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Hand Forged Damascus Blades
These three photos show a Damascus blade in progress.
On the left is the three smaller billets, the middle is them welded, and
on the right, the finished blade.
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Damascus or Pattern Welded steel is an ancient process that traces it's
roots to India, thousands of years ago. The process as practiced today involves taking different
steels, and even pure nickel, and combining them together via a process
called forge welding. This is done by mating the metals carefully,
bringing them up to forging heat, using some anhydrous borax as flux,
and tapping them lightly with a hammer to set the welds. Once the welds
are solid, the monolithic piece of metal may be worked as desired. I
fold, twist, and continue to forge weld, in order to create the patterns
that I achieve in the finished blades.
I enjoy working with various materials,
including steel cable and chainsaw chain, in order to make some unusual
and interesting patterns. Since I do this by hand, it is very time
consuming and I don't make a lot of hand forged Damascus blades. It also
adds to the cost of the finished knives.
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Wood Selection and
Stabilization
I've spent a lot of time sourcing the
finest possible selection of high quality exotic hardwoods from around
the world and have over 60 varieties in stock. I strive to only use
suppliers that sell sustainably harvested wood from non-endangered
species. Curing some of these woods is quite challenging. Snakewood, for
one, is one of the most difficult woods to cure correctly, to prevent
it's natural tendency to check (small cracks appearing). When a green
log is cut, to prevent any further curing you can coat the piece
entirely with paraffin wax, especially the ends. The end grain is where
most of the moisture escapes from as wood is curing. If you want to
achieve gentle, controlled curing, you coat the piece of fresh cut wood
with shellac, which is porous and will allow slow curing. Some woods are
extremely stable (Bubinga, for example), and may simply be cut and set
aside to age. Most all of the woods I have in stock, I have had here in
my shop for anywhere from 6 months to 2+ years, so they have all been
aged to ambient moisture content, and are ready to use.
Some woods are fully stable as is, and
some benefit from a process called stabilization. I've sourced a
proprietary chemical called Nelsonite, which was developed specifically
for the process of stabilizing wood. Pool cue manufacturers use it, as
does Scagel and other well known knifemakers. The chemical is carried in
a Xylene solvent and the wood block, once cut, is then soaked in the
Nelsonite for several days. The chemical makes it way into the wood,
displacing the natural moisture and saturating the fibers. After
soaking, the wood is air dried for several days to several weeks,
allowing the Xylene to evaporate, leaving the Nelsonite inside the wood
cells. What this does when the wood is used on a knife is to greatly
prevent the wood from either absorbing or releasing moisture as it
normally would, making it much more stable. Some woods do not need
stabilization and indeed will suffer from it. Ask me about stabilizing
woods, I can do that for you, should the wood need it, for a nominal
extra charge. One of the major benefits of this method of stabilization
is that the wood is left natural feeling, and will accept oil and wax
finishes readily, whereas some of the more common methods rely on
injected polymers, and leave the wood with a plastic like feeling and
finish.
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