Forging Firestorm

[TOBY]

This is the tutorial i was going to do at Owens, before i was incapacitated by a naughty neddy.
anyway this is of the back of John N's twisted scrapmascus blade.

Firestorm is a fairly easy way of exposing the W's from a relitavely low layer twisted billet,

So first up we need to make some W's. This is my initial stack which is 13 layers of 15n20 and 20C



This is then welded, turned through 90 deg and forged out into a bar



This bar is then cut into 6 pieces re-stacked and tacked ready for welding



welded up and drawn out into a bar



At this point i run out of gas on my mig welder so from this point forward i only slit the billet and fold over (make sure you have a good heat when doing this as it will just fall apart!) anyway only one more weld to finish the W's



last weld done and billet drawn out into bar (approx 35mm square)



this is our W's finished we now need to twist the bar



You could just forge out into a billet and finish at this stage but i want to make a multi layer stack (but i take a piece off to make a blade at this stage anyway just to see what it comes out like)

this is the billet drawn out to approx 15mm square slitted either side as you go along and stacked 4 deep.



I find i dont have much trouble doing all my welds wet, but i do use a vise to set the initial weld to stop the stack slipping



Then make sure the weld is good by hand, finish it off and draw it out under the power hammer.



this is the finished billet - i have given it a quick grind but still only showing twists at the moment , but i am sure the pattern is in there. will post some pic's when i have ground it back.



The pattern is going to be at its most active in the very centre of the billet, so i will have to remove a fair amout of steel from the billet before we see if we have cocked up!
talking of which i made a propper school boy error and forged my blade to near finished shape, bevels etc... and in so doing washed out just about all of the firestorm pattern
you can just about make out parts of it in places - but its not an unpleasing bit of steel and a good lesson in what not to do

[Mick Maxen]

Nice clean work Toby.

Mick.

[TOBY]

And this is the blade taken off the initial billet (pattern only slightly knackered!!! )

[John N]

looks good so far mate! looking forward to the after pics!

I think it will be a pretty loose pattern as youve done all the drawing out after twisting one big bar, I might be wrong though

Cool idea setting the welds in a vice, never thought of that!

[Mike Blue]

Good job Toby.

[Underhay]

Thanks for the tutorial, a picture paints a thousand words

That's a really beautiful blade

[praktis]

love the pattern of that blade.......!!!!

/Roger

[a6cjn]

Superb, you make it look so easy. That will make up into a special knife.
Look forward to seeing it finished

Chris

[Stew]

I think I understand....

[Aly]

Nice one Toby, Thanks for sharing
Aly

[owen bush]

Call me old fassioned but there is somthing about stacked up bars of hot metal that does it for me!! Nice one Toby
All the best Owen

[bushwacker]

That amount of effort goes a long way to explaining why good mascus has a premium price.

[DCL]

so this is how firestorm is made THANKS i have been wondering about this pattern for some time now
virtual rep for taking time and show this mate
what you use for flux ? borax if yes then what kind of it?

DC

[TOBY]

what you use for flux ? borax if yes then what kind of it?

DC

just bog basic borax, nothing special

[Everything Mac]

looks great toby!
where abouts in dorset are you? id love to have a meet.

mac