Thread: Wootz and damascus knives work in progress

Experience helps of course, but there are a couple of things you can do to increase the odds of it working out:

1) when you are forging, work both sides equally. I've found that this helps keeping it straight(er)
2) straighten it during forging before putting it back in the fire every time.
3) when you are straightening it more precisely at the finishing stages of forging, do this at high enough temperatures that you don't create stresses that will act out when you are hardening.
4) quench the blade so that both sides have the same contact with the quench.
5) normalize a couple of times before quench.

That way the warp should be manageable if you have it.
And when you try to straighten it, first do a normal tempering cycle so that you don't snap the blade in half

I've found that by doing these things, I can usually prevent warps, or at least keep them small enough that it is relatively easy to fix.