Putting an Old blade into Damascus

WyoNonSmith

WyoNonSmith

Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
392
I have a friend who is going to help me get into making some damacus. I also have an old broken 10" blade that my great grandfather made 100 years ago. It would mean a great deal to me, and I think he would have loved it, if I can incorporate that old broken blade into the billet of the new knives I'm gonna make for my father and I.

Any suggestions, pitfalls, or problems that y'all see? I was thinking of getting the old blade really cleaned up and sandwiching it in between new steel. Obviously, I only have one shot at this and I don't want to screw it up, and it would be wonderful to have that connection with my great grandfather on my hip when I go out and hunt the fields that he loved.
 
I have no clue myself, but I dearly wish I had that opportunity to do that with something my Pop-Pop owned. Great Idea!! good luck
 
The biggest issue to overcome is knowing what type of steel the old blade was made from. Steels weld together well with steels that have similar heat treating requirements. If you can determine what the steel is, it will help you choose the correct steels to use in the bread (outside layers) of your damascus sandwich. If you don't know the steel that the old blade was made from, there are some wonderful people on this forum who can take a small sample of it and determine what it is.

Good luck. This is a great idea!

Ickie
 
If it's 100 years old it's going to be a plain carbon steel. A spark test could give you some idea of the carbon content.
 
That's really cool.:thumbup: I would go with L6/15N20 in the billet. Good luck and let us know how you make out.;) :D
 
That is SUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH a cool idea.

I love some of the stuff you guys think up

Syn
 
I say do it as well put grandpa's blade in the center if it is high carbon and forge it
up!
 
Robert beat me to it. Make a billet of 15N20 and 1080/1084. Draw it to 1/8-3/16" and cut in two. Clean up the old blade and make a sandwich. Weld it up, forge out the new blade, grind. The new blade will be a nice san-mai with the old blade as the core/edge. HT as 1080 and temper at 425-450.
Stacy
 
Thanks all...I thought it up and hoped I could make it work. I gotta tell you that there were tears in my father's eyes when I told him about the idea, which then brought them to my own as I thought of the times I sat beside my great-granddad as he sharpened up his knives for the coming hunt.

I wax nostolgic, but what an ode to a man who shot his last goose at age 89 and shot his last trap bird at 95, then died at 104 after just spending time at the camp cooking for the hunters out in the field.

When I pull it off, it will be a sight to behold.
 
An excellent plan and quite a proper homage to a man who obviously loved the outdoors.

The one thing I'd suggest is that you may want to create something of a similar cross-section to your great-grandfather's blade and do a "test run" or two first. As you said, you only get one shot at the real thing so practicing your skills before doing it for real won't be time wasted.

-d
 
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