Searching for Damascus

G

Guido Reichstadter

Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Messages
5
steel, that is. New to these forums; hope I landed in the right place?
I'm a jeweler out of Miami, FL, and work in non-ferrous pattern-welded laminates (mokume gane)- recently become interested in putting out some work incorporating damascus steel. At the moment I'm looking for a few pounds of unpatterned billet or heavy sheet or bar stock that I can do my own subtractive pattern work in and forge out into stock around .05 to .10 " for use in jewelry/wearable scale objects. I'm looking for something on rather short notice for a show coming up- if you can ship in a week, that would be ideal, but if I'm happy with how the experimenting goes, I'd also be interested in a dedicated longer term supplier. I've found a few people and companies online selling mostly patterned damascus or powder steel stock; thought I'd try my luck and see if anyone had some unpatterened stock on hand that they'd be willing to part with, or maybe could point me in the right direction.
Thanks ahead of time-
Guido Reichstadter
 
I'm no Fr. Guido Sarducci, but I am an ordained Discordian! only a 'social' runner though.

At any rate, that's excellent IG. Do you make the stuff? I haven't done any (intentional) steel shaping, I do some working with a little 20t shop press- am I wrong to imagine that I can get some mild deformation if I take it up to temperature in my kiln and slap it under a crude die? What is a ballpark working heat for this material? I'll get in touch.

I've seen patterned stock (cross section ~ 1.25 X .200) going for around USD 8 -16 per inch. Based on my experience with nonferrous laminates, I put roughtly half the work in building the material, half in patterning it (though patterning is admittedly the more fun half) I imagine the patterning is a bit tougher in steel.

Mark, I'd be willing to give you around $4 / in for anything you have on hand around those dimensions. Does that sound fair? What is the price of steel doing these days? I'm looking for maybe a couple of feet to play with in the next few days, if it generates some interest maybe we can work out some kind of deal. I could do better if you have a bit of patterned material.

Let me know what you think, thanks all.
 
I was just yankin' your chain. I'G can fix you up with some to play with I'm sure.
Welcome to the forum.
 
Do you have a general idea of what a fair price for this kind of material is? Haven't seen a lot of it around, so its hard to tell. I don't have the space right now to set up to produce it, maybe in the future though.
 
Mark, that is a very generous offer. Since you are in the "giving" mood , I could use a piece of damascus to play with. Could you make it tapered top to bottom with a point on the end. And just to avoid any possible harm to myself a bit of wood and rawhide on one end might be nice. Thanks for your generosity. :D :D
 
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