Page. I'm going to leave the hammer marks on it and I'm not sure what handle I'm going to put on it. I still have to put the final polish on it and I'll do that probably after the first of the year. I'm having cataract surgery in the morning so need to recover and get the holidays over with before returning back to the shop.
90 % of all my work from now on will be some sort of forged welded blades.

[SamHarper]

It looks pretty cool. I've really had a thing for san mai blades lately. I just think they look really cool, and i'd like to try one some day.

Since you do all of yours by hand, I'm curious about something. About what percentage would you say you are successful? By "successful," I mean your weld works and there is no delamination or anything like that.

Also, I'm curious what kind of lens implants you're getting. My brother-in-law told me about multi-focal lenses earlier this year, and I did a lot of reading around about it. It turns out there's this one company that makes liquid-filled lenses that work just like your natural lens, and it gives you 20/20 vision at all distances. Unfortunately, it's not FDA approved yet, and insurance won't cover it. If I could, that's what I would get. Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOUBJLc_tMQ

[Bjankowski]

It looks pretty cool. I've really had a thing for san mai blades lately. I just think they look really cool, and i'd like to try one some day.

Since you do all of yours by hand, I'm curious about something. About what percentage would you say you are successful? By "successful," I mean your weld works and there is no delamination or anything like that.

Also, I'm curious what kind of lens implants you're getting. My brother-in-law told me about multi-focal lenses earlier this year, and I did a lot of reading around about it. It turns out there's this one company that makes liquid-filled lenses that work just like your natural lens, and it gives you 20/20 vision at all distances. Unfortunately, it's not FDA approved yet, and insurance won't cover it. If I could, that's what I would get. Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOUBJLc_tMQ

Sam all my San Mai's are 100%, but I do take great care in preparing the steel. I make sure they are clean 120 on the belt grinder, Acetone to clean them, clamp them together tight in as many places you can. I then wire weld both ends and half way on both sides. Heat to orange, flux, heat to orange, and start the welding process, not with big hammer blows, and flux more, after about three times of repeating that process I hit harder blows and keep fluxing until I'm shaping the blade. Flux is cheap, don't forget to wire brush the scale each time you hit the anvil.

I'm just getting cataract surgery, with the regular lens they use. I didn't pay the extra $1,200.00 that insurance wouldn't cover. Heck I've been wearing glasses all my life, no big deal for me.

[sierracharlie338]

Very nice! Forge welding with a hand hammer is a chore for sure. I have a billet I am working on but it just good old damascus.