I loved the "Alec doesn’t pay me enough for this" camera angles during the first attempt at forge welding. I'd have been hiding up the back, too, Jamie!
Little known fact, forge welding welding rods together is actually how bees came up with the shape of their honeycomb. It was a bee blacksmith messing around with techniques centuries ago that made the same discovery you did, and his queen liked it so much they built a whole hive out of it. Wasn’t long before neighboring colonies copied them and here we are today!
Folks have combined 3D printing with forge wielding that can create all sorts of weird and wonderful patterns in damascus steel. A QR code certainly possible using this technique
13:27 Hexagons are the bestagons. It's also the most efficient shape to cover a plane. Giants causeway is for the same reason. Great content as always.
Hexagons also form when groups of circles come under pressure. I used to think honey bees had some crazy process for building hexagonal wax comb... turns out they just turn in a circle and physics does the rest.
Hello Alec, I’m a new viewer and subscriber. I know you have millions of subscribers, so I doubt you’ll see my comment, but I’d like to share something with you and your team. I recently had a motorbike accident and have been bed-bound for the past couple of weeks. Your channel has been a huge source of comfort and inspiration during this tough time. Binge-watching your playlists has not only kept me entertained but also sparked a deeper interest in making things from wood and metal. Your enthusiasm is contagious. Thank you for sharing your incredible passion and skills with us-it’s made a real difference for me personally. I’m looking forward to watching all your videos, especially since I’ll be bed-bound for many more weeks. Thanks again. Will Horton
This is the first time in my internet career that I've heard a non welder accurately describe stick welding as a form of arc welding as a whole... I tip my hood to you sir 👌🏻
Fun fact - honeycombs become hexagons for the same reason! They start as circles, and gravity forces them into the shape, as it's the most complex regular polygon that tiles a plane
It isn't gravity that pushes them into hexagons. It the bees. They start as circles and then the bee pushes this way and back until each cell is the same size. The pushing this way and that by the bees produces the hexagons.
Unless of course you start with a wax sheet, which you do when you're a beekeeper (I should know as I've been one for many years), that already have a hexagon shape printed into it.... Would be pretty interesting to hear where you got that information from thou, because I can tell you that bee's wax isn't especially soft at all. Also, if gravity is "forcing it" into that shape wouldn't the top just collapse seeing as bee's wax cells are vertical and not horizontal in a hive?
The effect you mean is the same as in blowing bubbles in a bowl of dishwater. Where two bubbles meet, they will form straight surfaces. Bees build their structures by instinct. They use gravity only for orientation. It`s just the most durable shape and uses the space the best. (Beekeeper for many years)
The whole process of creating Damascus steel from stick welding electrodes was truly fascinating to watch. It's how every minute detail contributes to the final result. The incorporation of your skills and the science behind it is very educational.
@@lethPointeryep especially when sometimes they add thorium to it. So you are basically breathing in radioactive dust. Neither dust nor radioactive is good for your lungs.
@@stasi0238 Stick welding electrodes don't contain thorium, TIG welding electrodes can however (red 2% and orange 4% in the form of Thoria), plenty of other stuff you don't want to inhale in them though...
Alec you are clearly enjoying yourself too much, finding new ways to make Damascus steel out of things not meant to be Damascus! but EPIC WORK mate keep it up!
Fun fact: When bees build their hives, they start out as round wax cylinders. Due to heat and stress they get squished into hexagon cylinders. Where while the hexagon is mistakenly presumed to be the structural support, all the stress is supported in the long sections. Opinion: Looks fantastic, love your videos. Always showing your enthusiasim of the art form.
That ain't dangerous. Then my eyes would of been dead since long ago considering all the sunglares you get from freshly polished windows on high-rise buildings.
@@gubbynumber1171 as a german I find that double funny because the german name for Tungsten is Wolfram so TIG welding in german would be WIG welding and you can combine those two to get a Twig
Hexagons are the bestagons. Also, think confined shrinking space around many round objects, then when pressed the void in-between is filled and this is why you get hexagons. Its just one of those natural constants in the universe, a lot of things become hexagons just because it simply is the most optimal shape.
