Making knives from Damascus steel. Damascus, bulat, wutz - technology. Necessary blacksmith tools

Tutorial video:

Blades made of Damascus steel or damask steel are usually made by professionals, but you can also try your hand at this exciting process. You will need 10 double-sided hacksaw blades for metal. They are wider than single-sided and more convenient as raw materials.

Such canvases are made of U8 steel. When buying, try to find out how the blades are made - entirely from tool steel, or hard coating is used on a soft base. Only the former are suitable for our purposes. Also, stock up on enough soft iron tape to upholster wooden crates. Strips of any steel other than stainless steel will also be needed. U8 is still desirable. You can use old files with a thickness of about 2 mm, a length equal to half the length of the hacksaw blade and a width equal to the width of the iron band. You will put these strips in the bag as outer layers, which will prevent the thinner inner ones from completely turning into scale.

You can also use softer steel, such as StZ, as outer layers, but this will lower the average carbon content of your Damascus. Use an electric sharpener or grinder to remove the teeth from the hacksaw blades. After this operation, they will become equal in width to the iron tape. Each canvas must be cut into two equal parts along the length. You will get 20 pieces of hacksaw blades. Cut 20 pieces of iron tape with scissors for metal. Finally, it is desirable, using a pharmacy scale, to weigh a piece of iron tape, a piece of a hacksaw blade and a thick steel plate. You will need to know the weight when calculating the composition of the resulting steel.

Now let's do an operation called package typing. This operation is thorough and long, so it is better to perform it while sitting. Lay a piece of steel, 2 mm thick, on the table. Its surface does not have to be cleaned of rust, but if it is a file, it is necessary to grind off its working surface. Moisten it with ordinary water and apply a fairly thick layer of borax (about 2-3 mm). An iron strip is placed on the layer of borax, moistened, a layer of borax is applied. On it is a piece of a hacksaw blade, moistened, a layer of borax is applied. Thus, layers of iron, borax and steel alternate until 5 pieces of hacksaw blade are used. On the upper section of the iron strip, put a piece of thick steel, the same as at the very beginning of the package.

Now pull the package very carefully with clamps along the edges and, trying not to spill out the drill, weld its beginning and end with electric welding. Then, to reduce the possibility of delamination, boil in several places along the length. In this case, pieces of steel wire or nails can be applied across the side surface of the package and welded. It will serve additional guarantee from delamination. In the process of welding, it is necessary to add borax powder to those places from where it woke up or flowed out when heated by electric welding. The final stage creating a package - welding a handle to one of its ends. This will be a piece of rebar about 20 cm long when using tongs, or 1 m when working without tongs. Try to make the handle welding place as strong as possible.

If the handle falls off when the package is heated in the forge, it will be very problematic to get it out of there. When you succeed, most likely, the package will no longer be usable due to overburning. It is even advisable to grind off one of the ends of the rod used as a handle to a small thickness and wedge it between the layers of the package, and then scald it. As one of the layers, you can use a rod forged onto a plate at one end. Its long tail forms a handle. This option is the most reliable. Whatever the case, you should get 4 bags of the same design. As an alternative to electric welding, the following technology can be used. The package is first assembled without a drill, after which through holes are drilled with an electric drill at the beginning and at the end of the package. Further, according to the technology described above, the package is assembled with borax and bolted through the drilled holes.

This technique is in some cases more effective, as it provides a reliable tightening of the package. And with the use of electric welding, in a hot forge, the package can fall apart. Some authors of literature on Damascus steel advise assembling the package without borax at all, which plays the role of a flux during welding, and sprinkle the package already warmed up in the forge with borax. I wouldn't recommend this for beginners. In the middle of the package, there may be places to which the molten borax will not flow. They form gaps. As you gain experience, you will reach a degree of skill where you can flux and weld a package assembled without borax, but at first it is better to play it safe. In addition, the use of technology with pre-loading of the drill allows laying steel with an uncleaned surface into the package - with a layer of rust, scale, etc.

And in the latter method, all layers of steel must be thoroughly cleaned. So, you have collected four packages. Inspect them carefully - all the cracks between the layers should be tightly packed with borax. Make sure the long handles are welded to the bags as securely as possible. Fire up the horn. When the flame is steady and the forge is at full blast, carefully place the first bag into the mass of burning embers. It is very important that the bag heats up evenly. It must be constantly monitored, rotated around the longitudinal axis and moved if the heating is uneven. Remember that the workpiece in the hearth seems to be hotter in color than it really is.

It is very important to learn how to catch that single moment when you need to pull out and forge the workpiece. Usually, the beginning of this moment is characterized by the appearance of small sparks, like a Bengal fire, that emanate from the surface of the workpiece.

Be on the lookout - these sparks indicate the approach of the maximum welding temperature and the beginning of the burning of the metal. Wait until sparks fly from the entire area of the workpiece, and not just from any one area.

At this point, quickly remove the workpiece (its color should be from lemon yellow to white, with an abundance of sparks). Place it on the anvil, and with frequent blows of a small sledgehammer, hammer it from end to beginning and back. Turn over and forge again from end to beginning and back. If everything went well, the welding has already taken place. For a guarantee, forge the workpiece with even flat strokes until it reaches the red color. Forge welding is possible at and at lower temperatures, for example, with a light orange glow of the metal, but the risk of cold lack of penetration is increased.

