damascus

[truckwilkins]

there was an old blacksmith in spain in about 1500 he had a pretty good business and as he made things he thru the small cut offs and trimmings in the corner.times got hard he had no more iron in stock all he had was the junk in the corner.a wealthy customer came in the shop he wanted a fancy knife the blacksmith tried to get some money up front but nuttin doin so he took his cutoffs and trimings fromthe corner some of it was steel some was plain wrought iron and so he took all that junk and forge welded it togather bot it looked pretty coarse so he folded it and welded folded andweld made the prettyest knife you ever saw customer comes in says what kind of steel is that in amazement. blacksmith thought real quick and said why its damascus!! its amazing stuff blacksmith says its mirackuless its amazing etc and so damascus was born this stury was told to me by john allgood when i was his apprentice he was master blacksmith of clolnial williamsburg i had got all excited about damascus

 

[LRB]

As said by a famous tennis star. "You cannot be serious". That was a joke, right? :shocked2:

 

Uh...

Damascus steel is a hot-forged steel used in Middle Eastern sword making from about 1100 to 1700 AD.

The foundation for Damascus Steel is Wootz Steel, which originated in India and Sri Lanka and later spread to Persia. From the 3rd century to 17th century, India was shipping steel ingots to the Middle East for use in Damascus steel. In Europe, recent research has demonstrated that high quality swords with damask pattern were produced since at least the 3rd century BC by the Celts, Romans and Germanic peoples.

 

[J.D.]

there was an old blacksmith in spain in about 1500 he had a pretty good business and as he made things he thru the small cut offs and trimmings in the corner.times got hard he had no more iron in stock all he had was the junk in the corner.a wealthy customer came in the shop he wanted a fancy knife the blacksmith tried to get some money up front but nuttin doin so he took his cutoffs and trimings fromthe corner some of it was steel some was plain wrought iron and so he took all that junk and forge welded it togather bot it looked pretty coarse so he folded it and welded folded andweld made the prettyest knife you ever saw customer comes in says what kind of steel is that in amazement. blacksmith thought real quick and said why its damascus!! its amazing stuff blacksmith says its mirackuless its amazing etc and so damascus was born this stury was told to me by john allgood when i was his apprentice he was master blacksmith of clolnial williamsburg i had got all excited about damascus

I'll bet you were sent for a left handed smoke shifter too. :grin: :wink: :v

 

[truckwilkins]

well ive stired up a hornets nest ive made severel hundred damascus knife blanks in the late 70's for a company that sold themin a catalog so i know a little about it.as far as wootz steel is concerned iron is iron regardless of where you dig it up.if you take your damascus to a meterulerjust lab they will polish i t down put under a microscope and you will see that there is all kinds of inclusions impurties etc and thats just iron and steel if you add nickle layer its worse if you lok at woodworking tools of the 19th century you will see stamped marks which say warrented cast steel as far as useing cable where do you think all that galvanise go to?theres no denieing that it is prety and i like it . as far as the storey goes yes its true john algood was the first blacksmith at williamsburg he was the head blacksmith at newport news shipbuilding and dry dock with 50 yrs experiance i got all excited about damascus about 1966 and he demanstrated to me what was what making steel is like making a cake iron is the base like flour and depending what you add you get different typs of steel or cake if you add just carbon you get a plain carbon steel if youadd a bunch of carbon you get cast iron etc before the bessemer process in 1851 steel was made by putting iron in a vessel with a carbon rich material like leather lampblack etc this would put on a case of carbon on the outside of the peice of iron then it was folded and welded in an effort to spread the carbon around thru the iron thats why on old tools you get hard spots because the carbon is not spread evenly thru the iron when the bessemer process came along the iron was melted and the carbon and other ingrediants were put in the mix and stired so all the mix was evenly distributied thats why old tools only have the cutting edge made of steel which was then forge welde to the iron body because the steel was expensive to make and of coarse thewrought iron had to be ultra rifined for the best steel which means the wrought iron was folded and welded over and over to get out the impurities these are only my opinions developed over many years as a blacksmith and tool and die maker