drilling heat treated damascus

D

darnew

Guest
Hello all,

Iam engraver who is trying to build a skinner out of a Damascus blade I purchased from E-Bay. It is already heat treated and there are no holes in the handle for the scales and the holes for a front bolster are in the wrong place. I tried to drill a small hole using a carbide bit but to no avail. Any suggestions ?
 
Welcome to the Forum! Thankfully, I've only had to redrill holes in a hardened blade a few times, but solid carbide bits worked. Are you center-punching marks where you want the holes to go? If not, the bit will be inclined to "walk" rather than bite in. Make sure you prtect you eyes when center punching...

You generally are going to want your drill press set to the slowest speed. Make sure everything is clamped down tight. Any time you drill steel (annealed or hard), take it slow, use cutting fluid and be sure to back out of the hole often to clear chips. I'm sure someone else will chime in on anything I've overlooked... hope this helps
 
If solid carbide doesn't do it, it probably is not going to happen without annealing it first.
 
If it's so hard that you can't drill a hole with solid carbide then maybe yo should temper it to bring the hardness down.

Doing this will not harm the blade and may make it easier to drill. 400deg for at least an hour should help.
 
If it is a plain carbon steel damascus you can soften the tang a bit by heating with a torch while keeping the blade under 400 with a wet rag. If you heat the tang until it turns at least blue you will probably have better luck drilling it. A TIG or spot welder could be used to apply a lot of heat with enough precision to be safe.

The holes for the bolster might be a little risky because the heat could make it to the blade.

A long while back I demonstrated a hole in the center of a full hard Nicholson file using carbide. It can be done, though a rigid setup is about mandatory.


hard3.jpg



It is all about a rigid setup, appropriate RPM (probably 600 RPM for that little cutter) and an appropriate feed (probably about 1 inch per minute feed rate).

Don't turn carbide too slow, more likely to chip it.
 
I am working on this with him. The bits he used were not carbide. Easy mistake to make.

Now, one techniques I learned years ago and have used successfully a few times. Grind the top (non-flute) end of a drill bit flat if it has a little dimple or bump on the end. Then, chuck a larger diameter drill bit upside down in the drill press. This drill should be dull/bad as it will get ruined now for sure. Run the drill press at high speed and bring it down on the exact spot you want annealed. Using a fair amount of pressure, generate enough heat for the drill to turn red hot and the spot directly below the drill bit red hot also. Let it cool slowly and that spot should be annealed enough to drill through after it has cooled down.
 
Wow,precision,localized annealing...
God,I LOVE this place!
I've had a few problems not so much with drilling new holes
in finished blades,but re-drilling factory pin holes larger,for my mosaic pins.
Thanks for sharin' this Tracy,you've saved me from flinging tools around the shop and bangin' my melon against the bench...again!:D
 
I am working on this with him. The bits he used were not carbide. Easy mistake to make.

Now, one techniques I learned years ago and have used successfully a few times. Grind the top (non-flute) end of a drill bit flat if it has a little dimple or bump on the end. Then, chuck a larger diameter drill bit upside down in the drill press. This drill should be dull/bad as it will get ruined now for sure. Run the drill press at high speed and bring it down on the exact spot you want annealed. Using a fair amount of pressure, generate enough heat for the drill to turn red hot and the spot directly below the drill bit red hot also. Let it cool slowly and that spot should be annealed enough to drill through after it has cooled down.

That is a great idea!
 
Thank you

I want to thank every body here with your insight to my dilemma. As Boss Dog has said, I purchased the wrong bits. I was trying to use the cobalt bits thinking that I was using the carbide bits. Along with that information and the input of tips from all of you great dogs I will continue to try and finish this knife. As far as the guy who thinks that this is not a very friendly site? Sorry, but I belong to this site and two other engraving sites and I have always had great success in getting answers to any problems I have come across. I will post the knife here when I get it finished and engraved, Thanks again.:bud:
 
trying to drill holes in hardened anything is really hard to do . I have no carbide bits and have drilled with cobalt with good success but not in really hard steel. I drill lots of cpm154 and even anealed is tuff. I would do as Nathan says take the torch and heat the handle area. Take a rag and soak it wrap it around the blade and duck tape it and heat the blade pointing down to help not heat up the blade. Youll do just fine.
 
It's a long,painstaking way to get it done,but another thing I did with a finished blade in BG42 was to use a 1/8" shank diamond engraving burr (round tip),and slowly work on it with my drill-press set at a med speed,and RapidTap.(I went thru 2 burrs)
I don't have anything suitable to anneal with (yet),so...
 
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