15N20 to 10** ratio for damascus

K

Kev

Well-Known Member
For those of you guys making Damascus billets, mosaic or otherwise, what ratio of bright (15N20) to dark (10-whatever) are you using?
I’ve done a couple billets with pretty much 50/50 and I’m not 100% sold on the look.
I used 1/8” stock for both materials. What thickness bright and what thickness dark are you guys using?
Thanks
 
I really do not put a lot of thought into it but since I normally start with 20 layers pretty much 50/50 and I control the look by the number of layers I take the billet to. I like 1075 (.125) and 15N20 (somewhere around .100 or less) for the mix. What layer count are you starting and ending with? What look would you like to go for or what is it you do not like about the 50/50. I guessing its random pattern by the way.
 
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As Chris mentioned the number of layers used and pattern is pretty important as to how the final etch will look. Also important is how the etching is done. Be sure the billet is hardened, then sanded to a high grit. It seems a final coffee etch seems to make the darks more dark in the final look
 
As indicated above, it depends on what you want the final product to look like, but it's not quite as simple as that (as with most things in blacksmithing). There are a few things to consider if you are trying to control the final outcome. One of the main things you need to consider is that 10** steels will move more than the 15N20 during forging, and the more forging you do, the thinner the 10** (black) layers get relative to the 15N20.q.jpg
Kev said:
I used 1/8” stock for both materials.
Click to expand...
Have you noticed the above with your billets?

Another thing is that when forging, unless you are using a rolling mill, each hammer/press blow is going to move the steel differently than both the previous blow and the following blow, so there's no way to completely control the final thickness of each layer throughout the billet.

So what this means is that with enough experience, you can get an idea on how to adjust the ratios so that the final product is close to your idea, but there's really no way to give a recipe on how to get there. You make a billet, and if it's got too much bright, then increase the 10** layers the next time.
 
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All good info, thank you.
At this point I was more looking for generalization and/or generic info. I don’t really have any particular pattern in mind right now, but now I know to plan ahead for that sort of thing.
Thanks again.
 
I use 1/4 1084 so I had been using two pieces of .72 15n20 per layer. Now that you can get thicker stuff I’m going to use the 5/32 stuff. Close enough to 2/3 10 84 1/3 15n20. If you want to do it old school like some folks like Kevin Quetion apparently still do, you use the real thick layers, like three of your dark stealing two of your nickel steel for a 60/40 ratio. This may be urban myth, but I was told by at least one person that the 15 and 20 does not compress as readily as the plain carbon steel.
 
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