If the shape of the workpiece after this series of forging is not perfectly rectangular, heat it again, just until orange. Adjust the shape of the workpiece so that it is as close to rectangular as possible, and both surfaces are as flat and even as possible. The thickness of the workpiece after this, the first welding, should be about 4-5 mm. In this way, forge and weld all four packages. After that, the four plates obtained can be reassembled into a bag and boiled, but I recommend stopping, taking a break and at the same time examining the quality of the weld. When the forgings have cooled down, grind off a small layer of metal from the side of the package with a grinder or electric grinder.

If you see only the shiny surface of solid steel, the welding went well.
When dark lines are visible - the boundaries between the layers, it means that lack of penetration was allowed. With one or two small lack of penetration, the process can be continued. Most likely, delamination will not occur, and lack of fusion will be eliminated during further welding. If the lack of fusion is large, then the package should be heated up, cover the uncooked place with a layer of borax, continue heating to welding temperature, and forge the uncooked place over the entire width of the plate again.

So, you have in your hands four plates of 13 alternating layers. Having collected them in a bag and boiled, we get a plate in 52 layers. While hot, cut it with a chisel lengthwise into 2 or, if the width allows, 3 parts. While the process of cutting with a chisel scares you, you can cut the plate with a thin cutting wheel, however, in this case, some of the metal will fall into the sawdust. Collecting in a package and welding the resulting plates, it is theoretically possible to obtain any number of layers. But it should be borne in mind that initially rather thin layers of metal were laid in the package, therefore, with more than 200 layers, the pattern will be very thin and difficult to distinguish.

Therefore, I recommend stopping at 150-200 layers. At the final welding, try to make the package take on a smaller length and width, but a greater thickness than those that you have outlined for the future product. This is necessary for the final metal forming process. So, you have received the original piece of Damascus steel. It contains about 0.6% carbon - the Japanese consider such steel to be optimal. This is the so-called "wild" Damascus. When etching a product from it, you will get a pattern of almost parallel lines of different thicknesses. This Damascus is also called "striped". You can be satisfied with it, or try to somehow complicate the pattern.

Option one: "Peacock's Eye".

This is a pattern in which concentric circles, ovals or squares meet. The pattern is achieved in the following way. Before molding the product from the resulting plate, on its side surfaces with a drill or a grinding wheel, in the right places, shallow (1-2 mm) recesses of a round or elliptical shape are cut. After that, the heated plate is subjected to forging, in which its surface becomes flat again. In this case, the lower layers come to the surface and form concentric figures. The use of this method gives quite ample opportunities in the formation of a pattern.

A fundamentally different way is "TURKISH" or "TWISTED" Damascus.

To obtain it, you must try to ensure that the source material is a package with necessary quantity layers, took the form of a round or square rod. To do this, you can cut a wide thick plate or cut it lengthwise into strips, the width of which is approximately equal to the thickness. The rods are heated to a light orange color, after which one end is clamped in a vise, and the other is captured by tongs with flat jaws.

It twists along the longitudinal axis in several turns, but so that the bar does not burst. The resulting spiral billet is forged into a plate, at a temperature close to welding, with flux to eliminate possible delamination. The product formed from such a plate has a complex pattern in the form of concentric four-beam repeating stars. When working with Damascus, there are a huge number of pattern options. There are no limits to artistic imagination. Therefore, do not be afraid to experiment and look for new patterns and ways to get them. We will touch on this topic in the section on mosaic Damascus.

Welded steel:

This type of welded steel is characterized by a high carbon content, which brings such Damascus closer in strength and cutting properties to cast damask steel. This carbon content is achieved by using iron powder in forge welding. Cast iron contains up to 6% carbon. It is convenient to use cast iron from steam heating batteries, but its quality is not high. In any case, you should know the composition of the cast iron being used, at least the data on its carbon content.

Cast iron is highly brittle, so it is quite easy to split it into small pieces with a sledgehammer. Then crush them on an anvil into a powder, the particles of which should be about the size of a grain of rice. Crush the cast iron carefully so that the particles do not scatter in different directions. For the right amount of welded damask steel, you will need several glasses of crushed cast iron, so be patient. In addition to cast iron, the composition of such steel includes StZ in the form of water pipes and U8-U9 steel from files.

File steel must be crushed into pieces about the size of a fingernail. It is easily pricked with a hammer. Using the above formula, calculate the weight parts of all components. Finished steel with all corrections for carbon burnout should contain no more than 1-1.2% carbon. Homogeneous steel with such a composition is very brittle, but due to the heterogeneity of the composite, it is possible to harden it to a higher hardness. Take water pipe 1/2 or 3/4 inch is, as I said, StZ steel.

You will need several pieces of pipe about 20 cm long. Using an iron wire ruff, thoroughly clean the inside of the pipe from rust. Weld tightly one end of each piece of pipe. Mix crushed iron and U8 steel fragments in the proportion that you calculated (during the calculation, do not forget to take into account the weight of the pipe). Usually, U8 requires more weight than cast iron. Now fill the pipe segments with the resulting mixture. Compact the iron-steel mixture as thoroughly as possible with a pin of the correct diameter. The stuffed mixture is rammed in the pipe by strong tapping with a hammer on a pin inserted into the pipe like a piston.

When the pipe is full, weld the other end of it and weld the handle to it. You can use the pin with which you tamped the mixture, leaving part of it in the pipe and firmly welded. Having stuffed all the pipe sections, take an electric drill and drill 10-20 holes of small diameter in each pipe, evenly placing them on the surface. These holes are needed to exit the air remaining inside and excess molten iron. Ignite the forge and heat the pipe section to the maximum temperature. In this case, a slight burn of the pipe surface is not terrible, since the walls of the pipes are quite thick.

