Post 5: Cutting blanks for the other pieces

    The second billets  I got are harder, and regular drills will not work, but I happen to have a set of "Rodman Multipurpose Carbide Tip Drill Bits" I bought years ago but never used much because most metal I needed to drill was soft enough for regular bits. Now, these Rodman bits are quite amazing, and will drill not only stone, ceramic, porcelain, but also very hard steel like a file, as shown in this video.
    Sure enough, they could drill through the harder billet. I was missing some of the smaller sizes, so I ordered replacements and a couple of extras from Bad Dog Tools. The counterrotating saw did cut but seemed to dull quickly, so I am using instead a 4 1/2" grinder with thin metal cutting disks. I went ahead and made the blank for the Soup Spoon. The challenge was going to be with the forks, so I planned my straight grinder cut carefully, and drew them on the billet. I sprayed the Sharpie lines lightly with fixative:

     I drilled 1/8" holes between the teeth of the forks. It ended up easy enough to shape the blanks for two forks. The billet gets hot and needs to be cooled periodically in a bucket of water. I started grinding the blade of the knife:

     I believe it will probably be best to refine the shapes of the blanks as much as possible before bending the forks and spoons to shape, which will require heating with a torch. I am debating how to do the spoon, and think I will start shaping it by grinding the center on one side and the edges on the other. Then, I can heat it red with a torch and deepen the cup hitting the center with a ball pen hammer. I will test it with a regular piece of steel.

Post 4: Billet Procurement, Design

     I started looking for Damascus Billet cheap enough to make the Project feasable without breaking the bank.  A complete set of silverware for 12, with 5 pieces per person and 4 serving pieces will require some 55 pieces of Damascus steel. There is a place right here in Alabama that makes Damascus Steel, but it is expensive, as anything American made. I will have to settle for Damascus forged in Pakistan or India.
   The cheapest billet I found was $19.99 at Smoky Mountain Knife Works, imported from China, but is unfortunately out of stock. It comes in several patterns, and is listed as 12"x2"x1/4", which is big, and could possibly allow me to get two pieces out of each billet, cutting the costs considerably.
   I wanted of course to get started right away, and found some billet on Amazon for $29 which I ordered and got in 2 days. It turned out to be particularly easy to work with, and has a beautiful raindrop pattern:

   I cut and ground the basic blank for a knife pretty quickly,  as shown in the previous post:

    There were no more of those available, so I ordered two more expensive billets from different places to try to cut a spoon and a fork. They turned out to be substantially harder than the first one, so I tried to figure out how to anneal them, which as it turns out can be difficult for Damascus. I considered asking a friend to use his pottery kiln, and also found a local heat treating place.
    I kept looking for other sources, and found a set of 3 on Etsy of all places, shipping from England. Amazingly, it was here this morning, shipped with DHL. These are unfortunately only 9"x1.75" instead of the 10"x2" listed, too small for the fork and spoon, but fortunately big enough for salad forks. I made a smaller cardboard fork and a dessert spoon to test their handling, as it is important to me that all the pieces fit the hand comfortably and ergonomically. Here is the complete set. As you can see, I decided on the holes:

Post 3: Moving Ahead faster than I though

I started drawing what I thought was going to be a whole series of design variations, but ended up liking my very first draft so much that I went ahead with it. First, I cut out a test knife out of a bar of ordinary Home Depot steel for practice. I hammered the narrow blade, which gave it a curve, and that made me decide on the grinding route instead of trying to forge. It's a lot easier, and I already have pretty much all the tools. I used paste Gun Blue to turn the handle black:

    Then, I drew the knife, spoon and fork full size, and made some cardboard mockup. I wonder about making them out of ordinary steel for practice, but then decided to cut out a blank for the knife directly out of the bar of Damascus Steel I had just received:

   The steel was actually much softer than I was expecting, about the same as the cheap one. I used my counter rotating tungsten blade tool to rough out the shape, a disk grinder to refine the convex shapes, and my small belt grinder to shape the concave curves. The diameter of the upper pulley is exactly what I needed. I also used an air grinder with a straight tungsten bit. I am debating about drilling a set of 3 graduated holes down the handle... I am also debating whether to leave the shapes square, or to round the whole thing, which would have the advantage of making the pieces lighter, but would take a whole lot more time. I may have do do a test piece each way and show them to Rachel.

   Also, trying to decide what kind of profile to use on the blade: V, shallow V, hollow ground, or convex (the easiest, and sturdiest, least likely to crack on tempering, and sufficiently sharp for a table knife):