So, a couple things: Firstly, flux does not "turn in to a gas" to protect a weld. It turns in to a liquid, and that liquid prevents oxygen from interacting with the molten metal. I make jewelry for a living, and this is a constant in my profession. We have to then use an acid 'pickle' to remove that glass layer. The temperature at which this happens is right around the same temp as the forging temperature for steel. Secondly, all those voids in the non-cleaned billet are essentially glass. Not surprising in the least if you take about 30 seconds to research how flux works. Thirdly (and this is mostly for the comment section, your (Alec's) reaction to it was appropriate, because it's an awesome thing to randomly encounter), of course it's hexagons! Any arrangement of round rods, hammered at 90 degrees, as well as on the corners (clearly shown in the video), will produce hexagons. He quite literally hammered it from 6 different axes. All that said, definitely love the random videos of you playing around and learning. Cheers!
Alec, suggestion here for giving the belt buckle that slight curve so that it doesn't catch on your shirt: if you have an old propane tank you can cut the bowl shape off the bottom, and it makes a perfect little concave die for shaping a belt buckle.
These videos are nice but I want to see another build video like the feather damascus kris knife. To me that was a high point of your videos and what hooked me on them. Seeing that project go from start to finish was must see entertainment. We got to see all the successes and failures and you explained every step along the way.
The hexagon thing is also why honeycomb is hexagonal. The bees don't intentionally create hexagonal tubes. Bees make a wall of connected, tightly packed circular tubes. The tightest packing pattern for circles is hexagonal. As the bees go in and out of the circles, their bodies bump up against the walls, stretching them where there are gaps between the circles, which makes them hexagonal.
"i want to see what happens" after he explains all sorts of good science. thats a good scientist there. i dont know if you got a degree but your study is impressive.
The round rods resulting in hexagonal shapes is similar to how honeycomb shapes. Bees don't make hexagonal cavities, they make stacked circular ones and the weight/pressure from those around it force it into a hexagonal shape.
You'll actually see hexagons come from circles a lot! honeycomb is a good example. circular straw shapes would use the least beeswax (for maximum area in the void) but since it needs to tile the plain, bees use hexagons. if you imagine plugging the end of a bunch of straws and sucking the air out from between them, they would expand to make a hexagon pattern. You've done the same thing but with compression instead of vacuum. It's because hexagons are the closest approximation of a circle that still tiles perfectly
Actually, you could use that to make a cool pattern on the side, like each rod is a pixel, and then use it to make mosaic Damascus. I'm thinking for instance a spiral galaxy, how cool would that be! Also to help create the pattern when stacking the rods, you should dip the tip of one of the two types of rods in blue dye.
10:40 this is actually a really great way for anyone new to welding to understand the importance of cleaning your work. dirt, slag, and flux inclusion create voids in the material that cause weak points in the weld. Always clean your welds!
Hi Alec, back in the early 1980's, one of the jobs I had was welding *Stellite* onto JCB buckets as a form of hardening them up- I really didn't know much about the Metallurgy in those days, i just did what i was told- but it got me thinking, if you could get hold of some, and mixed it with say a 10/20 or 10/30 or even ms you could make some amazing Damascus Steel- to my knowledge no-one has done this before.
Hearing you talking about the difference between the two different cases I wondered how much different metals feel from each other. A cool idea could be a blind hammer test of different metals. Both on the power hammer and hand hammers.
I remember I used to enjoy knocking the flux off my dads welding rods when I was a little kid.. He did not approve. I was utterly fascinated by destruction, fire, chaos, etc. as a kid. I guess I just got a kick out of how it flaked off. Now that I'm older, I can see where that would have been annoying.
