The Secret of Damascus Steel

[IanZ_Forge]

Thanks for checking out the video! I wanted to add that Modern Damascus is of much higher quality than that of historical, thanks to the quality of steel we can produce today. While they folded to purify the steel, modern bladesmiths will fold only to add artistic value but the steel remains much higher quality! You can especially see this with Katana builds as well, as original Tatara Steel is less than satisfactory when compared to modern steel in cutting and edge retention ability! I hope this clears things up; YT shorts only allows for 60 seconds currently so I have to cram as much info as I can in there! God bless - Ian

[northropi]

"we don't know how they made it" in a historical context generally means "well we made some to test but we don't have enough evidence to prove we went from point A to B in the same way" and not "they had contact with aliens whi taught them dark secrets"

[marton_dobo]

I recently talked with an archeometallurgist (named Bucavasgyúró) who said that the real damascus steel was actually what we now call wootz-steel. They would create bloomery iron which is quite porous and instead of forging like in Europe they would purify it by melting it.

[darkshadow]

It's been a while since I read up on it but If i remember correctly "og Damascus steel" had something to do with the iron source and that it had an uneven carbon distribution that would show over the forging process. Kinda like the process of making a layered demascus, but the layering happened while the raw iron formed. That being said, I haven't read up on it lately, so I could be any amount of wrong. 😊

[shawncawley]

Actually, the type of steel made in Damascus was not folded. It was a type of crucible steel. Where Bloomery Iron is placed into a crucible with some source of Carbon and then sealed so that no oxygen can enter. The crucible is then brought above the melting point of iron and held at that temperature for around half an hour. Then the crucible is allowed to cool slowly. Once the crucible is cool the puck is removed and then Thermaly Cycled. A process where the puck is brought to critical temperature and then allowed to cool again while slowly consolidating the puck with very light pressure. A knife maker named Al Pendray was able to constantly reproduce Ingots with similar chemical compositions to the original Damascus Blades. Al Pendray and Metallurgists working with him found that the difference maker (chemical composition-wise) was Vanadium an Element that only makes up .008 to .01 % of the composition of the final ingot.

[thehellhound]

Carbon nanotubes are just a naturally occurring crystalline form of carbon. They're not anything special and can be found in any non-homogenous steel. They're only special when in long tubes, which isn't the case.

It's kinda like when you learn that pencil lead is made of graphene, which has the highest tensile strength of any material. But it's basically a hexagonal sheet of carbon atoms and pencil lead is extremely small sheets stacked together providing almost no substantially high mechanical properties.

[noahnicholes]

Wootz steel is the term for the original stuff, it's a lot of work for a little bit better, allegedly. Historically I really enjoyed watching them successfully recreate it

[tankbuster]

Actual Wootz Steel (OG Damascus steel) is NOT a result of a folding process. It turns out that way because the iron and carbon are combined in a completely Anaerobic (no oxygen) environment. This has been re-created with modern technology, but we still do not know how this was achieved in ancient times.

[monferno]

As a historian, I don’t agree with calling it Damascus steel, but at the same time it is still dope af, it looks great and it not being Damascus steel shouldn’t take away from that

[MrLoobu]

You should call it pattern welded steel. Otherwise, one group is using a historical reference while the other is using a marketing term.

[Realience]

I was talking to my brother about damascus steel
Basically the same thing
Modern damascus is largely just folded steel, and some added stuff to make the pattern appear
But proper Damascus steel is like Greek Fire, we don't quite know how they specifically did it

[ShionWinkler]

True damascus steel is made by a casting process utilizing very high carbon steel. The material is held at or near the temperature of fusion for an extended period of time. This causes the formation of large, high carbon dendrite crystals in a matrix of approximately eutectoid steel. This is not pattern welding, and modern blacksmiths using the term incorrectly will never change that.

[shreyanshurajdutta]

Brother the OG Damascus Steel a.k.a Wootz Steel is originally from India and later shipped to the middle east as steel ingots, it was refined by the middle eastern people to make swords.

[TheCompleteMental]

Original damascus was the result of being high carbon crucible steel, meaning it was fully melted. The bands are much smaller and more water-like than you see with modern "damascus", or *pattern welded* steel.

[Saki-Malo]

“If it’s not from Damascus Syria then it’s just a pattern welded steel”

[ligmaballs]

so


this is what dream was singing about

[mslif]

It may not be real Damascus steel, but a lot of those blades sure look cool.

[enderoftime]

Supposedly, the primary thing about Damascus steel that makes it special is the exact material composition where “unknown” impurities likely contributed beneficial properties. The exact source of the material is unknown. Also, even if there are carbon nanotubes, it is unlikely they contribute much, if at all, to the strength of the steel. Further, one of the primary benefits to the use of steel folding is that homogenizes the elemental components of the steel. This allows for better and more predictable material properties. However, too much folding will actually prevent the Damask pattern from appearing as it has been “totally” homogenized.

[Insertcharactername.]

"That's what Damascus, that's what the point of Damascus"

[redshared]

Pattern Damascus goes insane now, smiths are skilled beyond belief.