Aged Damascus

R

Rod Neep

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Someone said (in the Rust on Damascus thread)

However, as I use the knife over time, it oxidizes by itself and the color differences came back. You can't use flitz w/o changing the appearance of the blade. For me that's part of the fun of damascus. Occassionally, I'll gently surfact polish the blade just to watch it change colors over time.
Click to expand...

As this is a slightly different topic, I have started a new thread...

Have you ever seen an old 12 gauge shotgun made from damascus steel? It is , for want of a better description, a lovely bronze/brown colour. Beautifully "aged", but still showing the damascus pattern nicely. I presume that is from years of gentle polishing and TLC with gun oil and a soft cloth.

So.... would our "bright" contrasty damascus blades go the same way given the same treatment?

Personally, I would like it.

Rod
 
This sort of thing....
dam-sg1.jpg
 
Old damascus gun barrels were rust blued to begin with, so they had kind of a bronze blue look from the start. They are also forged from iron and steel, not the tool steel alloys most of us forge today. The alloys used for the bright lines have nickle (usually), and would have a hard time getting the subtle contrast you are looking for. No reason a damascus blade can't be made from a similar steel/iron mix and then be rust blued though.

I too like the look of it and marvel at the way it was forged.
 
Bailey is right. I am living only about 35 miles from Liège in Belgium from where most of the damascus gunbarrels came during the 18th to 20th century. There are still some old guys in Belgium who frequently used the staining process during their younger years when working in the gun factories.
There are different mixes they used for browning the gun barrels. One of them is a mix of ferric chloride with olive oil. It is put on the barrel, left there for about a day, cleaned off with steel wool. Then the process is repeated until the right patina is achieved all over the barrel. Of course it also works on damascus blades.

Achim
 
Hmmmm... I'm already starting to convince myself that I want one :)

Anyone know who might make one for me.... hint.... Bailey? ... with lovely brown mastodon scales like on one of the knives on a certain maker's web site that I have just looked at. ;)

Rod
ps. I'm serious!
 
Hi Fellas,

I'm a newbie to the list, but wanted to respond to the question about "aging damascus." The color you see on these lovely old barrels is not the result of age, it is the color of the original treatment.

Except for some of the exotic, modern, alloys, all steel shotgun barrels (whether damascus or not) can be browned to the color described. The standard practice from the 19th century to the present has been to use what we currently call a "blueing" agent. (Actually, the process of coloring barrels has always been called "blackening," whether the final result is brown or the more currently popular blue-black.)

There is a huge range of products (and a lot of smoke and mirrors to do with technique), but basically the procedure has always been to swab the bluing solution on cold, allow it to work on the barrels in a humid environment at room temp, and then to scrub ("card") off the rusty, surface residue. This process is repeated daily, sometimes for as long as a couple weeks, until that lovely, deep, plum-brown patina is achieved. Then it is oiled and/or waxed.

Some restoration experts use etchants at various stages of the process, just as you do, to exaggerate the damascus figure in the barrels.

The only difference between the brown colored barrels and the blue is that the blued barrels are subjected to 15 minute baths in boiling water between each application of the solution. This converts the oxide to the black color.

Cheers, Bill
 
Welcome Harms. That was a good explaination. Of course there were also fake damascus barrels just like there are today fake damascus blades where the pattern is etched onto plain steel . Both bluing and browning are old processes. Technically [remember your chemistry?] iron has two valences and therefore two oxides, one red-brown [rust color] and one black.
 
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