How well does damascus perform?

It would depend alot on the metals used as well as the pattern. Some can make very good cutting blades as the pattern will act a small serrations.
 
As far as what? In regards to rope cutting,I once posted a thread. Has Damascus ever outcut carbon steel or stainless in a rope cutting contest? It was answered by no less an authority than Bailey Bradshaw,the reply was: Yes,many times as recently as (my bad,I can't remember the competition but it was just a few months ago.I'll dig up the thread and report back).Hope that's a start for you. :)"as recently as the last cutting contest in Alabama.
 
WhatEVER damascus offers, I am still wondering when or if it will do as the old damascus shotgun barrels and come apart with age and corrosion of the bimetals doing their thing. Just.....seems.....to me that a homogeneous steel should be more predictable and durable than a "bonded" composite.

:confused: :confused:
 
I have two large damascus knives now. Both camp style knives. One by a fella named Bill Martin and one by D. R. Goode. Both are excellant knives and very well made. Both are very sharp with the Goode knife being a better cutter because of blade thickness etc. The Martin is much more heavy duty albeit a very good cutter in its own right. I will say the damascus blades are something to look at, and I agree with the edge acting like a very serrated pattern. You can feel where the different steels are folded and the different edges it creates going down the knife. A very grabby edge. Both are works of art for sure. keepem sharp
 
Lavan said:
WhatEVER damascus offers, I am still wondering when or if it will do as the old damascus shotgun barrels and come apart with age and corrosion of the bimetals doing their thing. Just.....seems.....to me that a homogeneous steel should be more predictable and durable than a "bonded" composite.

:confused: :confused:
Click to expand...
If it's crappy damascus it might, if it's "good" damascus it shouldn't.

Here's a page that says a little about the performance of damascus: http://devinthomas.com/pages/faq.html It's obviously not finished completely as of yet.
 
My Buck 110 doesnt hold a hair poppin sharp edge for ever, but it does cut a long time.
 
Pattern welded steel can be as good as a blade made from the steels used to make it. It really has no advantage over a homogeneous steel and it certainly costs more. I buy knives with pattern welded steel blades because I like the way they look, not because I think they are going to do a better job of cutting.
 
Generally Damascus will cut slightly better than its lowest performance component. If you make Damascus San Mai the material will perform to the ability of the core steel. If you use like 1095 and 15N-20 the material will get full hard at the thinner edge but the 1095 will not get fully hard in the heavier geometry of the blade. This material will cut and be tough. Mosaic San Mai is a multiple of strength, in breaking, of Mosaic steel.

I have been working with a Nitrided, Carbonized, powder Damascus laminate that is technically a ferro-ceramic laminate. This material used in the core of A San Mai Mosaic shows huge promise and very good cutting ability, and very good durability.

My latest cutting competition knives have been San Mai in construction. In the second OKCA rope cutting contest I cut 7 ropes with a Damascus Blade. This piece was harvester chain and carbonized CPM 3V powder.

There are many varibles in Damascus, it can be much more than pretty...Ed
 
Kuznetsov - Russian smith had some research on this matter and his conclusion was that old damascus has pattern not because different steel in layers (as it is now) but because technic used. He sad in old time they use different part of flame - so called "cold" one which enriched with carbon (not the brightest part of the flame) plus some special mix to cover blade. As a result surface if steel blank got more carbon and when it weldet in a pack it look as a different layers.

However I did not see test results for blades made by this technic. But there were some public testing reported on Russian knife forum for multisteel damascus (made by russian bladesmith) and results did not match the hype.

Other conclusin Kuznetsov made - is that it is very hard to get best from different steels welded in modern damascus - it may turn that you will get worse from each in result.

Japanese usually made damascus on the side of high carbone core - Suminogashi, for example.

Personaly I have more hope for Bulat-Wootz.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Damascus will cut great, but it all depends upon the smith who made the damascus and the blade. Damascus is a hand made product and its performance depends upon the materials and the skill of the maker. How well your knife performs depends upon the skill of the maker and their heat treat. Some damascus is made for looks and won't perform well as a knife on purpose. So if you want a damascus knife that cuts great, pick a smith that knows what they are doing and trust them.
 
I just had a dream that I had a blade for my paramilitary made out of damascus and it arrived. Man, I'm studying way too much.
 
I don't think you can generalize about Damascus steel. Some blades have thousands of layers and some only a few. And they are composed of everything under the sun. From cable to railroad spikes to tool steels.

My hunting knife is custom damascus and I have never had a problem of any kind. It is at least 30 years old.

