Thread: Damascus Razor

A friend gave me one of these blanks as a gift - anyone have any experience with them? Alabama Damascus Razor / ADS0073-DKG

From what I can tell, while attractive, the geometry isn't conducive to shaving. I am not, however, an expert.


Thanks!

Yep, these are mostly for display. The etching pattern down on the bevel will make this into a serrated blade which wouldn't be fun to shave with!

The folks at AD have been making pattern welded steels for some time now. The only question I would want to know is whether they included nickel in their mixture of steels.

My question for carpedm is if the edge is honed, then that's all clean bare steel having abraded away the oxides, right? Where would the serrations come from if the bevel was set correctly and it was honed like any other blade?

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

The folks at AD have been making pattern welded steels for some time now. The only question I would want to know is whether they included nickel in their mixture of steels.

I'm not a steel guy, but on the site they list the material used:

Material = (4) layers 5160, (3) layers 203E, (3) layers 52100, (3) layers 15N20 folded 5 times for 416 layer damascus

15N2O is 2% nickel steel, I believe.

Regards,
Neil

These blanks have been talked about on here a few times, and from what i gatter the geometry of these blanks are not correct for razor more like a knife. http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...zor-knife.html

I was one of the suckers that bought one of those. I sent it to Glen to hone. He said the spine is crap and the blade does not hone like a Damascus blade from Livi or any of the other custom makers. I wasted my money but learned a valuable lesson. Ask questions BEFORE you buy.

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

15N2O is 2% nickel steel, I believe.

Correct, but occasionally some pattern welded maker will slip some pure nickel shim into the mix. The 15N20 is lovely stuff and makes a good knife all by itself. The pure nickel will never harden and that's where the problems at the edge could occur. The 203E is also a nickel steel with 0.18% carbon, more structural than blade steel.

Bkendall: that is the mixture for AD's normal PW steels for sale. Once it's all welded and the carbon content averages out, it equals 0.62% carbon. Sort of a middle average carbon steel with a lot of alloying elements.

Wow, lots of good info here. I appreciate the replies. Looks like my buddy pretty much wasted his money on me for nothing...

I'm guessing even if it were able to be reground for a more hollow, razor-like thickness the steel composition would still be a problem.

I'll go ahead and put scales on it at some point and sharpen it like a knife. Ivory scales may look good since the blade is so dark. Maybe it'll be a good candidate for a shadow box.

If you have some extra money......
On second and third thought, if you have a friend with a TIG welder that really knows how to use it. Why not, as is often done, apply a very continuous weld of 0-1 tool steel/drill rod to built up depth of about a ¼" added to the width of the blade. If done "perfectly" it is like casting an additional homogenous steel edge onto the blade. It would require an anneal and further heat treat to be any good as a razor. Just one of those things that drive us nutz. We try to save everything!

I grabbed drill rod one time in the shop instead of mild steel rod to fill a misplaced hole in a part. Not good, the fill broke a couple lathe tools before we figured out the problem. A torch annealed the weld and we were ok...and a lot wiser.
~Richard