Making Knives / Damascus steel

Have been thinking of this for awhile. I got a nice Damascus knife kit and some Cocobolo wood scales but when an older employee left work he had already cut out the handle shape for me on a scroll saw. He kept asking about when I was going to finish it so I just gave it to him for a puttering project. At my old company we always had a ton of tool steel from Table saw and Panel saw blades after they couldn't be sharpened anymore. I always wanted to water jet out knives from them. I am wondering what you need to fold/laminate steel yourself like the Damascus style. I think if you sandwiched a bunch together and forged them and hammered them it would give the desired affect and they would sharpen easier than stainless. Anyone doing this on the board? I am also going to ask my friend sin the metal business if I can try it on their blacksmithing forge setup.

I make knives and have done tons of research on making pattern welded steel blanks which is what most people call Damascus. I would not advise using saw blades. You need to know what type of steel the blade is made of. If you forge welded a bunch together you would not notice the pattern that much. You need to use different contrasting steels to get a good pattern, ie 1084 and 15N20 stacked and welded together in a forge and then etched with some feric chloride will give you a beautiful contrast. If you want to give it a shot and have a forge and an anvil I would advise that you buy some known steel from a place called New Jersey Steel Barron. Aldo has some pre-cut and stacked Damascus blanks you can play with. They are not that expensive. If you have any other questions please shoot me a PM and I will send you in the right directions. Also check out The Knife Network forum. Lots of great info and great guys on that site.

Mike

You can also Youtube "making damascus steel" and see what you need to make it happen.

Thanks my wife bought me a book on knife making that covered some of it. My son has a knife I gave him as a gift when he started hunting made by a native American as a gift for me in Canada. It is I believe made from an ice auger blade and then hand jeweled. I wanted something similar for myself and my other son and when we went to Alaska I was on the lookout but the chain stores all sold the name brand stuff. One stop my mom came back all proud and gave me a very large skinner style with the gut hook made by Silver Stag that she paid about double for. I was very gracious and even used it last season but I prefer a small blade and not something so large in the hand. I do know that Silver Stag will clean refurb and sharpen them every year and that is good because when I got hurt it was just after deer season and my knife sat on the back of the sink for 4 months with water and guts on the blade in the sheath. needless to say when I was finally mobile and found it it had already started to rust. I am going to send it in and also send them the pics of the 11 foot gator with it's mouth propped open with their blade for an advertisement if they want it. I like to give every kid I mentor a nice knife and prefer it to be something that fits them and their personality and not something off the shelf. I was thinking if I could get better at making blades I could make them myself and fashion them for each kid instead of always being on the hunt for one that fits a specific kid or adult. I would love to someday have a large chunk of land to take new adults and kids hunting on and give everyone a nice knife and maybe when I am dead and gone folks will recognize the blades they have or something to that affect. Kind of profound but I do believe we need to try and educate adults just as much as kids to what we do and why. If a parent is interested the kids usually are to if the parent is not it is much tougher to reach the kids. Just my take on it. I also have some gator hide coming back to make my own sheaths with. The belly and the hornback both. Thanks for the info.

I have always found Damascus steel interesting. I have never tried it nor own one. Is it essentially laminated layers of high carbons steel and low carbon steel?

Isn't there a difference in Damascus and Japanese folded steel?


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There are some guys down in Georgia who make Damascus steel knives and they do beautiful work.

Firefly said:

There are some guys down in Georgia who make Damascus steel knives and they do beautiful work.

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That is true. If you go onto the Georgia Outdoor News Forum, they post their work and it is amazing!


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Banjo said:

That is true. If you go onto the Georgia Outdoor News Forum, they post their work and it is amazing!


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Yes, thats the site I was referring to I just didn't say what site the knife makers are on. Razor Blade and Sharpblades are two of the best with crafting Knives down there but there are several more...

Firefly said:

Yes, thats the site I was referring to I just didn't say what site the knife makers are on. Razor Blade and Sharpblades are two of the best with crafting Knives down there but there are several more...

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Sharpblades repaired an Old Hickory kitchen knife for me that had belonged to my grandmother. He did an excellent job.


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