There are some good damascus knifes on Ebay from time to time. Many are custom made. If you get one it will be the only one like it. Each are unique.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Damascus-Morgan...569915563QQcategoryZ43325QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/CABLE-DAMASCUS-...570519698QQcategoryZ43325QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rantanen-Custom...569775666QQcategoryZ43325QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
Ed Schempp said:
Generally Damascus will cut slightly better than its lowest performance component. If you make Damascus San Mai the material will perform to the ability of the core steel. If you use like 1095 and 15N-20 the material will get full hard at the thinner edge but the 1095 will not get fully hard in the heavier geometry of the blade. This material will cut and be tough. Mosaic San Mai is a multiple of strength, in breaking, of Mosaic steel.

I have been working with a Nitrided, Carbonized, powder Damascus laminate that is technically a ferro-ceramic laminate. This material used in the core of A San Mai Mosaic shows huge promise and very good cutting ability, and very good durability.

My latest cutting competition knives have been San Mai in construction. In the second OKCA rope cutting contest I cut 7 ropes with a Damascus Blade. This piece was harvester chain and carbonized CPM 3V powder.

There are many varibles in Damascus, it can be much more than pretty...Ed
Click to expand...

Yes, to condense this down into one sentence.......It will perform as well as it is made!!!!

There is damascus, and there are Master Smiths.....and you get what you pay for!!!! :p
 
Folks, there is Damascus steel and there is pattern welded steel. Damascus steel, also known as wootz steel, is a crucible steel originally from India and it made superb blades. A friend of mine in college had a wootz or Damascus bladed sword from the 8th Century CE that he was able to flex until its tip touched the pommel. This on a 1200 year old sword! I played with it some and it was very light and very, very quick, altogether a rather nasty item if you had to come against it. Wootz is still made today, but not only in India from what I gather. Try Googling the term "wootz".

Pattern Welding was the method used in the bad old days before the invention of the Catalan forge method in about the 12th Century CE. This allowed the creation of modern homogeneous steels in sufficient quantity to make whole swords out of the same batch of steel. The making of pattern-welded blades promptly fell out of use as the homogeneous steel blades took over the market. That should tell us something about the comparative qualities of homogeneous versus pattern-welded steel.

The reason that pattern-welded blades are popular today is that they can be very handsome, but they are no better than their individual components and than the workmanship that goes into them, just as is true of any other steel blades.
 
FullerH said:
Folks, there is Damascus steel and there is pattern welded steel. Damascus steel, also known as wootz steel, is a crucible steel originally from India and it made superb blades. A friend of mine in college had a wootz or Damascus bladed sword from the 8th Century CE that he was able to flex until its tip touched the pommel. This on a 1200 year old sword! I played with it some and it was very light and very, very quick, altogether a rather nasty item if you had to come against it. Wootz is still made today, but not only in India from what I gather. Try Googling the term "wootz".

Pattern Welding was the method used in the bad old days before the invention of the Catalan forge method in about the 12th Century CE. This allowed the creation of modern homogeneous steels in sufficient quantity to make whole swords out of the same batch of steel. The making of pattern-welded blades promptly fell out of use as the homogeneous steel blades took over the market. That should tell us something about the comparative qualities of homogeneous versus pattern-welded steel.

The reason that pattern-welded blades are popular today is that they can be very handsome, but they are no better than their individual components and than the workmanship that goes into them, just as is true of any other steel blades.
Click to expand...
Will we ever have a thread about damascus where someone doesn't go and tell us what "real" damascus is?
 
For what it's worth, both Kevin Cashen and Adam DesRosiers have won ABS cutting competitions using damascus blades.

Roger
 
FullerH said:
Folks, there is Damascus steel and there is pattern welded steel. Damascus steel, also known as wootz steel, is a crucible steel originally from India and it made superb blades. A friend of mine in college had a wootz or Damascus bladed sword from the 8th Century CE that he was able to flex until its tip touched the pommel. This on a 1200 year old sword! I played with it some and it was very light and very, very quick, altogether a rather nasty item if you had to come against it. Wootz is still made today, but not only in India from what I gather. Try Googling the term "wootz".

Pattern Welding was the method used in the bad old days before the invention of the Catalan forge method in about the 12th Century CE. This allowed the creation of modern homogeneous steels in sufficient quantity to make whole swords out of the same batch of steel. The making of pattern-welded blades promptly fell out of use as the homogeneous steel blades took over the market. That should tell us something about the comparative qualities of homogeneous versus pattern-welded steel.

The reason that pattern-welded blades are popular today is that they can be very handsome, but they are no better than their individual components and than the workmanship that goes into them, just as is true of any other steel blades.
Click to expand...

FullerH - Great post. What's the story with the famous Japanese swords? Are they a form of damascus or are they pattern welded or something completely different?
 
I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. I think that Japanese swords, which are called "folded steel" in translation, are made much the same way as pattern welded blades from what I understand. But I am not a student of Japanese blades and the study of them is such a particular one that I am not prepared to venture much further than that. Perhaps one of the people who really understand Japanese blades can answer you better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top