I was gifted a Damascus billet... now what?

Use it for guards and fittings?

Option 2: use it as a san Mai jacket over 1095/52100/W2.
 
Id probably cut it into 4 pieces, forge weld them together, smash em down and draw it out on the other side to see what kind of patern i got that way and then make a pair of sgian dubhs
 
Seems like a damn shame to grind down something like that. Step out of your comfort zone. Get another piece of steel(cheap stuff like 1084 or 5160 leaf spring) in the similar dimensions and make a big Bowie out of it. That way you’ll have a practice run at it. Then make a big, awesome Bowie knife. Please don’t grind it down. Someone worked hard to make that big piece and gave it to you. Honor their work and make a big bastard with it. ;)
 
Hengelo_77 said:
Split it lenghtwise and make two daggers.
Matching his and hers. One for your wife, one for you
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The pattern does change from the middle to the edge. If you split the bar and do a symetrical grind, the pattern will look finer on one side.

Hoss
 
Super helpful advice everyone. That’s why I come here. I like the idea of cleaver but I think I’m going to step outside my comfort zone and do a bowie. It’ll be a smallish Bowie but I’m actually really excited to do something new.
On that note, Any tips on doing a finger guard with a full tang? I watched some videos and I think I’ll do a spotted guard with a notch on the bottom of the blade (which I will grind in after HT obviously) to fit the guard on tight. I don’t have a mill though... so what’s the best way to fabricate a guard without a mill??
 
Daniel Swanson said:
Super helpful advice everyone. That’s why I come here. I like the idea of cleaver but I think I’m going to step outside my comfort zone and do a bowie. It’ll be a smallish Bowie but I’m actually really excited to do something new.
On that note, Any tips on doing a finger guard with a full tang? I watched some videos and I think I’ll do a spotted guard with a notch on the bottom of the blade (which I will grind in after HT obviously) to fit the guard on tight. I don’t have a mill though... so what’s the best way to fabricate a guard without a mill??
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Drill holes in it, then use a small file to clean out the material between the holes. Will Morrison did a WIP showing this process a few years ago.
 
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Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
4140 is a chronmium molybnenum steel with .40% carbon. It is what anvils and hammers are often made from. It won't harden in the range we need for knives. It isn't a good knife blade steel.

I'll be honest, out of the top 100 choices, there are 99 steels better for damascus than 4140.

Are you sure it was not 5160, which is used by some folks in making damascus in the form of car springs (which are usually not actually 5160). I see this in overseas production damascus. 5160 makes an OK knife.

The 15N20 used in damascus is largely in the form of used bandsaw blades from sawmills. This steel is available as scrap in many places in 8-12" width.
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quick follow up on this... wouldn't the 0.75% carbon 15n20 be good enough to have it harden up if the layers were close enough? In this case the billet says only 128 layers, so maybe it isn't enough? but perhaps 250+ layers would be?
 
It doesn't work as separate layers. The carbon diffuses/migrates toward the lower carbon area. If there were even amounts of .40% and .75% metals, the end result would be somewhere around .58% ( It isn't exactly this simple, but you get the point). That is enough carbon to harden, but it won't make a very good knife.
 
Anything you can recommend as a heat treat for this 15n20/4140? I ended up making a hidden tang Bowie. I recognize the limitation in this steel, so I plan to basically hang this on my wall. I’d sending out a batch of 52100 to Peters for HT but I’m assuming batching this with 52100 isn’t the best idea? Or would that be fine for a blade that won’t see any actual use? Or better yet, can someone recommend a basic HT that I can do in my forge? I get really good results with 1080 in my forge but have never tried anything else.
 
You can send a variety of steels to Peters' at the same time. Just specify how many of each type there are and label them. They will apply the appropriate procedure to each.
It might cost more than having all the same type...
 
Right... I guess I’m trying to avoid a new $30 heat treat charge for a blade that will never be expected to perform.
 
From the mix of the two steels, I personally would bet heat treating it like 5160 or 1060 (?) would work. Looking around people here, it sounds like 1475F is about the sweet spot for most hardness out of 52100, and that should work for 5160 too I'm guessing. Since the damascus is hypoeutectoid, guessing(?) you probably don't have to worry as much about grain growth at higher austenitizing temps, so it's possible whatever Peters does for 52100 will be fine except maybe for the tempering temps?

Since this is for fun anyhow, I would just do it in the forge. Normalize ~1600F (nonmagnetic then a "shade or two hotter") because who knows what state this steel was sent to you in. Then I always do descending heats to refine grain, ~1500F (nonmagentic plus half to one shade hotter), air cool to black, ~1450 (nonmagnetic), air cool to black, ~1400 (before hitting non-magnetic) -- I don't have any temperature measurement so I just go by the magnet and do it at nighttime/in the dark. Then back to ~1500F, soak for as long as you can without overheating (most I ever try is around 30 seconds pumping the blade in the chamber best I can to keep evenly heated) and quench in 130F canola oil or whatever you usually use.

Edited to add: People might say this isn't extracting the max, but I think you can do well. Walk in the temper from lower temperature and test the edge. The temper and edge geometry can be as important as the heat treat.
 
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