Originally Posted by
rgconner
If you watch the show much, you know that one of the major failure modes comes from having to wield many small pieces into a larger billet. A lot of small parts means lots of chances for failure. The cables are probably the worst, with built in voids everywhere. One show they made blades from 1 to 2 inch thick cables, and it was a horrible mess.
It is interesting that some contestants get perfect forge welds, and others get horrible forge welds. Likewise, some do great with the canister Damascus, and some struggle with it.
The bicycle brake and derailleur cables are likely small enough that they wouldn't introduce huge voids, although cheap cables are galvanized, and even the quality ones should be cleaned.
Cable Housing should be able to be flattened easily enough, then like other things, it may come down to cleanliness.
For the cable locks, one might be able to chop the cable into say 1/2" chunks, and if a twisted cable, it should unravel enough to fill most of the voids with the filler metal. For a braided cable, it could be harder to separate.