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AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

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Jun 4, 2006
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StiHacka said:
That's not Damascus steel. That is forge welded steel, mix of lower/higher carbon steels. Damascus/wootz steel got its famous patterns chemically, during its crystallization. :nerd:
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Damascus steel is forge welded from multiple layers of dis-similar metals. Any chemical reaction you are referring to is an acid etching process that strips away one of the top layers to give the surface a texture. It does not create the pattern.
 
StiHacka

StiHacka

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AngryMetalsmith said:
Damascus steel is forge welded from multiple layers of dis-similar metals. Any chemical reaction you are referring to is an acid etching process that strips away one of the top layers to give the surface a texture. It does not create the pattern.
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No it is not. Pattern welding is a poor imitation of the original Damascus steel that just mimics its appearance. The original technique of production of the Damascus blades' wootz billets was lost but it was NOT forge welded steel. Quoting wikipedia, the banding in Damascus steel was caused by sheets of micro carbides within a tempered martensite or pearlite matrix, created during crystallization in carefully executed heat treatment cycles -> and knowledge of those has been lost.

The etching part is orthogonal to the semantics of this discussion.
 
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AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
22,046
12,750
I have no idea where I am
StiHacka said:
No it is not. Pattern welding is a poor imitation of the original Damascus steel that just mimics its appearance. The original technique of production of the Damascus blades' wootz billets was lost but it was NOT forge welded steel.

The etching part is orthogonal to the semantics of this discussion.
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Whatever dude. I'm actually a professional metalsmith. While I don't know a ton about ferrous work as most of my stuff is precious metals, I do know a few things.
 
jdcamb

jdcamb

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StiHacka said:
Look it up. The loss of the Damascus steel technology and a hunt for its re-invention is a fascinating story. :thumb:
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My limited research concerning Damascus Steel was full of contradictions. I asked my anthropology friend how they might have developed Damascus Steel. He has stated that due to varied sourcing of the Iron and additional ingredients, that a pure recipe was never established. A true process was never settled on and the dissimilar metals and processing steps that Sumerians used varied from smith to smith and crucible building styles to forging varied so much that many different styles of Damascus Steel were created. I find it fascinating that an ancient people had the resources to develop Steel making operation in ancient Syria.
 
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