edge quenched damascus blades

John M Cohea

John M Cohea

Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
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I don't know if this has been discussed here before or not, but I would like some opinions. What are some of the folks here thoughts about this. I know a lot of top name makers do this, and I understand the hard edge , soft back concept, but I personally don't care for it as I feel it detracts from a well made damascus pattern. I love the clay coated blades with the wild hamons in plain carbon steel like those of Don Hanson and others, but to my eye it does nothing for me on damascus blades. Any thoughts here?
 
As a matter of personal aesthetic preference, I generally like my damascus blades wihout a prominent hardening line. Sometimes it looks good, but more often not. Sometimes it depends on the pattern - if you've got a nice tightly-spaced ladder patern with a hardening line, you essentially get a bunch of vertical lines bisected by a horizontal line. Not too distracting. On other patterns, the hardening line can become a visual distraction from the flow of the pattern.

But these are custom knives - you get to have it your way. Someone with a different preference gets to have it their way as well. It's all good.

Roger
 
I don't remember seeing a hardening line on a pattern where I thought it took away form the overall. IMO, the hardening line is a part of the overall persona of the forged blade.
I like seeing the blade was properly treated.

Joe, here's an example of a distinct hardening line on Jerry's "dogstar" pattern damascus, which actually designed around highlighting the line.
Handcock-FiskPhotos002.jpg
 
Like others have said, it really depends on the piece and the pattern. The high layer stuff that Don Hanson did works because he was specifically shooting for a pattern/hamon combination that would work. Jerry Fisk's Dog Tooth pattern works well too. On the other hand, trying it with a tradtional tiled or "picture" mosaic blade might not look so good.
 
jdm61 said:
Like others have said, it really depends on the piece and the pattern. The high layer stuff that Don Hanson did works because he was specifically shooting for a pattern/hamon combination that would work. Jerry Fisk's Dog Tooth pattern works well too. On the other hand, trying it with a tradtional tiled or "picture" mosaic blade might not look so good.
Click to expand...

Agreed on all points.

Roger
 
As Joe said it depends on the knife and the pattern. Personally, I usually do not have a pronounced hardening line on damascus blades. I fully quench the blade and draw the spine back, but no distinct line. Of course there are exceptions. So it is personal preference as Roger says. Basically it comes down to what the customer wants and I will try my best to do it.

Brion
 
imo, hardening lines on damascus blades look ugly. all of the knives shown above would be MUCH more appealing without hardening lines (actually, i even think they ar not attractive at all...). either damascus or hardening line, never both on the same blade. but to each his own!

hans
 
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well, the exception proves the rule! :o :foot:

these knives are too cool! :thumbup:

best regards,
hans
 
Don, that third one is awesome!

Personally, I don't like differentially heat treated damascus. Generally speaking, :barf:
I have seen some that I liked, but I would have liked them way more if they were not.
 
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