Noobish question about damascus

Fletch Helical

Fletch Helical

Joined
Sep 29, 2009
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I've always wondered if damascus has any inherent weakness to it as opposed to any other carbon steels. Is it mostly just a "show knife" or will it perform on par with the similar steels it's comprised of? With regards to strength, hardness, edge retention, etc. Am I making sense here or is this too broad of a question?
 
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The biggest weakness I know of from damascus is that once you buy one you can't stop.

Actually my understanding if good steels are used and it is forget correctly there is no inherent weakness.

Charlie
 
There is always a potential for delamination and voids at the weld zones, but that risk is extremely minimal with a good smith and proper welding, forging and heat treating techniques

-Page
 
The simpler laminated patterns like random pattern and twist should perform as well all things considered equal concerning thermal cycles and heat treatment.

The ABS performance tests are the same for a 300 layer damascus blade as a plain carbon blade. Both pass equally as well. I've never seen anybody do that test with a mosaic blade but wouldnt be surprised if it passed also.
 
From the very little experience I have with it, it is very strong. I am a complete noob to Damascus, still on my first knife. With help from an experienced friend along with proper techniques my blade is to my surprise harder than most steel I have encountered. With the cutting edge still .237 thick (before sharpening of course and .237 is pretty thick still) I took it and hit a 1/2" plate steel tables squared edge. I thought for sure it would dent my blade. It did not even scratch it and dented the table. I hit it pretty hard too, not a baseball swing or anything but a pretty good chop. My blade was a Rockwell 57 before I hardened the cutting edge. I have not tested it on the cutting edge yet to see what it is now. Not sure if I will have the gonads to hit a steel table once it is all the way sharp....

Knife is made out of 1095 and .01 by the way.
 
Ummm....I think you mean ".0237".... ;) If not, I would hope a near 1/4" thick edge would hold up :D.

--nathan
 
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