Thread: Damascus blade

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I'm not sure I would consider the maestro a true damascus, rather a damascus pattern. I know its made from a block of damasteel but to me TI is a true wootz steel made from layers.

If you're basing your understanding of steels on the TI advertising, let's establish first, that it's advertising, and it pushes the boundaries of what IS known about old steel and the modern equivalents. Allow me to set some definitions that are really not interchangeable.

Wootz, or bulat, or pulad, (many names, but considered "true" damascus steel), is made in a crucible. That process is what gives the surface the "watered" appearance that is classic wootz. It is not folded, welded or layered. It could be, after all it is a bar of steel, but it's generally not. There are any number of people currently alive who can and do make this steel on a regular, but small production, basis. The best known is Alfred Pendray. Roselli, the company, also makes a crucible steel for their line of knives. Being a European supplier, no doubt, samples or purchases have made their way into production there.

Pattern welded steels, aka modern damascus (crudely misnamed), are layered and welded billets of two similar but different alloys containing elements enough to make an appearance contrast between the two parent materials. This has a much stronger layered appearance on the surface of the material. There are a lot of folks making this type of steel. It's simply easier to do and I would not be surprised at all to know that folks living around Thiers do this regularly.

Both types, wootz and PWS, can be cut, incised, drilled, scored or manipulated to produce patterns in the surface appearance.

Damasteel is a trade name of a particular type of patterned steel made in Europe by sintering different powdered alloys together to make a single bar. Mostly made of stainless steels, it has the surface appearance of layers without the risk of welding flaws and all the supposed advantages of stain resistance. It requiers a serious industrial basis to manufacture. It's not bad material either.

I've looked at pictures of the TI blades in question. As many as I could find on the internet this morning in a couple brief searches. Of the blades I reviewed, all are pattern welded, not wootz. This is not to say that someone at TI never made a wootz blade, but that none of the photos available for study are of wootz.

Now, given all that. The secret is in the heat treatment. TI certainly has that down well.

If given two blades, one of patterned material and one plain carbon steel, ground to similar edge profiles and bevels, with similar carbon content and heat treatment, there will be no functional difference between the two. The only difference is in the appearance and aesthetic of the blade. Sorry, we can't do the same with stainless', there are simply too many alloying differences to control.

Honing and daily use introduce a completely new set of variables that are beyond my ability to comment. But the above conditions provide a starting point for comparison.