Forging

[Matt.S]

I've a question about this.

I used to think that "Damascus" steel was about the structure of the steel itself, accomplished through hammering and folding it lots of times.
But I read of people etching some wavy lines onto any old steel and calling it Damascus! Is this as fake as a henna temporary tattoo, or is it the real thing?

You've opened up a big ol' can o' worms here armie!

To keep it somewhat brief, when European Crusaders visited Damascus they encountered swords there with a distinctive wavy pattern to it. We now know that this was a (for the time) high quality steel produced by one or more crucible production methods (often known as Wootz steel), fundamentally different from the European method of producing steel from wrought iron, which introduces many inclusions and generally is a somewhat hetrogeneous product. The swords were thus more consistent than European swords of the time and so they could be better heat-treated. Therefore they were typically tougher, springier and maintained a better edge than European swords.

Of course even the most advanced swordmaker in all of Europe probably didn't know this. Over the years many people have attempted to reproduce the steel, either in performance or in appearance or both. One common method is 'pattern welding', where different composition steels can be hammer-welded into a laminated billet and then shaped as required. When polished (and especially when etched after polishing), these layers would show in a similar way to those swords first encountered in Damascus. However we now believe/know that the pattern on Damascus swords is caused by the very high carbon content of the Wootz steel. Hammer-welding steel laminates is an ancient and (then) practical method of homogeonising steel. Pattern-welding (in an effort to produce pretty patterns) has been practised since at least Roman times and possibly before.

So to return to the original point, 'Damascus steel' is a contraversial topic, though there are certain de facto conventions. To some (especially laymen) 'Damascus steel' is 'that pretty stripy one'. To others it is often 'the steel used for the swords first encountered in Damascus'. I try to be as precise and unambigious as possible and refer to 'pattern-welded steel', 'Wootz steel' etc.

 

[John Fenna]

For a quick and dirty patterned effect - polish you blade to a nice shiny finish, then draw pretty patterns on it with a sharpened candle. then wrap the blade in a kitchen towel or tissue soaked in vineger....after about 12 hours you have fake "Damascus"!

Fools a few...;0

 

[armie]

Thanks Matt. S, that was enlightening!

For a quick and dirty patterned effect
[snip]
Fools a few...;0

Yeah... a few fools

 

[Colin.W]

My 1st forge was an old car wheel (tyre removed obviously) with a drilled 1/4 plate dropped in the bottom air being fed by an old cooker hood fan on a dimmer switch as there was too much air flow without it. current model is the same air supply but neater ducting running into a cut down large butane gas bottle,

 

[Colin.W]

also I have sky+ ed the program on tv recently about the making of Samuri swords, I didnt realise the swords were made straight and the curve was formed naturaly during the hardening and tempering process. A joy to watch the ancient crafts being worked so well

 

[Tengu]

So we still have no real idea how real damascus steel was made?

Havent any survived??

(of course laminating steel was used in many societies, such as the vikings)

 

[Matt.S]

So we still have no real idea how real damascus steel was made?

The 'best' theory is that it was certain forms of 'crucible' steel, often known as the Wootz process, and the resulting patterns due to the steel being over-saturated with carbon. Another credible theory is that the pattern is due to trace amounts of some element (e.g. vanadium) which does not migrate through steel as carbon does, and was a contaminant (or at least an unintended alloying element) from the ore. We have a much better idea than we did even 10 years ago but as always no definitive, proven, all-bases-covered answer.

Havent any survived??

Yes but the owners are somewhat reluctant to let us cut chunks out of their hideously valuable 500+-year-old swords. Besides, this tells us what they're made of/from, and we can only infer from this how they are likely to have been made... as with just about anything archaeological.

(of course laminating steel was used in many societies, such as the vikings)

Quite right. In fact lamination for the purposes of homogeonisation was practiced for utlititarian objects into the 20th century in the West, when the blister/shear/double-shear/triple-shear process finally lost out to more modern techniques. Lamination for the purposes of decoration is still common, as is lamination for the purposes of having a hard core and a soft or springy shell, e.g. various laminated blades by Frosts. Lamination was also fundamentally neccesary to consolidate the 'bloom', the product of the bloomery furnace, into 'wrought' (forgeable) iron, from the dawn of the Iron Age until somewhere around the mid 20th century.