Make sure the heat is even. When the pipe section turns white, hammer it with a heavy sledgehammer (the help of a hammerer is desirable) several times from end to beginning and back. Bring the resulting plate to a thickness of 3-4 mm. Forge the rest of the pipe sections in the same way. In the resulting steel, there are still a lot of internal lack of penetration, voids and its composition is very heterogeneous. Therefore, you will have to weld the resulting plates many more times. First weld them together. The resulting plate must be divided in two alternately along and across and welding should be repeated at least 10 times so that the steel becomes even in composition. At this stage, I advise you to gradually begin to master one technique.

It will allow avoiding the procedure of cutting the plate into pieces and assembling it into a bag using electric welding. The plate is cut with a chisel along the desired line by 1/2 of the thickness. Then, on the edge of the anvil along the notch line, the plate is bent by 90 degrees. On the plane of the anvil, the fold is brought to an acute angle. After heating, the bent plate is carefully fluxed with borax, especially those surfaces that will be welded. After applying the flux, the forging is heated to welding temperature and forged. In fact, the plate simply folds in half. It must be remembered that it folds alternately - either along or across. Suppose there were five pipe sections that you forged into plates. Having welded them together, we got a 5-pack.

After the first fold in half, it will have 10 layers, after the 2nd - 20, after the 3rd - 40, after the 4th - 80, after the 5th - already 160! Thus, after the 10 welds I recommend, you will have several thousand layers. From such a package it is already possible to form ready product. I do not recommend using any tricks to complicate the pattern on welded damask steel - it already has its own, unique characteristic chaotic pattern. You can read about the features of hardening welded damask steel and the amazing technology that allows you to achieve the formation of microscopic diamond crystals in the layers of such steel in the article by V. Basov "Damask steel - the life line". Mosaic "Mosaic Damascus" is called steel, in which sections with different types of patterns are welded together. The possibilities for imagination are endless here. I propose to make a damascus, with a "smoke Sutton Hoo" pattern, after the name of a fossil Scandinavian sword.

Weld a package consisting of 7 layers of three steels - StZ (gives a white metallic color when pickled), U8 (black) and any spring steel (gray). Alternation can be anything. The finished plate should turn out to be wide and thick enough so that 8 bars of square section with a thickness and a width of about 7-8 mm can be cut from it. You may have to make several plates. The length of the bars should be about 30 cm. After that, mark sections of 4 cm on each of the bars. By heating and clamping the bars in a vise, twist half the bars in one direction (say, clockwise) and half in the other.

Twisting will occur in sections, so that twisted sections alternate with untwisted ones. Try to keep the twisted and untwisted areas on all bars in the same places. After that, forge each bar again, restoring their square section along the entire length. Now take four rods - two, twisted in each direction. Lay them side by side on a workbench, making sure the layers of metal in each bar are facing you. The twisted sections will touch and alternate. A bar twisted clockwise next to a bar twisted counterclockwise, and so on.

You will get a package that resembles folded fingers. Put a few thick nails across the bag on each side - they can then be removed - and weld with electric welding, fastening the bag. Weld also a rod-handle. Since the package thickness is small, it is possible to flux directly before forge welding. Heat the bag until scarlet, sprinkle thickly with borax on two flat sides, and heat further. Welding is performed at the highest possible, but excluding overheating, temperature, very light (to prevent delamination of the package in the form of a fan) with hammer blows. They are applied along the side surface of the package, and not along the wide plane. Mastering this art, which is called end welding, is not easy. First, it makes sense to practice on square steel bars so as not to spoil the complex puff steel.

As a result, you should get two monolithic plates. Each consists of four sections of bars twisted in opposite directions. By itself, such steel is not very strong, so it should be welded onto the base. The base can be either Damascus or simple (in this case the best option- a plate from a released and forged spring). In size, it should match the resulting mosaic plates. The base is collected in a package with the resulting plates and welded together. It turns out a finished piece of steel, the surfaces of which have a beautiful pattern, similar to the smoke from a candle.

A product from such Damascus should be forged very carefully, trying to achieve the closest possible shape precisely by forging. When turning with a grinder or on a wheel, the pattern may deteriorate. Start grinding work only when the shape of the future product is indicated in almost all details. Watch for uniform deformation of the metal during forging so that the core and outer patterned plates do not move relative to each other. Making a mosaic, and indeed any other Damascus, is fascinating. For the sake of pleasure from steel, unique in its beauty and properties, it is worth looking for your own ways, and not being afraid to start over again and again.

Damascus swords have been famous for their unique qualities for many hundreds of years. To forge such a weapon required the skill of a true master. But art alone was, of course, not enough. It was necessary to create the steel itself. So what is she like? As many people know, Damascus steel is called laminated steel. Moreover, if there is no difference in the carbon content between the layers, and there are also no alloying additives, such steel does not belong to Damascus. Steels are completely different: springy steels and alloyed, and with a high carbon content. The package alternates between three types of steels or alloys: one is high carbon steel, others can be manganese, sometimes ball bearing steel is used, and the third material in the package is pure nickel. It imparts a sheen, does not etch when finished blades are etched with acid, and forms shiny layers in the pattern.

