Custom Daywear Sgian

[tulloch]

Wow wow wow wow wow wow. Extra nice & unique. Keep it well and always. Enjoy.

[fortcollinsjerry]

Lovely workmanship. And, y'know, having a knife made of damascas style steel isn't that far fetched - historically. Thousands of damascas steel swords were brought back from the crusades and without of doubt hundreds of them probably wound up being cut down for knives.

[English Bloke]

A very attractive piece. Forgive my ignorance. Why is it called Damascus steel?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Traditionally the art of hammer welded steel is believed to have come from Damascus at the time of the crusades. Damascus steel was, and is, prized for it's beauty. By folding and twisting the red hot steel, and then hammering it into the desired shape, a blade smith was able to produce a variety of patterns in the steel. In the days before the Bessemer process was widely employed, it was thought that this process resulted in a "superior" grade of steel. If you want to know more, google "damascus steel".

[fortcollinsjerry]

A very attractive piece. Forgive my ignorance. Why is it called Damascus steel?

The steel we call Damascus originated as a product of India called Wootz in the region near Hyderabad. Here is a very interesting description of it and how it originated.

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM...even-9809.html

the ingots of woots iron were carried via the silk road to Damascus where the iron was forged into fine steel blades. The theory is that there was a special impurity in the ore of that region which lent itself to the making of very fine steel.

Also - Google "wootz damascus" for several other articles on the how and why of it and why the secret of making it was lost for hundreds of years.