I showed my wife this video, and she wants to know what would happen if you used flux rods on only two sides top/bottom of the jacket. Like a sandwich, the bread is the flux rods and the filling is all cleaned rods. Stuff that into the jacket box with the hopes the extra heat from the flux will help to melt the stronger metal without creating pockets and it would probably be easier to remove the jacket. Would make an interesting billet.
Jamie: "I wonder why the chop saw cannot cut through this when everything else goes through it like butter?" Also Jamie: "I have put A LOT of things that I shouldn't have put into this saw into this saw"
I think they took on the hexagon shape for the same reason bee hives are hexagons. They start circular/tubular but if you squeeze a bunch of tubes together they will always become hexagonal. Take a big handful of plastic straws and squeeze them together and they will become hexagon shaped.
Just a little information for you the welding rod flux has the element composition that makes the weld you weld be the spec you want. So it would be worth trying to melt some of the welding rod without flux and take all of the broken flux and place it in the can.
I use the same hard facing rods to strengthen tool parts at work. Never thought to make a knife from it. Also fun fact in regards to the hex pattern. Bees don't make hexagon honey combs, they in fact make circular cylinders that squish into hexagons. Which is cool to see being done in steel.
you should make a minecraft iron block out of iron rods. i think it would be very interesting to see you make the texture of the iron block from the game in real life.
I'm not sure if anyone's already mentioned this but you could absolutely pay attention to the placement and make a QR code out of the pattern 🤷♂️ could be a fun little high tech touch to add to a custom piece.
Wow, those are some nice results! That hexagon pattern seems pretty unique if I'm not mistaken. It probably only happens if you don't fill the canister with anything else such as steel powder. When the rods don't have anything else to rub up against they brace against eachother and uniformly get hit into similar shapes (if the blacksmith is skilled with his power hammer and performs it accordingly.) That time spent grinding each one down and then fitting them in until you have to pound the last one in with a hammer was well spent. Also that tidbit about Chromium is quite interesting. I'm sure Alec knows this, but to anyone who doesn't know what Chromium's claim to fame is it's stainless steel. An alloy of Stainless Steel has to include atleast 10% Chromium.
Hexagons are, in fact, bestagons
Nice RCE reference there😂
This person gets it.
Na, just dented circles
Nice CGP Gray reference there 😂
I prefer triangles
I loved the "Alec doesn’t pay me enough for this" camera angles during the first attempt at forge welding. I'd have been hiding up the back, too, Jamie!
Little known fact, forge welding welding rods together is actually how bees came up with the shape of their honeycomb. It was a bee blacksmith messing around with techniques centuries ago that made the same discovery you did, and his queen liked it so much they built a whole hive out of it. Wasn’t long before neighboring colonies copied them and here we are today!
I beelieve it.
It's true I was the bee
It was meant to bee!
I thought they were trying to copy the lozenge pattern from WW1 biplanes...?
can confirm. am bee
I would love to see Alec go back to making swords again.
I miss his swords. The One Day Sword is one of my most favorite videos.
I miss the era of his first shop 😤
"It is still soft, it will not get hard" is not something i ever expected to hear in a Alec Steele Video.
Considering his sense of humor I'm surprised we don't hear it more often
There are so many "That's what she said" jokes in this video 😂
"it really should be getting hard right now." Title of his home video 😂
😂
Especially after he had been beating it for so long.
14:14 I wonder if you could make a QR code
That would be wicked
That would be awesome!
Folks have combined 3D printing with forge wielding that can create all sorts of weird and wonderful patterns in damascus steel. A QR code certainly possible using this technique
Lame
I'm sure it's possible, that would be really impressive
13:27 Hexagons are the bestagons. It's also the most efficient shape to cover a plane. Giants causeway is for the same reason. Great content as always.
I read that in CGP Greys voice.
@@caseyb1346 I think we all did.
Hexagons also form when groups of circles come under pressure. I used to think honey bees had some crazy process for building hexagonal wax comb... turns out they just turn in a circle and physics does the rest.
