# Father and Son Hunting Knife set and how to make Damascus steel



## chuck richards

I am heading off to Texas this Thursday for a Pig Hunt with my oldest son. This is the first time we will have hunted together since about 1993. I decided to commemorate the event by making a set of hunters.

These are made from 1095 and 15N20 steel. The damascus is a Turkish Twist pattern. The blades are 4.5" long. Fixtures are 416SS with black, red and phosphor bronze spacers. The top knife has a Brown dyed and stabilized Maple handle. The bottom knife has a handle of stabilized claro walnut.

Here are some pics










Blade Close Ups


















And the handles









Thanks for looking


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## youngdon

WOW !!! Those are b e a u t i f u l Chuck...did I say WOW ?


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## El Gato Loco

Chuck,

Every time you post more pics, you have me wanting for more knives! Once again.... beautiful work!


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## oneshotcowboy

those are completly awesome man.


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## hassell

Some real beauts there.


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## chuck richards

Thanks Guys. Hopfully I will have some results pictures next week.


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## bones44

Those are gorgeous Chuck ! Good luck and enjoy your time with your son !!


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## Mick105

Wow great job Chuck! They look great! Good luck on your hunt.


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## 220swift

That's a great looking set of knives. I'll bet they work just as good. Nice momentos for you and your son.


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## prairiewolf

Great looking knives!! I like the contrast in the Maple one. very nice


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## r3v0lution

Those look awesome!! Great job..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Kansascaller

WOW!! You will make a memory that will last forever!


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## dwtrees

I love the look of those knives. Do you make them to sell also?


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## saskredneck

awsome, one day i hope mine look that good


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## fr3db3ar

Finally got a chance to see these from home. My goodness, that is some beautiful work. My hat is off to you sir.


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## El Gato Loco

He's got more eye candy here:

http://www.woodchuckforge.com

And yes.... He does sell them.


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## chuck richards

Sorry guys for taking so long to update this thread. We had a great time. My friend Picked us up at the Aiport on Thursday evening. We made it to his house just in time for a great dinner. After that it was down to business. We headed out to the property and scanned for hogs with his NV scope. Well we hunted hogs pretty hard for 2 days and well into the night. Lots of sign but no hogs to be seen. He had set up a guided hunt for our last night. We met up with the guide about 5pm on Saturday night. He had a nice quad side by side and all the gear we needed for a night hog hunt. We hit our first spot about 7pm. Within 30 minutes, just before sunset the first group came in. We were able to stalk to within 75yds and opened fire. Well 15-20 pigs went running in all directions and we did not hit a single one. Well at least we could not tell if we did. None went down and it was too wet and getting to dark to find any blood trail. So we motored around for a couple of hours. Stopping to glass with the night vision and thermal units. Well finally back at the first site again and there was a hog on the bait. So again we stalk to within 75yds, could have gotten closer but there was a fence in the way. So the guide got my son and I set up on shooting sticks and gave us a 3 count and we fired. Here was the result.










My son, the good looking one with a beard, was shooting the guides 6.8 and I was shooting my friends 5.56 suppressed. The hog was hit with the first volley but it took a couple more shots to bring it down. He was hit hard in the spine so he did not go anywhere. He went around 250lbs. we both took coolers home that weighed 50lbs each of deboned meat. The knives performed great, BTW the son chose the bottom one so I get the top knife.

It was a great time and we will have the meories for a long time. We are already planning our next hunt. More time and take our own rifles. Next year for sure.

Thanks for looking


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## chuck richards

dwtrees said:


> I love the look of those knives. Do you make them to sell also?


I do sell the knives. Chris was kind enough to provide you with my website. I am working on a new site but it might be a few weeks before it is up and running. The old one will still be there though, at least until the ISP gets tired of me. I normally make customs to order but have a few I post on my site from time to time taht are for sale.


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## chuck richards

Here's a couple shots of the dressing out process. Sorry most of the pics just did not turn out. It was night and cell phone pics just don't worl that well. Anyway rinsing him down,










And after most of the work is done.


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## hassell

Congrats. on the hunt, sounds like quite the adventure.


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## bones44

Congrats and thanks for sharing Chuck. Always nice to spend time with family on those special hunts. May you guys have many more !


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## youngdon

Congrats to you and your son Chuck. Thanks for sharing the fine words and pictures.


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## chuck richards

I had a request to show how I make damascus from another site. So I will post my WIP here. If it is not appropriate please delete

Ok I will get started. These are file pictures I have done in the past and may not be the actual sequence taken to make these knives but will provide an idea of what is done.

First select the steel. In this case 1095 simple carbon steel, the thicker bars and 15N20 a simple carbon steel with 3% nickel added.









Weld the ends to prevent them coming apart and prep to weld on side plates.









The billet welded up ready to get hot. 









I do a process called "Dry Welding" in which I seal the billet inside a canister. This eliminated the problems with oxidation. I do not have to use flux to get the billet to weld. The internal parts are only tacked together and will be forged welded to create a solid block of steel.

Now lets warm things up a bit.