The cut strips are folded through one and welded into a bag by electric welding so that they do not crumble. The package is placed in the hearth, heated to the required temperature, which, by the way, must be observed with exceptional accuracy. The fact is that if the temperature is slightly lower than required, the steel will not weld (lack of penetration). If it is excessively overheated, the metal will begin to burn, and when the overheated steel crumbles into dust from a strong blow, it can no longer be collected, it can be thrown away. And with very strong overheating, steel generally flares up with a bright flame like a Bengal fire. Damascus is distinguished by its specificity. The pattern that is formed “by itself”, in the process of forging, folding and forging a package, is called “wild Damascus”. And it is considered one of the most durable Damascus, it does not have any mechanical defects.

Stainless Damascus is brewed in a vacuum oven. The vacuum furnace is a very complex, bulky and, therefore, expensive equipment. A furnace is located in the vacuum chamber, and to be precise, an induction heater, a pneumatic or steam hammer and a manipulator that allows you to move the workpiece (you can’t work there with your hands). The uniqueness of blades made of rifled Damascus steel lies in the fact that in the process of their manufacture it is possible to purposefully form a pattern. Such blades are obtained with very beautiful peculiar patterns. This is achieved by cutting recesses after forging the knife blade, and then expanding them to prevent tucks and forging again, strictly observing a certain temperature regime. The pattern in the form of rings is formed because the layers in the recesses lying from below stick out upwards. There is also a technology of torsated, or twisted Damascus, when, after forging, the package is twisted around the longitudinal axis and forged.

Often, several twisted blanks are welded into a plane, and then an amazingly beautiful pattern is formed, which is called a bouquet. The price of such knives is especially high and can be calculated in six or even seven figures. Western blacksmiths even use lasers. Can you imagine a blacksmith with laser equipment?! The laser cuts an exceptionally narrow groove into the workpiece, into which a strip of metal is inserted, and then the workpiece is forged and the desired pattern is obtained.

So you can forge anything - numbers, initials, even a portrait! Of course, very expensive handles are also selected for such exceptional knives. In particular, various valuable species of wood, bone. In addition, they are richly inlaid.

I present to your attention a high-quality stylish knife made of Damascus steel, which you can do with your own hands. Damascus steel is a steel that is heterogeneous in its composition. This is achieved by forging, when different grades of steel are mixed. And if such a metal is then immersed in acid, a unique pattern is formed on it, since each steel changes its color in different ways.

In this tutorial, we will look at how you can make your own Damascus steel. More will be used here modern technologies. We get Damascus by dismounting two or three types of steel. As a basis, steel powder will be used here, as well as steel balls. It is thanks to the balls that we get an interesting pattern. In principle, the forging process is not difficult, but requires a forging furnace, an anvil, and some experience. Working with hot metal is very dangerous, so you must follow all safety rules. So, let's move on to making a knife!

Materials and tools that were used by the author:

List of materials:
- steel tube (preferably carbon steel);
- steel balls;
- steel powder;
- a little sheet metal for plugs;
- wood for overlays;
- brass rods or bushings for pins;
- wood impregnation oil;
- epoxy adhesive.

List of tools:
- blacksmith furnace, anvil and hammer;
- belt sander;
- acid for pickling steel;
- Bulgarian;
- drill;
- welding machine;
- caliper;
- hardening oil, electrical tape and more.

Knife making process:

Step one. We form the workpiece
First of all, we need to make a blank from balls, steel powder and a piece of pipe, from which the blade will then be made. To do this, pour the powder and balls into the steel pipe. You need to fall asleep in portions, that is, a few balls, then a little powder, and so on. The balls must first be washed well in soapy water so that there are no traces of oil on them. You can also wash them in acetone. We weld the bottom of the pipe using steel round timber.

As for the metal of the pipe, it is desirable that it also be carbon steel.

Well, then we brew the other end and send the whole thing to the oven. You need to warm up to a yellow glow and with this warming up we perform forging. We bend metal from different sides. It is extremely important for us to mix all the metals together. You will need to heat the workpiece more than once, but forging is never easy. After that, we get an excellent metal for a knife.

Step two. Checking the metal
When, in your opinion, the workpiece is ready, you need to check the quality of the metal. First, take a grinder and cut off the edges of the plate. The metal should be uniform, without shells and other defects. Further along the contour we go through a belt grinder. Similarly, we look to see if we mixed the metal well. If everything is fine, you can proceed to the next step - the formation of a knife profile.

Step three. Blade profile
The author sets the profile of the blade by forging. First, we form the tip of the knife, and then we can make bevels on the blade. We approach the formation of bevels responsibly, the blade should be even, but not too thin. There is no need to rush in this matter, we work with a hammer on both sides.

Finally, you will need to separate the blade from the handle. To do this, we work with the sharp part of the hammer. If everything is fine, make sure your blade is straight. On this forging can be completed.

Step four. Blade grinding
Having formed the primary profile, you can proceed to grinding. The easiest way to deal with such tasks is with a belt grinder. We carefully grind the entire blade, both on the plane and along the contour. Do not sharpen the blade at this step, its thickness should not be less than 1 mm. Otherwise, the blade may warp or crack when hardened.

Step five. Heat treatment of metal
Perhaps this step is the most important in the manufacture of a quality knife. Thanks to heat treatment, we can make the metal from which the knife is made become as hard as possible. The temperature regime for each steel grade is individual, but if you do not know what kind of steel, you can follow the basic rules. For example, if the metal is heated to the hardening temperature, a permanent magnet is no longer attracted to it. But this method is not accurate. Also, many craftsmen are able to determine the desired temperature by color, for most steels it should be yellow.

The first thing the author does is to normalize the metal after forging. To do this, it must be warmed up and allowed to cool gradually. The author places the blade in a bag of coal and sends it to the furnace. Further, the workpiece can already be hardened, for this we again heat the blade and immerse it in oil. The procedure can be repeated several times, but usually once is enough. If after that the blade is not taken with a file, then the steel is hardened.
However, there is one pitfall here, if the steel is not released after hardening, it will be brittle. That is, we need to make the metal a little softer so that it springs and does not break. For this, a household oven is enough. It needs to be heated to a temperature of about 200 ° C and the knife needs to be heated for about 1-1.5 hours, depending on the thickness of the metal. If the tempering was successful, the blade should turn straw-coloured. Now your knife will be able to withstand huge bending loads as well as impact loads.

Step six. Grinding and drilling holes
After hardening, there will be a coating on the metal that needs to be cleaned off. We put a not too large belt on the tape machine and grind it. If desired, the blade can be made shiny, like a mirror.

We also need to drill holes for the pins in the handle. But to do such a procedure with hardened metal is very difficult. In this regard, we take gas burner and warm up the handle. Let it cool down gradually. After that, the metal will be drilled with conventional metal drills. That's all, now it remains to make a pen. Wrap the blade with electrical tape or masking tape so as not to cut yourself during subsequent work.

Step seven. Let's prepare the overlays
Covers can be made from various materials, it can be plastic, textolite, bones, horns and much more. In our case, this is the most popular and sought-after material - wood. We select a board from a beautiful type of wood with a beautiful pattern and make two overlays. If desired, some other material can be glued to the lining so that the handle is combined.

Step eight. Blade etching
Since we have Damascus steel, we need to remember to highlight the very cherished pattern. To do this, we need a reagent that actively reacts with steel. We clean the blade with sandpaper, clean it with acetone, otherwise the fat will not allow the acid to work. Well, then we lower the blade into acid for a while. But don't forget the knife, as the steel can completely dissolve the blade. We take out the knife and wash it in water with soda, it neutralizes the acid. That's all, now we have a bizarre, unique pattern on the steel.

greetings to all brain artisans! After almost a year of "communication" with a hammer and anvil, I finally acquired the necessary experience and tools to create forged crafts, such as a small "Damascus" knife from this brainarticles.

And I started, by the way, with a small sledgehammer as an anvil, which I hit with a small hammer.

Now we will talk about creating with your own hands a small, forged, and not carved, knife with the help of a homemade forge, anvil, hammer and determination. I do not pretend to be a professional, and this, of course, is not the only way to get welded Damascus, this is a story about how I managed to make it.

Damascus steel today is called welded Damascus, obtained from welded metal plates of various brainsteel, subsequently forged and twisted. It's like sticking plasticine of different colors together and twisting it to make a wavy pattern. After forging, such a workpiece is subjected to etching, in which dissimilar metals of the workpiece are corroded unevenly, thereby forming a beautiful contrast. The original Damascus steel is obtained in a different, very specific way (although it looks similar to modern Damascus), and few people know how to create it, this fact has created Damascus's reputation as a metal supposedly endowed with magical powers. And the reason for this "strength", similar to that of samurai swords, is a process that allows you to get a more uniform, and therefore with necessary qualities, steel, which cannot be achieved by other methods, and makes it possible to include low-quality and high / low carbon steel in the composition of the workpiece. Which gives a much better quality blade.

ATTENTION!! The knife can be dangerous, please do not give it to people with mental disorders!!!

Step 1: Materials and Tools

- steel plates of two or more grades (preferably high carbon content) that will contrast with each other, I took high carbon 1095 steel and 15n20 steel, with a small nickel content, which will add brightness and contrast after etching
- flux (borax, which can be purchased at a hardware store)
- a piece of reinforcement, a long bar (will be welded to the workpiece as a handle)
- wood of your choice for the knife handle
- epoxy resin (hardening in 5 minutes is the most)
- brass rivets
- composition for wood processing of the handle, I used linseed oil
- oil for hardening metal (vegetable)
- ferric chloride

- an anvil (preferably a real steel anvil, although in the absence of one, some other solid objects will do: a piece of rail, a sledgehammer, a large metal blank, an old mooring bollard, or just a large strong, hard and even surface. Remember how it all started with stone strikes on a large stone)
- hammer (I used a weight of 1.3 kg, with a transverse striker)
- ticks
- welding (optional, but desirable for welding the plates to each other and welding the handle, if you do not have welding, you can wrap the plates tightly with wire)
- forge forge (capable of heating the workpiece to the temperatures required for forging, which is very important for high-quality fusion of plates with each other, more on this later)
- belt sander or file with a mountain of patience
- oven or other method of hardening
- drill or drilling machine
- vice (a very useful thing)

Step 2: Assembly of the workpiece

Steel plates are cut to fit brain size, mine for example 7.6x1.2cm; at the same time, the larger the workpiece, the more difficult it is to form it with a hammer. Before welding them into a stack, the plates are cleaned from all sides of rust and scale. Next, the plates are stacked in a pile, alternating steel grades, so my workpiece consisted of 7 plates, three of which are 15n20, and four are 1095.

Aligned with respect to each other, the plates are seized by welding (do not pay much attention to my seam), and then a handle is welded to the stack to make it easier to operate with the workpiece during forging. There is nothing wrong, especially after the stack of plates has been welded, to use only tongs. I forged mine anyway.

Step 3: First stack forging

A little about my forge: it is made do it yourself from an empty (as a precaution, I specially bought a new one) gas cylinder, inside it is lined with a 5 cm layer of kaolin wool and refractory cement. It is heated by a Ron-Reil type burner, about which there are many good brainarticles. The forge itself is not particularly large and heats up to the desired temperature without any problems.

So, the workpiece from the plates is heated to a cherry-red color, the heat for this is not very strong. heated billet homemade sprinkled with borax, which immediately begins to melt and must be allowed to seep between the plates. This will remove scale and prevent oxidation by preventing oxygen from contacting the metal. This action will ensure the purity of the workpiece metal.

Then the workpiece is heated again in the hearth and the procedure is repeated a couple more times, not forgetting to clean the scale if necessary. And after that, the workpiece is heated to the forging temperature, how much I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s somewhere in the region of 1260-1315 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the workpiece will have a very bright yellow-orange color, about the same as moderate daylight.

In order not to waste time, make sure that the anvil and hammer are at hand and there is enough free working space.

Then the workpiece is quickly placed on the anvil and with light, soft blows, evenly over the entire area, the plates begin to be forged together. Next, the workpiece is again placed in the hearth and heated to forging temperature, and then forged with medium-strength blows.

And after that, the workpiece is pulled out so that it can be bent.

Step 4: Folding the workpiece

It's time to increase the number medulla in the workpiece. To do this, the workpiece is forged to a length twice the original, but it is important to stretch it evenly, and not just stretch it. In the middle of the stretched workpiece on a cut, with a chisel or other suitable method, a transverse recess is made 3/4 or 4/5 in thickness, along which the workpiece is then folded in half at the edge of the anvil, turned over and forged along the entire length, while making sure that the halves are not moved relative to each other along the side edges.

Then the heating/forging process from the previous step is repeated: flux, heating, cooling, heating, forging, horn. The procedure for increasing the number of layers is repeated until the desired number of these layers, so I folded it 4 times and got 112 layers. (If you want more layers, please, the pattern will then be smaller. The formula for calculating the layers is: the initial number * 2 to the power of the number of folds, that is, 7 * 2^4 = 112).

Next, the billet heated to forging temperature homemade is placed in the groove of the anvil, twisted well, and then it is again given a rectangular shape. But before twisting, the billet is punched at the corners so that its shape becomes more rounded, because when twisting and back forging into a rectangular billet, inclusions and impurities from the resulting folds can form if the billet temperature is less than forging.

Thereafter brain blank it is forged again (I repeated it several times), and cooled, and to make sure that the forging was uniform, I cleaned one of the ends of the workpiece. During the forging itself, especially at the first stage, it is important to keep the temperature of the workpiece high and be careful, otherwise you can tear off the layers from each other (in other words, this is called delamination, which is not good at all).

Step 5: Model and Rough Profile Formation

Now you need to imagine the profile of the future knife and roughly forge it from the workpiece. The more accurately you can forge the profile and bevel, the less hassle with grinding (on a machine or file). There are many on this topic. brainarticles more experienced blacksmiths, so I don't go into details. The bottom line is that the workpiece behaves approximately like plasticine, when it is heated, it is necessary to punch it in the right direction.

Step 6: Sanding the Profile

Fine shaping of the profile is carried out with a grinder and a file. Stock up on tea, because most likely it will take a lot of time, unless of course you have a grinding brain machine.

Step 7: Sanding, sanding, sanding...and reflecting on the meaning of life

Step 8: Finished Profile

After the profile crafts formed, it still needs to be finished with a file with a finer grit, I used the 400s. The edge of the blade is sharpened almost, but not completely, it is necessary to leave it slightly unsharpened so that the edge material does not deform during hardening. After that, holes for riveting are drilled in the knife handle and wooden dies are prepared for this handle.

Step 9: Exciting Moment

hardening.
She will either "create" your blade or destroy it. It is important to concentrate and be careful, otherwise you can deform and destroy the blade. The way I used is not the most thorough method. brain hardening, but only it was available to me with the tools I had, and the oil was the best I could get.

Before hardening, the blade must be normalized. This will relieve stresses built up during forging and twisting and reduce the chance of warping during quenching. This normalization is done by heating the blade above its critical temperature (when it is no longer magnetized, so it is useful to have a magnet handy) and cooling in air. The process is repeated three to five times, so I did it 5 times. In addition, this action will help you train to remove the blade from the forge, because no hitches are allowed during hardening. This action is shown in the photo with my dangling knife. And this part is also cool in that during cooling, oxidation occurs, which begins to reveal the pattern of steel.

Hardening: the blade is again heated above the critical temperature, and then quickly removed and placed, primarily with the tip, in warm vegetable oil (for such grades brainsteel like mine). To heat the oil itself, you can simply heat something metal and throw it into a container of oil, for example, I used a crutch for sleepers. Mix the oil, so you get a more even hardening. If your steel is high carbon then don't use water to harden it, it will only ruin the blade because the water cools too fast which is not suitable for high carbon steel.

FROM under the tree now it should be treated like glass, because if the blade has been tempered correctly, it is so brittle that it can break if dropped.

After that, it's time for vacation.

Step 10: Metal tempering

Tempering is the process of hardening a blade to increase its life and strength. This is achieved by heating the blade at a certain controlled temperature. Leave your brain crafts I spent in the oven for an hour at 205 degrees Celsius. “Bake” until the display shows “ready”.

Step 11: Etching

I apologize in advance for the lack of photos of this and the next steps, but the process is quite simple. Ferric chloride is prepared according to the attached brain instructions, and then the blade is aged in it, as much as indicated in the same instructions. In my case it is 3 parts of water to 1 part ferric chloride, and keeping for 3-5 minutes. The process is really exciting, and its result looks like a Batman knife.

Step 12: Handle and Sharpening

Again, there are many techniques and instructions on how to how to do knife handle and sharpen it, so I can do without brain details. Let me just say that for my crafts I chose cherry dies, which I glued to the knife handle with epoxy glue and secured with two brass rivets. Sanded it with 400 grit and coated it with linseed oil.

For sharpening, I do not use any special, labor-intensive method, but mostly use an ordinary grindstone.

Step 13: Time to give yourself a pat on the back, the knife is ready...

This is my finished knife, about 15cm long. People might think this is pretty funny, but I have no idea how this fancy pattern came about.

Thank you for brain attention I hope this is useful to someone!

The famous Damascus steel. What qualities did these amazing blades have? What is the secret of ancient technology? Damascus for its time was a revolutionary breakthrough in the creation of high-strength metal and new technology. The legendary swords that cut through the silk scarf had an extraordinary sharpness. Isn't this a myth? The forge of the twenty-first century is the realm of traditional technology. The principle of creation has not changed for centuries. The main elements of this production: open fire, hammer, anvil, blacksmith's skill. A sign of the new time in the profession of a blacksmith is the raw materials. In the old days, artisans themselves mined ore, then processed it into metal. Modern blacksmiths, as a rule, operate with steel with alloying additives. These impurities give the metal individual characteristics.

The superiority of Damascus steel over all other alloys is a common myth. Scholars believe that this is a figment of the imagination of the writers of the early nineteenth century. In the historical novels of the time, the blades of Damascus had miraculous properties. They cut through like butter. Historians and metallurgists refute these legends. To resist modern steels, ancient Damascus could hardly have been able to. However, it was somewhat simpler chemical composition and the steels that were used in it were not so interesting. The "Damascus" that today's craftsmen create is, as a rule, the use of already initially high-strength steels with good characteristics.

Nevertheless, the "Damascus" of its time was really distinguished by its high strength and flexibility. This combination made Damascus steel an excellent weapon. The secret is in a special alloy.

In its purest form, iron is a very soft metal, and is not suitable. Therefore, a person uses alloys - compounds of iron with other chemical elements. An indispensable component of these compounds is carbon. It gives the alloy hardness. For example, in usually a nail, carbon is hundredths of a percent (0.06-0.16%) of the total metal. And in a railway rail from 0.5 to 0.7%. Iron alloys containing less than 2.14% carbon are called steel. After a special heat treatment, it acquires another important quality - elasticity.

The main secret of the Damascus production technology is a multi-layer blank, which consists of alloys with different carbon contents. Damascus steel- one of the first composite, that is, compound, materials in history. "Damascus" is a welding technology when there is a diffusion convergence of layers of two, three or more steels by pressure. The main part of the package, which consists of steels rich in carbon, gives special hardness to "Damascus". The source of elasticity of the future product is alloying additives and iron. So, the alternation of layers of metal with a very high and very low carbon content, gave the new material: hardness, elasticity and toughness (impact resistance).

Traces of this cocktail can be seen with the naked eye. The characteristic pattern on the Damascus blade is the optical effect of the uneven distribution of carbon. "Damascus" has its own unique "face", its pattern, its beauty in iron. Homogeneous material is even in color, not so interesting. It is usually painted, or to create some kind of image.

The high qualities of a particular Damascus steel blade are laid down at the initial stage. There is no perfect recipe for creating a "package". The selection of raw materials, their proportions, the principle of combining, in ancient times, any of the elements of this process, was the secret of the master, the foundation of the superiority of his weapon.

Made of Damascus steel - the pride of any hunter. Thanks to manufacturing technology, such a tool cuts the hardest natural materials and fabrics. He keeps a sharp edge well. However, the product of these masters is rarely used for its intended purpose. The main function of their steel works is decorative.

Good day, dear readers. The buyers of our online store quite often asked us questions regarding various grades of steel, so we decided to prepare informational reviews on knife steels presented in our assortment. We decided to prepare the most detailed photo report about the technological process starting from a metal bar (blank) and ending with a finished knife about Damascus steel, since it has significant differences from most steel grades.

According to Wikipedia - Damascus (Damascus steel) - a type of steel with visible inhomogeneities on the steel surface, most often in the form of patterns obtained different ways, for example, when repeatedly reforging a steel package consisting of steels with different carbon contents (welding Damascus).

In the photo (from left to right): a modern knife, a product of ancient masters, damask steel.

Damascus steel is associated with many legends and is heavily romanticized in classical literature and historical chronicles along with damask steel. I will not claim that we have rediscovered a recipe invented a thousand years before our era, but using the knowledge of modern metallurgy and having carried out a large number of experiments, we received our own recipe for Damascus with a blade hardness of 62 units on the Rockwell scale (HRC).

For those who are already tired of reading the article and who want to “see once, not hear a hundred times”, a small video clip about the workflow from our forge.

The workflow for making a knife is divided into two stages: the manufacture of Damascus in the forge and the subsequent processing of the blade in the knife workshop. You can see the production of steel in the forge in our video, as well as in the photo report below with comments.

Forging Damascus in the forge

The production of Damascus can take place in several different ways, we produce the so-called ‘‘Welding Damascus’’. This technology involves the set and welding of blanks (hence the name welding) from various grades of steel, soft and hard, which allows you to achieve the necessary characteristics for good cutting properties of the blade.

In the photo (from left to right): a set and welding of a package of steels, twisting an unforged package, forging a package of steels with a hammer.

Damascus is not a metal found in nature in its pure form, but consists of a package of steels selected by us as a result of a large number of tests. To create it, we use a package of four steel grades (ShKh-15, KhVG, U8A, steel-3), each of which is necessary to impart the necessary cutting properties to the final product.

Let's move on to the process itself in more detail. After the workpiece has been prepared from a package of steels, it must be heated to a bright red color, after which you can proceed directly to forging. The forging process is repeated three times, the thickness of the forged strip at the first two stages does not have a clear regulation, and at the third final it is made as close as possible to the thickness of the butt of the final product, in order to avoid unnecessary metal consumption and lengthening the processing process.

Next, the workpiece is given a rectangular shape for the next technological process- twists. The fragment directly with the twist did not get into the video, but there is nothing particularly complicated here, the hot billet twists in a spiral, as many turns as it can be achieved before the metal solidifies - as a result, the shape of the billet changes from rectangular to cylindrical ( you can see the twisting at the 10th minute of the video). The texture of the pattern on the blade depends on the number of twists.

In addition, I want to draw your attention to such a moment of the technological process as borax dressing (white powder), which is used during the forging of the workpiece after twisting to draw out slag and scale, which avoids the appearance of fistulas and lack of fusion. After that, a strip of metal is obtained, from which the blades will be made directly. We now move on to the workshop, where a knife will be made from the strip, and, finally, a few more photos from the forge.

The process of making a knife in the workshop

We have already visited the forge and seen how Damascus strips are made, now let's see what happens to them next.

First of all, it is necessary to trace the contour of the future blade on the workpiece using a special pattern, cut it off from the strip of metal forged in the forge and cut along the contour.

In the photo (from left to right): marking the workpiece, the workpiece and the pattern, cutting along the contour.

Forging metal using a mechanical hammer allows a slight difference in the thickness of the metal in the forged plate, therefore, it is necessary to align the blade along the plane. After that, the blade is given the geometry according to the pattern and the drawing, it is also at this stage that, for example, cutting is done using the technology of a biconcave lens.

In the photo (left to right): cut blank, alignment along the plane, giving the geometry to the blade.

After the above steps, we get a blade that is already quite close in appearance to what we are used to seeing on store shelves, but rather rough looking and without a pattern. The blade must be polished, which is called to a mirror finish. Next, the workshop brand is applied (the area for stamping is preheated) and holes are made for rivets, if all-metal installation is provided.

In the photo (from left to right): grinding, stamping, drilling holes for riveting.

Not a single blade will have the declared properties if it is not hardened. We proceed to the next stage of thermal hardening. The blade is hardened in a thermal furnace at a certain temperature and receives a blade hardness of 62 HRC on the Rockwell scale. After that, the surface is cleaned on a sanding belt from scale and the blade would become narrower. finished products, if not for one small but - there is no picture. The pattern that makes Damascus - Damascus, appears when exposed to the blade nitric acid, all the manipulations in the forge with various steels, their welding and torsion, were needed precisely for this moment, to reveal the pattern.

In the photo (from left to right): thermal hardening, descaling, pattern etching.

Actually the blade is almost ready, it remains to give only the angle of sharpening, we will pay a little attention to the handle. We make the handle assembly in two versions with a shank and all-metal assembly. With the all-metal version, I think no questions should arise, holes for riveting are drilled and linings are attached to them. All-metal construction is the most secure type of fastening, but most prefer the more traditional shank fastening. For a material such as birch bark, installation is practically impossible.

In the photo (from left to right): firing the shank, the handle in disassembly, the handle before turning.

For installation, the shank is annealed, the metal is released for drilling holes, a hairpin is attached to the riveting - you can attach the guard and the handle. And the last step is shaping the handle - the knife is ready. It remains only to give it the necessary angle of sharpening the cutting edge, depending on the purpose.

I am attaching a number of photos that were not included in the main description, unfortunately, the originals were large, so all the photos in the article had to be compressed for normal loading on mobile devices and tablets, so I had to refuse to enlarge by click.

The most frequently asked questions about Damascus

To satisfy your curiosity, I will focus on a few of the most important points:

Where does the pattern on the blade come from?- the patterns on the surface of this type of Damascus are achieved due to the uneven distribution of carbon due to the heterogeneity of the material, which was specially enhanced by etching the surface with acids to give the blade a beautiful texture.

What do you make your Damascus out of?- blades are made from a package of four steels: ShKh-15 (structural carbon steel), KhVG (steel for measuring and cutting tools), U8A (tool carbon steel) and steel-3 (the name is conditional, but he does not want to reveal the secrets of his products to the end no master).

How many layers are in your blades- several thousand, which is achieved due to the fact that welded metal strips are forged three times. For the first time, 21-22 strips are welded, for the second and third, the number of strips is less, since the width of the workpiece directly affects the duration of the forging process.

P.S. I hope this material was useful and informative, maybe we missed something, you can send comments to our mail, we also plan to launch groups in social networks in the near future. networks as soon as we find the administrator. Buy knives in our online store and we will make a lot of interesting text, photo and video material on knife topics.

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