Advantages of Damascus Steel for Blades?

[ShooterG53]

I am new to knive collecting and am wondering what is the advantage of using Damascus steel in knife blades?

 

[Go Devil]

Few, if you are interested in keeping a consitent edge with the same degree of hardness.
Do some research on the origins of Damascus, you will also find information on wootz metal and the current metallurgy that we are blessed with today.
Damascus is an evolutionary stage of modern steel.

 

[Hkindiana]

The most important advantage of Damascus steel, is the beauty of the blade once it is acid etched.

 

[cubby]

Some Damascus is in the category of premium performance and some is not. If its a $20 Damascus blade, it's probly junk.

Go devil is 100% correct. Research before investing. Quality Damascus is expensive and, in today's world, primarily for investment and resale value. Huge Majority are strictly and fiercely relegated to Safe Queen status.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Curious too

 

[TiminMishawaka]

For 90% of "damascus" it's pretty, that's about it.

True damascus (aka wootz) is a softer steel with tiny hardened carbides suspended in it that act as the "teeth". If you could imagine them as the microscopic carbide teeth on a saw blade, that would be true damascus (wootz). I personally know 1 guy who has successfully made this and he was a master's student in metallurgy in Canada when he accomplished it (first name Greg, can't remember the last name). His method of producing wootz was literally his Master's thesis. To give you an idea of the process, he had to make it in a crucible under very controlled conditions and then slowly forge the pile of metal from the crucible at a very specific temperature into bar stock before it got into a shape he could grind. There is also some guy who figured it out in the 70s, iirc, and patented his wootz process for knifemaking. They say the advantage of this is you get the toughness of a softer steel while it is embedded with hardened crystals that do the cutting. I honestly can't comment on the quality of these blades as I've watch the materials get made but have never owned a finished product.

What most people call damascus now is pattern welded steel. You're thinking where it's folded, welded and rehammered. This used to be beneficial to manufactured steel when the process of turning iron into steel was to literally beat carbon (charcoal basically) into the steel, fold it over to trap the carbon between the layers of steel, heat it and beat it again to get the carbon to infuse into the steel. The carbon would only go so deep so they had to keep folding and rehammering it so that it was dispersed throughout the steel. Today, steel manufacturing has progressed to where pattern welding is an antique method of making steel. You can do it, but it provides no improvement of performance. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, ask them why damascus shotgun barrels can't handle the same stress as monosteel barrels, or why ball bearings, leaf springs or surgical instruments aren't made of pattern welded steel. The only advantage now with pattern welded steel is it is very aesthetically pleasing and speaks to the skill of the bladesmith who forged it. That's why pattern welded blades are a required part of the American Bladesmith Society Master Smith test.

Personally I still love damascus, pattern welded blades. They're beautiful and each is unique, but they're not magic.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

I thought true Damascened steel was lost to time.
Closest I'd heard of recently was about a research team trying to re-create the wootz process/product.

Forging the Dragonslayer

Do we now have true damascened steel?
Not just patterned steel, but the real deal?
That would be amazing, although I'm sure I could not afford it, if so.

 

[AD Marc]

Old blade production methods were generally done to compensate for impurities in primitive steel. Modern steel outperforms and has made the techniques obsolete for all but aesthetic purposes.

 

[TiminMishawaka]

Do we now have true damascened steel?
Not just patterned steel, but the real deal?
That would be amazing, although I'm sure I could not afford it, if so.

Like this?

If you look closely, you can tell it's not the same as patterned steel. It's true damascus. Greg made that bowie. I've never seen anything else like it. Couldn't tell you the price. Couldn't get him to sell it.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

Like this?

If you look closely, you can tell it's not the same as patterned steel. It's true damascus. Greg made that bowie. I've never seen anything else like it. Couldn't tell you the price. Couldn't get him to sell it.

That definitely doesn't look at all similar to the patterned/folded I've seen before. It's too intricate and minute and randomized. If true - and I have nor reason to doubt you - that is one of the most valuable blades I'll ever see in this life.

 

[TiminMishawaka]

It's too intricate and minute and randomized.

Yeah, when you see one you can see how they got the name "watered steel". The metal literally looks like ripples of water.

As a comparison, here is another friend's blade where he did a very good pattern weld. You can tell the pattern weld as it looks like the rings of a tree at parts when cut across.

If you're interested, Greg put together a tutoriral on how he made wootz steel as part of his master's project. I can pm you the link. It's one heck of a process.