research paper on damascus

[crbauhs]

hey all, im in college right now adn im going to do a research poaper on damascus steel. im going to be going into the history of it, like how it was first invented, the uses of it, armour weapons, and the more recent, how it is made adn used today. i figured alot of the custom makers here would have a great deal of knowledge. also, my professor wants us all to have phone interviews for sources we can cite on our papers, so if any local damascus forgers are here hit me up. thanks for all the help guys

 

[A. Brett Schaller]

http://www.knife-expert.com/p29-dama.txt

 

[A. Brett Schaller]

Crbauhs, this is intended to be helpful, not rude - I hope you take it as such. If you're going to turn in a college-level paper, you need to brush up on capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure. These will be every bit as important as the content of your paper.

 

[mete]

You better understand and carefully explain the definitions !! I don't think Wootz should ever be called Damascus. But there is folded steel, pattern welded,laminated. Each of these has to be explained as their history ,methods of making and characteristics. Damascus has become a marketing term like 'tactical' and 'nano' so you have to work through that.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

http://damascus.free.fr/f_damas/f_quest/f_wsteel/indiaw.htm

http://users.ntsource.com/~bluedevil/ Tribune_damascus_steel.htm

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9809/Verhoeven-9809.html

http://archaeology.about.com/b/2006/12/01/damascus-steel.htm

http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/def_en/articles/road_to_damascus/sword_forum1.html

http://damascus.free.fr/f_damas/f_quest/steel.htm

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

The problem is that Wootz has been for so long referred to in modern times as "the original damscus steel" that it has become part of the lexicon and the origins of too many terms are buried in the distant past. A greater concern to me is the idea presented in the first link that perpetuates the myth, based upon the archiac understanding of the process, that damascening steel results in high carbon (steel) and low carbon (iron) maintaining their carbon levels in the finished product, which is totaly false. Yet is is so engrained in our cutlure that I entirely expected to see that description before reading.

If welding time exceeds the time needed for complete diffusion (not very long at all) one sees a pattern in the finished product due to any degree of alloying differences or the presence of the weld zones, the same would be true of any difference in edge behavior. Toughness is due to the entire product being of medium to low carbon content.

I do believe that if one refers to sources far enough back (before the Huntsman or Bessemer processes for example) you then get into a situation where the staking and welding of steel layers would indeed produce a much finer steel. This was the pre-industrail revolution version of a rolling mill, consolidating the blooms and minimizing the effects of inclusions, today the process is best decribed as gilding the lily.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Here is an article taken from Kevin Cashen's website.

http://www.cashenblades.com/Info/Pattern welding.html

 

[crbauhs]

ok all thanks for the links so far. i need all teh information i can get. i got alot on my own so far, but the more the better eh? and brett, trust me i took no offense. when i am on teh boards i dont spell check or really worry about using capitalization and such very much. But when it comes time to write a paper, i make sure everything is perfect. thanks for double checking with me though

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

What class is your paper in. I did a paper in my archaeometrics class (4th year anthropology), but that would be much different than a history paper on the same subject. I believe Voorhees (sp?) was a major source. If I can I'll try and find some of the articles that I should have downstairs from the paper.

Good luck!

 

[crbauhs]

hey guys, thanks fir the links so far, they have helped out alot. Are there any books on damascus that a library might have? the prof. says he wants internet, books, and people as sources. So if anyone here knows and books on damascus and/or a real knife maker who has a good amount of experience using/making damascus that info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Balin]

hey guys, thanks fir the links so far, they have helped out alot. Are there any books on damascus that a library might have? the prof. says he wants internet, books, and people as sources. So if anyone here knows and books on damascus and/or a real knife maker who has a good amount of experience using/making damascus that info would be greatly appreciated.

"The pattern-welded blade," "The complete blade smith," "The master blade smith." Those are the three titles I own.

I'm curious though. Why not ask the library what books they have? They could tell you far better than a forum.... Perhaps you might try Google? If you can get to this forum, you should be able to query Google. Google or another online search engine should be able to get you a greater list of resources to pursue. Exactly what class is this paper for? Just curious.

Balin

 

[Steven Penner]

i have found quite a few resources using "diffusion welding" as a search term

the college libraries that i have searched in are interconnected across the province(state)

many research papers are available. Even if you don't use all your sources, it proves you can do research.

 

[crbauhs]

actually i did check the lbrary, and they had books on steel but not on damascus specifically. and i am good at research, but it is always a good idea to get ideas from other people if you can. outside resources are great. they give a different perspective than what i would find. really guys im not lazy, just interested in what others see and how they may be able to help.