"Cheap" Damascus Stock

[J.S. Carter]

Would old school damascus shotgun barrells be a good source of damascus steel? They can be had for 50-100 bux in most any pawn shop, and would give you close to 2-3 feet of stock... My question is would the steel be worth the effort of making a USABLE knife out of, art piece yea, definatly. But can it be givin a good tempering to 58-62 RC? what do ya'll think?

 

[Keith_H]

I think the question is will gun barrel steel work and what does the HT compare to?

Id love to see the results of this.

 

[JCaswell]

Those barrels are usually very low carbon average--very low. Much too low to harden in those ranges, if it will harden appreciably at all. Also, the barrels are really thin, so you'd be making pretty small knives, I think.
You could do a "San Mai" thing, sandwiching (via forge welding) a piece of blade steel (1086 comes to mind as a good candidate) between a couple layers of old gun barrel ...

 

[scottickes]

There was a thread about this about three months back. Try the search feature.

Ickie

 

[mete]

Laminate makes good sense. Split the barrel ,flatten, weld to good core. ..There were good damascus barrels designed for modern powders, poor damascus barrels and even fake damascus barrels where the "damascus " was an etched pattern.

 

[shappa]

Laminate makes good sense. Split the barrel ,flatten, weld to good core. ...

I've always wanted to see that done.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

To reiterate what was pointed out in the earlier thread,
Damascus shotgun barrels and damascus blade steel are different things. One is a spiral wound tube and the other is a layered,folded,and manipulated bar.
As mete said, you could use it to make san mai .
Stacy

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

You could forge weld them flat and use the damascus for bolsters or guards.

 

[J.S. Carter]

Ok Thanx Guys I appreciate the feedback, I'll check on that thread and maybe try the san mai thing with it, just got some O1 and 1095 stock...I knew about the different types of damascus thanks again.

Later
Jason

 

[Keith_H]

Laminate makes good sense. Split the barrel ,flatten, weld to good core. ..There were good damascus barrels designed for modern powders, poor damascus barrels and even fake damascus barrels where the "damascus " was an etched pattern.

I would rather use the etched barrel. although the real thing is neat.