We all heard it and got CGP Greys reference 😂
If you liked that video I suggest watching "hexagons are not the bestagons"
Hello Alec,
I’m a new viewer and subscriber. I know you have millions of subscribers, so I doubt you’ll see my comment, but I’d like to share something with you and your team. I recently had a motorbike accident and have been bed-bound for the past couple of weeks. Your channel has been a huge source of comfort and inspiration during this tough time. Binge-watching your playlists has not only kept me entertained but also sparked a deeper interest in making things from wood and metal. Your enthusiasm is contagious.
Thank you for sharing your incredible passion and skills with us-it’s made a real difference for me personally. I’m looking forward to watching all your videos, especially since I’ll be bed-bound for many more weeks.
Thanks again.
Will Horton
Not Alec, but still want to say welcome, hope you have loads more fun here. Get better soon and may you never see your bed as much as you do now!
@@P3x310 Much appreciated 😊
"It really should be getting harder now"
Hey man, he's just not in the mood. Don't rush him.
1 in 3 men you know
Too much porn...
brought to you by pfizer
todays episode brought to you by hims...
lmao "one of the coolest comment sections on youtube"
This is the first time in my internet career that I've heard a non welder accurately describe stick welding as a form of arc welding as a whole... I tip my hood to you sir 👌🏻
Fun fact - honeycombs become hexagons for the same reason! They start as circles, and gravity forces them into the shape, as it's the most complex regular polygon that tiles a plane
It isn't gravity that pushes them into hexagons. It the bees. They start as circles and then the bee pushes this way and back until each cell is the same size. The pushing this way and that by the bees produces the hexagons.
Unless of course you start with a wax sheet, which you do when you're a beekeeper (I should know as I've been one for many years), that already have a hexagon shape printed into it....
Would be pretty interesting to hear where you got that information from thou, because I can tell you that bee's wax isn't especially soft at all. Also, if gravity is "forcing it" into that shape wouldn't the top just collapse seeing as bee's wax cells are vertical and not horizontal in a hive?
even trying the authenticity of honey makes hexagons, if honey is real it will produce hexagons when added drop of water and spinning it around
The effect you mean is the same as in blowing bubbles in a bowl of dishwater. Where two bubbles meet, they will form straight surfaces. Bees build their structures by instinct. They use gravity only for orientation. It`s just the most durable shape and uses the space the best. (Beekeeper for many years)
Must be because Hexagons are the Bestagons
The whole process of creating Damascus steel from stick welding electrodes was truly fascinating to watch. It's how every minute detail contributes to the final result. The incorporation of your skills and the science behind it is very educational.
Make sure you're wearing a respirator when sawing through fire brick, you can get silicosis from inhaling the dust
Misread this as scoliosis at first and wondered how the hell fire brick dust would crook your spine
powdered flux is pretty rough as well
@@lethPointeryep especially when sometimes they add thorium to it. So you are basically breathing in radioactive dust. Neither dust nor radioactive is good for your lungs.
@@stasi0238 Stick welding electrodes don't contain thorium, TIG welding electrodes can however (red 2% and orange 4% in the form of Thoria), plenty of other stuff you don't want to inhale in them though...
@@lawabidingcitizen5153 oh right, I was remembering one thing then wrote another, haha. My bad
Dude's parents really knew what they were doing when they named him, "I like steel."
13:16 'Hexagons are the bestagons'
A person of culture, I see 😂
I was just about to comment the same!
beat me to it
yeeees I was sure someone would comment that
I love watching Shurap make canister damascus out of random collections of metal objects.
I don't think I have seen Shurap make a block out of flux covered welding rod, but that would be about the only thing he hasn't tried yet.
Alec you are clearly enjoying yourself too much, finding new ways to make Damascus steel out of things not meant to be Damascus! but EPIC WORK mate keep it up!
Fun fact: When bees build their hives, they start out as round wax cylinders. Due to heat and stress they get squished into hexagon cylinders. Where while the hexagon is mistakenly presumed to be the structural support, all the stress is supported in the long sections.
