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My striker no-showed for a rush order last week and I did 40 damascus layers solo at 2am
Had a guy order a damascus chef knife for his dad's 60th birthday, needed it by last Friday, and I lined up my usual striker to help draw out the billet. He texts me at 6pm that Wednesday saying his truck broke down in Modesto and he can't make it. So there I am in my garage shop at 10pm with a 4 pound hammer, drawing out 40 layers by myself, and my elbow is screaming by layer 12. Every weld took twice as long because I had to stop and reposition the billet alone, and I lost one stack to a cold shut around 1am. Finally got it forged out and heat treated by 4am, but the pattern is way tighter toward the tip than the heel because my strikes got sloppy. How do you solo smiths handle big draw-outs without wrecking your shoulder or losing layer consistency?
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paul_ramirez1mo ago
Get a treadle hammer or a hydraulic press, honestly. Drawing out 40 layers solo with a hand hammer is asking for a blown elbow, and no striker is worth that kind of damage. I ran into the same wall years back and picked up a used press for cheap. Now I do all my layer reduction with the press and save the hand hammer for final shaping. The pattern comes out even every time because the press squeezes the whole billet the same way, not just where you happen to land a strike when your arm is shot. Trying to muscle through a big draw-out alone is how you end up with cold shuts and a messed up pattern.
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the_quinn1mo ago
My arm is already shot from thinking about it.
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