Process
One of the things I love about Blacksmithing in general , which includes the forging of knives , is that there really is no right or wrong way to do it and everyone has a different process that they go about in their work. I am a self taught smith specializing in bladesmithing, tool making and pattern welded steel which I in turn use to forge knives and other items from.
All of the knives I make are forged to shape from various types of high carbon steel stock that I purchase from a supplier or my own shop made Damascus /pattern-welded steel.
The process of making pattern-welded steel, a.k.a. Damascus Steel, also starts with flat bar stock.
While most steel called ‘Damascus’ is made with alternating layers of 2 types of contrasting steel alloys -a plain hi carbon steel and a hi carbon steel with added nickel -other metals besides steel, such as copper, may be used to achieve different contrasting effects. Dissimilar metals such as copper and steel are more difficult and temperamental to forge-weld together than a steel x steel Damascus, but the results are worth it.
To make Damascus Steel, sections of flat bar are cut to length and a stack is made, alternating the two different types of steel in the stack. This stack is then clamped and tacked together with an electric arc welder to hold it together while it’s heated in the forge to above 2000deg. F.. Once it has spent some time above this temp, the steel is ready to be forge welded together to turn the stack into one homogeneous piece of solid steel.
It is taken from the forge and hammered or pressed together while at temperature , put back in the fire , and this is repeated many times until the billet has been drawn out dimensionally to the desired size/shape/length.
The reason for this whole process is to achieve a beautiful pattern on the finished product that shows these layers of different steels by using and acid-based etchant the the two steels react differently to , creating a contrasting pattern......hence, the name ‘pattern-welded steel’
This can be taken a step further and the pattern-welded billet can be cut , stacked , forge-welded and drawn out again to multiply the layer count and make the pattern more dense. This is generally called High Layer Damascus Steel. When I make this Damascus with high layer counts , I will some times go through one additional step of adding a core
Piece of steel sandwiched between outer pieces of the high layer count Damascus. Some refer to this as Damascus-clad San-Mai (San Mai meaning: 3 layers).
Taking it even further...Mosaic Damascus can be made by forging, cutting , rearranging and re-stacking this layered billet in different ways to distort the layers into a desired configuration , and then doing it again. Then again, then again, then a few more times and each time the pattern is made more dense and complex . The possibilities are inexhaustible.