Opinion: Looks fantastic, love your videos. Always showing your enthusiasim of the art form.
13:16 it's because hexagons are the bestagons
Nooo, i was gonna comment that🥺
Cheers mate. Because of you I've been employed as a forge machinery operative in the company based in Lincoln UK
1:13
Me: "Oh that weld doesn't look half bad!"
Alec: "That's an ugly weld."
Me: "Oh yeah totally. Hideous even."
haha came here to make the same comment
Ugly, yes.. will it hold, absolutely :P
well as a famous guy once said, a grinder and paint make me the welder i aint@@CapOfXav
@@CapOfXav if it doesn't hold, is it still a weld?
@@CLOUDCHASER510 for the sake of my ego, yes
0:45 goodbye retinas i guess
That ain't dangerous. Then my eyes would of been dead since long ago considering all the sunglares you get from freshly polished windows on high-rise buildings.
"It's soft,it will not get hard" and "little butt crack"... How inspiring...😅
He's talking about a penis.
That honeycomb pattern is wild!
As for others' workshops, I've seen that Wil has moved into a pretty sweet place😁
I was hoping that he would have submitted a picture of that just for the memes
That little "ahhhhhh" after the grinder decided to eat that one billet on the second cut... i feel ya man. i feel ya.
I am *ABSOLUTELY* confident that if you sold the failed lozenges as custom CNC-engraved dog tags, they would completely sell out in hours.
Can't Wait for the Power Hammer video!
I watched you for years. Amazing to see you grow older. Looking like a real man now. Cheers and thank you for inspiring me to be a blacksmith
"Twig" welding 😂
Premium comedy😂
@@gubbynumber1171 as a german I find that double funny because the german name for Tungsten is Wolfram so TIG welding in german would be WIG welding and you can combine those two to get a Twig
Also the "its a whole nother branch of welding"
He clearly meant to say "twink welding".
Literally how I will be referring to it from now on, maybe I can keep em straight when I teach myself now.
The editing with the flux removal was quite possibly the best I have ever seen on this channel. Props to the Popple
Hexagons are the bestagons.
Also, think confined shrinking space around many round objects, then when pressed the void in-between is filled and this is why you get hexagons.
Its just one of those natural constants in the universe, a lot of things become hexagons just because it simply is the most optimal shape.
Please contact CGP Grey and see if there’s any kind of collaboration you can do with those hexagons, because they are certainly the bestagons.
Love the belt buckle speed run ❤
5:54 me after 4 beers
Underrated 😂
I read this right before he said it 😂
Lol yes My wife gets tipsy and wants to get into it. Where as all I want to do is chill out haha
Hahaha bro
Hahahah same@@gbp3616
I want to express my appreciation for the straight up forging segments.
13:20 That's nature for you. Bees don't build hexagons either, their round honeycombs just get shaped that way when they fuse together.
hexagons are the bestagons
So, a couple things: Firstly, flux does not "turn in to a gas" to protect a weld. It turns in to a liquid, and that liquid prevents oxygen from interacting with the molten metal. I make jewelry for a living, and this is a constant in my profession. We have to then use an acid 'pickle' to remove that glass layer. The temperature at which this happens is right around the same temp as the forging temperature for steel. Secondly, all those voids in the non-cleaned billet are essentially glass. Not surprising in the least if you take about 30 seconds to research how flux works. Thirdly (and this is mostly for the comment section, your (Alec's) reaction to it was appropriate, because it's an awesome thing to randomly encounter), of course it's hexagons! Any arrangement of round rods, hammered at 90 degrees, as well as on the corners (clearly shown in the video), will produce hexagons. He quite literally hammered it from 6 different axes.
All that said, definitely love the random videos of you playing around and learning. Cheers!
13:42 SOOOO SATISFYING THAT SQUISH!
This is by far the best looking Damascus you’ve made, in my opinion
7:24 "I don't think we can fit any more rods in there... we can force one last one in." ... reminds me of the "Girl on couch" meme.
