Thanks Rab Gordon

[Archangel]

Can the blades be hardened?

I've got some damascus blanks here that look real nice but I can't get a decent rockwell out of it.

No confusion, my blanks did not come from Rab.

[Rab Gordon]

Hi,

I find that the hardness of these blade blanks which are probably from the same or similar source to those carried by AC, etc. can't really be improved that much from the state that they arrive in.
That may be quite low compared to modern knife steels but probably on a par with readily obtainable steels of a few hundred years ago.
However, they can take a very reasonable cutting edge but it just needs to be maintained and resharpened after some use.
Having tried a few approaches to shaping and sharpening these I have found that a slack belt grinder working through coarse to fine grits followed up by a leather belt with polishing compound gives a strong convex edge of reasonable sharpness which seems to complement the steel well (although I can get an initially sharper edge using a diamond hone on a jig).

For high performance Damascus blades I make my own from bars of Swedish Damasteel but they cost several times as much !

Rab

Can the blades be hardened?
I've got some damascus blanks here that look real nice but I can't get a decent rockwell out of it.
No confusion, my blanks did not come from Rab.