Damascus blades

[marlinman93]

Spent the last couple days roughing these two knives out. Still need final sanding and shaping a bit on the handles, and then finish applied to the handles. The blades are tear drop Damascus on the bigger knife, and about 100 layer Damascus on the little one. Handles are both ironwood. Very hard to cut, file and sand to shape! Just fun projects while it's cold and rainy here.

[Ysabel Kid]

Fantastic!

[Walt]

Beautiful blades and very nice work, Vall. You're a master of many things. I have a number of Damascus knives but I have bought them all instead of contributing my own labor.
Thanks for the pictures.

[AJMD429]

.
Those look good, and real. I bought some kitchen steak knives recently, and I have to say are really good for my purposes, which is just to meat or cheese or apples or whatever. What's funny is they have blades that look like they're Damascus but if you notice closely each blade has exactly the same wavy pattern and in exactly the same place, so it's some kind of artifact stamped into the metal or etched into it or something. It doesn't seem to hurt anything but it certainly doesn't seem to make the blades magical either. On the other hand, real Damascus steel blades like yours seem to be particularly awesome, whatever the metallurgic reason is..

[marlinman93]

Thanks!
I can't pound out steel anymore, so I buy blanks and final shape them, and fit wood to them. The ironwood is strong and beautiful, but boy does it take a lot of work. Even sawing it is tough on my wood bandsaw blades. Then rasping it to general shape and lots of hours sanding it smooth before it gets finish. I like heating bee's wax and then dipping the handles in to finish them. It gives a good waterproof finish and makes a dull shine.

[Paladin]

Well done. I do like Damascus blades.

[jeepnik]

Hand hammered Damascus is indeed beautiful. But I have seen some, possible like the kitchen knives mentioned above, where a block of steel is machined hammered into a Damascus pattern then sliced into pieces that are then machined into knife blanks. All done by machines. In fact I had a customer that bought the blocks of "Damascus" then sliced and shaped the blades. The blanks were shipped to China to be finished and handle from heaven only knows where fitted. Pretty, but they didn't have the edge holding capability of true Damascus. Mostly I think because the quality of the steel used was inferior.

[piller]

Nice looking blades. Some blades are nice to look at and useful, too. I am a bit of a knife nut.

[Gobblerforge]

Very nice. What metals did you combine?

[marlinman93]

Very nice. What metals did you combine?

As I mentioned I can't hammer or forge metal anymore due to a disability in my right wrist. So these are built from blanks I bought.

[Bill in Oregon]

Nice, Vall. Any idea what properties the steel possesses in terms of strength and edge holding?

[marlinman93]

Nice, Vall. Any idea what properties the steel possesses in terms of strength and edge holding?

None Bill. The seller said they are Arkansas Damascus, and that's all I know. They were fairly sharp when I bought them, but I did some more shaping on the blades to a profile I wanted and then sharpened them again to see how they took an edge. They get a very razor sharp edge with not roll over. When grinding the edge to reshape them I can usually tell from the sparks how good the steel is, and these showed good sparks. Not scientific, but it's worked for me.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks Vall.

[jeepnik]

Nice, Vall. Any idea what properties the steel possesses in terms of strength and edge holding?

None Bill. The seller said they are Arkansas Damascus, and that's all I know. They were fairly sharp when I bought them, but I did some more shaping on the blades to a profile I wanted and then sharpened them again to see how they took an edge. They get a very razor sharp edge with not roll over. When grinding the edge to reshape them I can usually tell from the sparks how good the steel is, and these showed good sparks. Not scientific, but it's worked for me.

A craftsman's eye is often better than any other measuring device. Folks don't seem to understand that a line doesn't have to be "perfect" to be perfect. Regardless of the material a craftsman can bring out it's soul.

[piller]

One Uncle was in the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment in WWII. While in North Africa, during some down time, he bought a knife from one of the locals. He saw that it had good steel, but had not been heat treated right. My Grandfather was a Blacksmith, and that Uncle was the oldest child. He knew blacksmithing from being taught by his Dad. Uncle Homer told us that he borrowed tools from the Tank Mechanics, built a fire, had help fanning it to be hot enough, knocked the pins out of the handle, and re-treated the blade. He quenched it in used motor oil. He said it held a good edge after that. It was stolen when he was wounded and hospitalized for the first of his purple hearts. He said that seriously wounded soldiers gear was typically taken by those whose gear was in worse shape. Good knives and boots that fit were in short supply.
His early training as a Blacksmith helped him to recognize the quality of the steel even when it was poorly heat treated.