Alec, suggestion here for giving the belt buckle that slight curve so that it doesn't catch on your shirt: if you have an old propane tank you can cut the bowl shape off the bottom, and it makes a perfect little concave die for shaping a belt buckle.
8:12 Well now you can say that it's drop forged. 😅
nice little experiment, love that you still don't hide any of the less than perfect stuff, keep up the good work... more content
13:22 Hexagons are the Bestagons XD
The cut with the stick in the beginning, impressive, not gonna lie. Almost got me there
14:13 goodnight everyone
These videos are nice but I want to see another build video like the feather damascus kris knife. To me that was a high point of your videos and what hooked me on them. Seeing that project go from start to finish was must see entertainment. We got to see all the successes and failures and you explained every step along the way.
If there's carbon in the flux, it may have helped to do a bit of case-hardening of those rods.
That's a good thought. 6013 flux is mostly cellulose, so LOTS of carbon.
The hexagon thing is also why honeycomb is hexagonal. The bees don't intentionally create hexagonal tubes. Bees make a wall of connected, tightly packed circular tubes. The tightest packing pattern for circles is hexagonal. As the bees go in and out of the circles, their bodies bump up against the walls, stretching them where there are gaps between the circles, which makes them hexagonal.
as CGP Grey once said "Hexagons, ARE the bestagons"
"i want to see what happens" after he explains all sorts of good science. thats a good scientist there. i dont know if you got a degree but your study is impressive.
Never forget: Hexagons are the bestagons.
The round rods resulting in hexagonal shapes is similar to how honeycomb shapes. Bees don't make hexagonal cavities, they make stacked circular ones and the weight/pressure from those around it force it into a hexagonal shape.
13:17 Hexagons are Bestagons!
You'll actually see hexagons come from circles a lot! honeycomb is a good example. circular straw shapes would use the least beeswax (for maximum area in the void) but since it needs to tile the plain, bees use hexagons. if you imagine plugging the end of a bunch of straws and sucking the air out from between them, they would expand to make a hexagon pattern. You've done the same thing but with compression instead of vacuum. It's because hexagons are the closest approximation of a circle that still tiles perfectly
Actually, you could use that to make a cool pattern on the side, like each rod is a pixel, and then use it to make mosaic Damascus.
I'm thinking for instance a spiral galaxy, how cool would that be!
Also to help create the pattern when stacking the rods, you should dip the tip of one of the two types of rods in blue dye.
10:40 this is actually a really great way for anyone new to welding to understand the importance of cleaning your work. dirt, slag, and flux inclusion create voids in the material that cause weak points in the weld. Always clean your welds!
Hexagons truly are the bestagons 😁
The failed forge with the flux still on the rods Is a really really good demonstration of slag inclusion in welding
9:35 bloody Alecnesium ruining your day
Hi Alec, back in the early 1980's, one of the jobs I had was welding *Stellite* onto JCB buckets as a form of hardening them up- I really didn't know much about the Metallurgy in those days, i just did what i was told- but it got me thinking, if you could get hold of some, and mixed it with say a 10/20 or 10/30 or even ms you could make some amazing Damascus Steel- to my knowledge no-one has done this before.
5:54 sorry Alex, but it happens to the best of us 😂, i had to.
Hearing you talking about the difference between the two different cases I wondered how much different metals feel from each other. A cool idea could be a blind hammer test of different metals. Both on the power hammer and hand hammers.
Hexagons are Bestagons!
I remember I used to enjoy knocking the flux off my dads welding rods when I was a little kid.. He did not approve. I was utterly fascinated by destruction, fire, chaos, etc. as a kid. I guess I just got a kick out of how it flaked off. Now that I'm older, I can see where that would have been annoying.
hexagons are the bestagons... the universe has shown it again.
