What is damascus?

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HKG36

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What exactly is damascus?? I know its a spiral, swirl like design, but whats so special about it? All the knives that are damascus retail for alot, why is that?
 
Take a piece of steel. Heat it and hammer on it till it's the right shape and size for a blade. That's forging.

Take a piece of steel, or pieces of different steels. Heat it and fold it over and hammer on it and fold it over again and hammer on it and fold it ... you get the idea. You get layers, which is what shows up as those swirls, and you get different characteristics in the eventual blade.

Since different steels and different techniques are used to treat them, damascus is a class of materials, not some one specific mix.

These days, the improvements in performance are engineered into the chemical composition of the steel. But damascus still looks nice.

There was a good discussion of it in the thread Damascus, what is the stuff?
 
A pair of useful definitions from A.G. Russell's wonderful Knife Encyclopedia to be found at www.agrussell.com
Damascus Steel
There is more mis-information about Damascus steel than about any other subject in the knife world. Bill Moran, the man credited with the reintroduction of Damascus said that if a knife was going to be used then the blade needed a center core of tool steel between two outer layers of Damascus. This statement applies to "layered Damascus" not to what may have been the original Damascus, that is Wootz which is believed to have originated in India. Wootz has been brought back by Al Pendray. Layered damascus, that is layers of different steels welded together, was made in Scandinavia, Japan, India, Toledo, Solingen and maybe even in Damascus. Today it is made in all parts of the world for handmade knives, swords and even for production knives. Quality ranges from poor to wonderful.

Damasteel
In the 1970s Era Steel in Sweden and Crucible Metals in U.S.A. patented a process of making steel by blowing finely divided powdered iron, carbon, and other materials into a billet and then applying heat and pressure until a steel is achieved with finer grain, finer carbides, therefore greater strength and better wear resistance. This process is what we know as Powder Metal.

The Swedes went on to invent a method of blowing the particles into patterns; the result is "Damasteel". It has the look of pattern welded Damascus yet is actually a superior, powder metal stainless tool steel.
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I will note that, when participating in an antique arms discussion, I have found that "Damascus Steel" is generally limited to steel made by the Wootz process, originally developed in India. What we frequently call "Damascus" is what is usually called "Pattern-Welded" when used in swords and was the common manner of manufacturing long sword blades up until the technology for making steel evolved enough to allow the making of quality blades from homogeneous steel. There is an excellent discussion of the making of pattern-welded swords in The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England: Its Archaeology and Literature, by Hilda Ellis-Davidson with Ewart Oakeshott as Illustrator. This boook is, unfortunately, apparently out of print, but copies may be found if you look hard enough.
 
HKG36 said:
What exactly is damascus?? I know its a spiral, swirl like design, but whats so special about it? All the knives that are damascus retail for alot, why is that?
Click to expand...

Real good responses here. The reason it's so expensive is that it has to be hand made. I don't know of any mass production methods of making it. It's done the "old-fashioned" way--forging. ;)
 
Not to hi-jack a thread, but can someone explain how Mosaic Damascus is made? You know, those types with repeating patterns - like flags & stars & stripes. I've heard that molds are used, but never really had it explained. Thanks in advance?

Ken
 
There are actually three types of damascus that I am aware of:

Pattern-welded damascus as described above. This was used in the production of Japanese swords.

Mosaic damascus - this damascus starts by welding a 2-3" steel box. The box is filled with some pattern so that when you look at it on end you get a picture. For instance, the American flag would be made out of thin nickel plate, bent and formed so that if you look at it on the edge looks like the flag, but would be 2-3" deep. The pattern can also use other steels that have been cut to look like "bars" but on the end have a shape, like a star. Once these are arranged in the box, the voids are filled with powdered steel and the box is welded shut. The box is then forge welded, that is temperatures must be high enough for welding of the materials to be take place. A press is used to form a billet that will generally be 1" square and about 5-6" long. This is sliced like a loaf of bread and the individual squares are welded together to form a blank. This is a modern technique, probably not more than 10 years old.

Wootz damascus - this was a lost form of damascus that was rediscovered after extensive research by Al Pendray. This requires the right chemical makeup of the steel and about 50 or so heat cycles and hammer forging. The damascus pattern is actually "carbide-pools" that form in the steel structure. There is no actual layering going on, but the carbides form "streams" within the steel structure and make the steel very tough. This was the "original" form of damascus that gave Damascus swords their reputation. There are several papers that make very interesting reading.

Jeff
 
Here's a peice of trivia for you: who pioneered powdered steel in mosaic?

Hint: The answer is contained in one of Wayne Goddard's books.
 
Kaj Embretsen? Nope, not him. Daryl Meier is a good guess though, but wrong. :) Anybody else? It's been around since before Damasteel, you can see it on the page or two previous to the one you read, it's under "Types of Damascus Steel" or something like that.
 
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