First try at Damascus | Show and Tell for the Bladesmiths | Forum

I've only ever made one knife before- a "Shop Rat" knife under the watchful eye of Dave Lisch. This one was done on my own, and it's my first time doing a knife with a handle. It's also the first time I've ever made Damascus.

I used two pieces of 1080, with an old chainsaw chain of mine sandwiched in between, and a piece of mild steel forge welded on for a handle. These were forge welded together, then drawn out and folded back on itself. The process was repeated several times until I got it to ~200 layers. (196+however many times the handle got folded in)

The work was done partially with a treadle hammer, and partially on the striking anvil with a striker & top/bottom fullers.

On my next one, I'll take greater care to clean between welds to help eliminate inclusions (I just used a block brush to remove scale).

I learned a lot making this, and there's a lot of things I'll do differently next time. All the same, I'm happy with it as a first venture.