Damascus Steel From Milling Chips!

My name is Alec Steele. I am a blacksmith, amateur machinist and all-round maker of all-things metal. We make videos about making interesting things, learning about craft and appreciating the joy of creativity. Great to have you here following along!

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[AlecSteele]

Thanks for watching guys, I have a bucket of grinding room floor dust I think we need to test next 👀👀.

[redresonent]

The difference in tool life in the milling inserts is because the round inserts are stronger because they don't come to a sharp point like triangular or square inserts. The round inserts also make a more gentle engagement with the material verses the sharp points of other inserts.

[Saturn]

The lower melting point of cast iron is kinda the reason it get's used for casting in the first place. At 4.3% carbon content, the melting point of that eutectic iron-carbon alloy is lowest at 1147°C

[LogicalNiko]

The dog hairs are actually a good thing.

When the steel is heated the dog hair will burn consuming oxygen and pretty much turning into just carbon (which pretty much has no significant effect at this point). But the oxygen will get bound with carbon into carbon dioxide and will also not react at all with the steel in any significant way. Having free oxygen in the can with the steel is however very bad as we do not want that oxygen to bind to our metal and produce horrible horrible oxides.

So yes, adding dog hair in you Damascus is a good thing. If you don't have dog hair handy, a small scrap of paper will also do.

[azgarogly]

There is a classical recipe called "Gipsy damascus".
Which is all kinds of scraps the travelling Gipsy blacksmith could find in a village. Mixed with a powdered cast iron. The scraps being a very low carbon steel at best, or rather iron nails and wire and maybe some broken sewing needles. Mixed with a cast iron in a right proportion that would theoretically produce a damascus of a low carbon steel fibres with a high carbon fragments in between.
Of course, to produce a good blade that has to be done very carefully, requires a great deal of experience.

[Nitehawke]

I have to admit, watching you make a mess, repeatedly, with that cast iron powder was truly entertaining. 10/10 on the creation of a truly hot mess!

[Thesignalpath]

Hitting a solid container with molten metal inside, while the whole thing is near your unshielded face, seems unwise.

[beardo]

For anyone wanting to try this, be sure that the chips have been cleaned of any cutting oil, as these usually contain something to prevent coldweld of material to the tooling. This will also prevent the chips from consolidating during the Canister process.

[jonathanolson]

So my machinist handbook class came into play, we were taught that the radius of the insert affects the strength, so a triangle insert has less area hitting the part so it has less around it to support it, were a circular insert has more insert around it to help support itself, it is contacting more but it does have more support

[Lysol_kb]

absolutely adoring the amount of machinist comments on this video, from safety to in-depth reasons as to why the cast iron dust didnt work from its carbon content. love this side of youtube.

[random-person]

it always makes me smile whenever i see these older machines still being used. the very first job i had when i left school was working for alfred herbert (huge tool and machine maker from Coventry uk). they went on to become one of the biggest suppliers of lathes, all hand built in one of 5 huge factories spread over quite a few acres. keep up the great work Alec.

[fdk]

Some folks already pointed this out, but cast irons have a melting point at around 1200C, which is near the same as copper! Electric kilns can get to those temps, and propane is higher.

[GiladBarad]

Alec I dare you to make a sword without any power tools

[HebuTheLoneWolf]

when we did some milling and lathe work at school our teacher wanted us to save all the chips and we had a specific bin for them, so they can be send all that back to the metal shops so they can melt and recycle the metal since its still good material

[r.t.]

Alternate history where Harry Potter is rescued by his blue collar uncle Hank and works a forge making custom knives. Ol' Harry smoked em unfiltered and sent the Snake hippies packin.

[Wbfuhn]

Cast Iron is just iron poured into a casting mold.
The powder turned into a liquid with the slag and carbon. You'll need it to go into a liquid state, cool down, heat up again and if it's liquid then wait for it to cool down again until you can forge it when it's solid. Alternatively you could get it liquid and then cast pour it.

[thomasthecrunkengine]

I would recommend putting a majority of the chips into the canister and filling the voids with the cast iron powder. Also let it soak in a little so the carbon content can combine with the two materials and make a possibly usable steel billet.

[RenzitoARG]

0:28 Disclaimer: don't grab steel shavings with your bare hands if your hands are not used to real work: They are small razor blades.

[alexbrewer]

The larger the nose radius on an insert, the stronger the tool. Those triangular inserts look like they might be an eight or sixteen thou radius, while a round insert has a radius half the size of the insert.

HOWEVER, even though the insert is stronger, you have much more contact, and therefore more heat and tool pressure will be generated while cutting.

Therefore, round inserts are good for roughing, triangular inserts are good for light finishing passes.

Source; I'm a journeyman machinist.

[robertmcpherson]

"It feels like I'm forging a gummy bear" has GOT to be one of the strangest lines around a blacksmith shop.