The detail that caught me off guard is where the raindrops actually come from: plain shallow dimples drilled across the face of the bar. After reheating and forging the steel flat, those dimples compress into concentric rings, and the acid etch later pulls them out as repeating bullseyes. I had always assumed a pattern like this needed far more exotic steps.
The build itself follows a disciplined path. Alternating plates of 1075, 1095 and 15N20 were cut with an angle grinder and a horizontal bandsaw, then their surfaces were cleaned up on a belt grinder. The stack was clamped in a vise and welded along the seams, with a rod attached as a handle. Once heated in a coal forge and coated in white flux powder, the pack went under an electric power hammer for forge-welding and drawing out. Cutting, restacking and reforging the bar multiplied the layer density before the dimpling work began.
The finishing sequence stands out too: the billet was ground flat, soaked in acid in a plastic container for ten minutes with the etch timed on a smartphone, then lightly hand-sanded, which is what finally revealed the raindrop pattern. A shared picture of the cross section shows the drilled layers sitting inside the bar, ready to become those circles.
One thing left open is the destination. The maker says the billet should end up as a knife or two, but that decision has not been made yet.
Project by Ilmarinen Forgeworks. Watch it on their YouTube channel: