sorry to get picky but there is some errors in this
Knife Steels (2)
Larry Bates (larry@...)

Almost everyone has heard of folded steel. Japanese Swordmakers beat
steel flat, fold it over, beat it flat etc. Their steel is recognized
as the best made in the period before the invention of the blast
furnace in 1888.

The thing that most people do not understand is that this steel was
made from iron heated over a smoky fire.
***Japanese work in charcoal a very clean fire no smoke if it did it would
not weld carbon*** ***was imparted by soaking it in the fire for hours***

A coat of carbon was folded
over and beaten into the iron. Europeans in contrast simply burned
Iron in as hot a fire as they could make. Burning a pound of Iron
would produce less than an ounce of low-grade steel. In either case,
the goal was to increase the amount of carbon in the steel. Adding up
to 0.9% increases the strength of the steel. More than that makes
steel brittle.
***Not quite when Iron is smelted it has a very hight carbon content they
had to wrought it*** ***to get the carbon out. ***

The Japanese ideal was to fold the steel 1000 times. The resulting
steel was so hard that a blade made from it would simply shatter as
soon as it struck anything. To compensate, only the edge was made
from the hard steel. One of our local knifemakers bought a modern
Ninja Sword to use its blade to make the ultimate hunting knife. When
he started grinding, he quickly cut the hard steel off. The blade was
useless.

Damascus steel originated in that middle-eastern city. Today, it is
made by stacking four plates of iron between four plates of steel,
beating them flat, folding them over, beating them flat etc.. for a
total of eight times.
***these are two different things what we call Damascus today is laminated
steel made **** *** by the Europeans trying to copy Damascus which was made
by a crusble process***.

The resulting steel has 512 layers (256 iron,
256 steel) and is considered optimum. The resulting steel has a
beautiful wavy design.
***there are 100's of different designs and layer count and 512 is no where
near optimal***

Because the iron layers wear more than the
steel, Damascus becomes sharper in use. It is very stiff but springs
back like tempered steel. (Note I have not tested this and do not
intend to.)

Locally, Beasley's Forge in Marshall NC makes Damascus. It is
very
expensive. Knifemakers pay $11 per inch length for 2 inch by ¼
inch
stock.
*** this is cheap mine as most sells for $25.00 /1"
Dan Scheid
Flying Horse forge***





Thank you for you participation. If you wish, visit my e-store at
http://knives4less.com. Larry Bates