The hexagon pattern is so cool! You have to do it again, maybe cut square blocks and turn 90 degrees to show the pattern on the flat of a blade
Alec don't you know that hexagons are the bestagons
Yoo the hexagons r so cool because the crystalline structure of steel is like wow. Thats sick.
Daniel Radcliffe's son decided to pick up blue collar work instead of wizardry.
More respectable honestly 🤷♂️
Nah man, this is the real magic.
13:15 Hexagons are the bestagons
Hexagons are the bestagons.
I showed my wife this video, and she wants to know what would happen if you used flux rods on only two sides top/bottom of the jacket. Like a sandwich, the bread is the flux rods and the filling is all cleaned rods. Stuff that into the jacket box with the hopes the extra heat from the flux will help to melt the stronger metal without creating pockets and it would probably be easier to remove the jacket. Would make an interesting billet.
Hexagons are bestagons!
I think you should forge a beekeeping hive tool and give it to a local beekeeper. The hexagons would be sweet!
well you know what they say, "hexagons are the bestagons"
We must remember these guys are just not manufacturers of steel products, they are also ARTISTS!
Hexagons are the Bestagons
that's actually how honeycomb form, they're just circular tubes of wax that got squeeze together
a wise man once said: "hexagons are the bestagons"
the fact that it made even hexagons speaks volumes about your ability to control a power hammer...very nice
cool buckle
Jamie: "I wonder why the chop saw cannot cut through this when everything else goes through it like butter?"
Also Jamie: "I have put A LOT of things that I shouldn't have put into this saw into this saw"
Actually Alec said that....
The 120 degree angle is the least energy state of each “grain”. Direct consequence of annealing
Twig welding?
Those hexagons are mesmerizing, hope to see you do something more with that pattern.
Can you make one of the old arab straight swords?
I think they took on the hexagon shape for the same reason bee hives are hexagons. They start circular/tubular but if you squeeze a bunch of tubes together they will always become hexagonal. Take a big handful of plastic straws and squeeze them together and they will become hexagon shaped.
For sooooo much years i would have love to see you explore the world of wootz steel. hope it happens one day
The rod at the center of the electrodes is typically mild steel. The finished weld is what the specifications are describing.
Very cool! The pattern reminds me of how metal crystals diffuse; kinda interesting seeing it in 'reverse' per se.
Channel is just as good as it was last time I checked a few yrs ago! Awesome!
Just a little information for you the welding rod flux has the element composition that makes the weld you weld be the spec you want. So it would be worth trying to melt some of the welding rod without flux and take all of the broken flux and place it in the can.
Forge welded in a can like that and then flattened out into a blade with the hexagons on the faces would be absolutely gorgeous
I want to see you do something like the Mokumegane again
I use the same hard facing rods to strengthen tool parts at work. Never thought to make a knife from it.
Also fun fact in regards to the hex pattern. Bees don't make hexagon honey combs, they in fact make circular cylinders that squish into hexagons. Which is cool to see being done in steel.
I've had this idea for a long time. Cool to see how it turned out.
you should make a minecraft iron block out of iron rods. i think it would be very interesting to see you make the texture of the iron block from the game in real life.
I'm not sure if anyone's already mentioned this but you could absolutely pay attention to the placement and make a QR code out of the pattern 🤷♂️ could be a fun little high tech touch to add to a custom piece.
"That box did not last Long" Alec Steele
Best quote ever
Wow, those are some nice results! That hexagon pattern seems pretty unique if I'm not mistaken. It probably only happens if you don't fill the canister with anything else such as steel powder. When the rods don't have anything else to rub up against they brace against eachother and uniformly get hit into similar shapes (if the blacksmith is skilled with his power hammer and performs it accordingly.) That time spent grinding each one down and then fitting them in until you have to pound the last one in with a hammer was well spent.
Also that tidbit about Chromium is quite interesting. I'm sure Alec knows this, but to anyone who doesn't know what Chromium's claim to fame is it's stainless steel. An alloy of Stainless Steel has to include atleast 10% Chromium.