Inside the forge








The forge from the outside









How hot is it?









That is 2322F. I run between 2250f-2350f. Now it needs to soak for about 30-45minutes to ensure the inside of the billet is at temp. If it is too cold it will not weld.


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## chuck richards

OK continuing on.

Pull out the hot billet and it's time to meet my little friend. A 50 ton 4 poster press I modified for forging.










Here you can see the three phases leading up to this point. A HOT billet after the first press, one that has had the sides welded on and on waiting for the sides.










Removing the outer skin. It was used purely to prevent scale. It is disposed of. See the nice clean surfaces underneath.


















From this point the billet is manipulated in the press and power hammer to get the final pattern I desire. I will re-stack and weld the billet sealing the seams to prevent scale and thus obtaining a perfect weld.










As you can see I added a bit of new material per the customers request on this billet.

Here is a shot of me on the power hammer.










After I completed the stack to about 250 layers I needed to twist a large diameter billet. A friend volunteered to come on up and do some grunt work. Just starting the twist.










More to follow.


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## chuck richards

Here is the billet after the final twist. If you look really close you can see the layers.










I cut of about a 4lb section of the best twist and forged this bar. It was about 14" long x 2.25" wide.









Forged to shape. To give a bit of prospective the anvil top is 18.5 inches across.










Then she has to be ground. Top blade was the original I had done and turned out to be a bit undersized. The bottom blade was the one from the billet pictured. This was just prior to heat treating.









Lets take a look at the pattern










Sorry, can't find the finished shot of that knife but here is the big brother. Finished the same with a wood that is called Chalkte Viga. Very cool wood, if you have this in your hand the wood looks 3-d









That is a very cursory how to an making a damascus knife. The blade is etched to bring out the pattern but only to reveal the layers. The pattern is in the steel not on the surface.

Hope this helps you all understand the amount of work that goes into making one of these. It is done for the beauty more than anything else. And it also shows the skill of the smith.


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## chuck richards

Here she is. It is now at her new home in Malaysia.










She was dubbed Little sister by the owner since she was the second blade made but she was actually larger in just about every dimension.


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## youngdon

Wow ! I had a rough idea as to how it was done but it is awesome to see it all in sequence. Thanks for sharing those pics Chuck, you are certainly a highly skilled smith


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## youngdon

How many average sized knives would you say you normally get out of a twist that size Chuck ?


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## Mattuk

Your knifes are just stunning! Well done on a great hog hunt and enjoying time together with your son. Thanks for sharing.


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## bones44

Amazing work Chuck ! I have a small forge that I usually mess around with here. It's nice to see how you do all your processes. I really enjoyed this post. Thanks so much for sharing.


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## hassell

Likewise from this end, thanks for sharing skills from the heart.


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## prairiewolf

Thanks for posting the process. I always wondered how it was actually done. Great post!!


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## Mick105

Great pics thanks for sharing. Very interesting to see all that goes into it. Thanks again.


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## chuck richards

Thanks all.

Don, I would not normally make a twist that big but a billet that size should yield 15-20 4-5" blades. The ends on that billet are scrap so I May have had 8lbs of good steel. Then i had to use some for the fixtures too. I made about 6 knives out of the usable steel in that billet. Including big sister.


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## youngdon

www.woodchuckforge.com

Here is a link to Chucks site if you all would like to look at more of his artwork !


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## 220swift

Thanks for the info Chuck. Those are some beautiful blades!!!!!


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## chuck richards

Thanks Don. I need to activate the link. Just figured out how to do it. Now I need to get to a computer. On the droid right now. Makes it tough.


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## Antlerz22

Beautiful work Chuck, how does that particular type of steel hold an edge; and does it sharpen easily as compared to other alloys/metals etc?


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## chuck richards

Holds an edge great. The knife in the original post dressed out most of a hog. Could have done it all but the son had to get into the action. It did need re-sharpen after but I expect that. Sharpening is relatively easy. I used a small 3x1" diamond stone to bring it back in about a minute. If you maintain the edge it is a lot easier than if you let it go too long. Have not had probelms with chipping either. I would compare the steel in my knives to 1075-1080 somple carbon steel.


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## El Gato Loco

Wow that is amazing, Chuck. I had no idea the amount of work that goes into these things! You know I am already a proud owner of a SWEET knife from you, but now it feels even sweeter.

Thanks a lot for sharing that out here. Very interesting!!!!


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## El Gato Loco

My blade for those who haven't seen it....


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## Mattuk

Stunning!

I don't have fancy knife's for the larder as I'd ruin them, maybe lose them in the field or bloody Hamish would wonder off with them!

Mine are all working knifes.

http://www.bushwear.co.uk/nostyles.php?ProductID=334903&ClassID=139


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## chuck richards

Chris,
I am actually going to make another billet similar to the one used for your knife. I will do a WIP of that process too and post it here for all to enjoy. A friend just dropped off 75 feet of 3/4" cable. Well that is if it will harden but it looks like it should. Testing will tell. It might be a few weeks but I will do it.


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