W1 and nickel damascus?

S

shqxk

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Mar 26, 2012
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I just bought a piece of carbon Damascus from well known world classs maker.
I later ask him what is the composition and he told me it was W1 and nicke. That make me curious will this formula will hold an edge since the nickel wont hardened. I believe most stainless damascus are made of AEBL and 304ss which cant be hardened too.

Anybody have experience on these? thanks.
 
When I make nickel damascus I really make it like san mai with a core of a single alloy to form the edge. If there's nickel at the edge, you're correct, it won't hold an edge in that spot.
 
The stuff I get from Delbert Ealy is W2 and pure nickel. I takes a good edge and has a toothy cut. I wouldn't use it for a slicer, but for as tanto or wakizashi it works fine.

Usually, the amount of nickel is much less than the amount of hardenable steel. Chris Marks used to make me billets with a thin piece of nickel between the layers of 5160 and 52100. This produced a bright glint in the finished twist. I never noticed it affected the edge much beyond the toothy effect of damascus.
 
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