Damascus Sgian Dubh blades on eBay

[norfair86]

I found some cheap Damascus blades on eBay for about half the price I've seen elsewhere:

http://cgi.ebay.com/7-scottish-dirk-...2em118Q2el1247

I nabbed one of them, since I couldn't find cheaper ones. That, and I've got a bug up my about knife making now.

[CelticSire]

I'll be interested in a review of this blade when you get it in. I noticed that it lists as coming from India. In my experience, the tempering on blades from there leaves a bit, somtimes a lot, to be desired, although I have found the occasional "gem". Let us know what the quality is.

[osric the pale]

the bug never goes away, welcome to the insanity
~oz

[James MacMillan]

Tempering should be a rather simple thing to remedy. I've seen home (back-yard) forges made from bar-b-ques, and somebody also uses a toaster oven to get the right temp.

[Mr. Woolery]

The main problem with redoing the temper is that you will get surface decarburization. So, the surface has to be reground and repolished and re-etched.

Also, if the temperature goes too high, you can mess up the steel pretty badly. So long as you don't exceed the critical temperature, you can reharden that blade a hundred times (no point, though). Well, at that time, you'd be grinding off a lot of the surface due to decarb and scaling, but you get the idea.

There are plenty of smiths in India who really know what they are doing with steel and can make fine blades. And plenty who just crank them out (there's a lot of labor in a good blade and not a lot of profit) and quality control can suffer.

If you are just looking for a really pretty blade, go for it! There are a fair number of SDs that are sold without any edge because the steel is not worth sharpening. It is really shiny and pretty, but not worth a darn when it comes to holding an edge. I expect the damascus job will be better than the chrome jewelry SDs.

I'm not really planning to make a bunch of blades, but what sorts of things would people want to see in a sgian dubh blade that isn't one of the commercial ones?

Examples: different length, carbon steel/stainless steel, hollow grind, full tang, whatever.

What would folks want if you could dictate your personal DIY kit blade?

-Patrick

[James MacMillan]

What would folks want if you could dictate your personal DIY kit blade? -Patrick

OOOOOooooooooooooooooooo That calls for some major thinking - let me get back to you!

[Dukeof Kircaldy]

Aren't there real damascus blades for sale out there? I could swear I've seen them in knife making circles.