Damascus with nickel for a blade?

J S Machine

J S Machine

Well-Known Member
I picked up a small piece of damascus with nickel in it for a blade I want to make. Just now thinking about it, I'm not sure that it will be as suitable as I would like. Not sure what the other metal is that its mixed with is, but I do know it has nickel.

What do you folks think?
 
Alabama Damscus is a very reputable outfit. I've never used thier stuff, but I've never heard nor read negative feedback on them. Just follow thier HT instructions and you should be good to go.
 
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I've used Alabama Damascus on several knives and all worked well. If you have any questions, I would just call and talk to Brad.
 
I use a good bit of Brad's Alabama Damascus for folder blade & it works great ! On top of all that, Brad Vice is a real gentleman & a pleasure to do business with !

Joe
 
I'm sure it will work fine, I was just wondering about the nickel. Is nickel a good metal to use in damascus? I mean does it have good edge retention like the more common metals it is mixed with?
 
Nickel has no edge retention.....it's a non-hardenable alloy. Nickel is generally used in a damascus billet when the main concern is brilliant contrast in the pattern. Most things in knifemaking are a give and take situation...in this case you give up hardenability for the increase in pattern contrast.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Nickel has no edge retention.....it's a non-hardenable alloy. Nickel is generally used in a damascus billet when the main concern is brilliant contrast in the pattern. Most things in knifemaking are a give and take situation...in this case you give up hardenability for the increase in pattern contrast.
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So I am guessing it will be best used for something like bolsters or some other part besides blades?
 
J S Machine said:
So I am guessing it will be best used for something like bolsters or some other part besides blades?
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No, no, no ;) Not just bolsters, Blade material too

Although I've never used Alabama Damascus, I've used plenty of others that have used nickel in their steel. Chad Nichols and Delbert Ealy use small amounts of nickel in some of their blade stock patterns.

Use your steel as blade stock with confidence 2thumbs



:cool:
 
I've got enough of it to use for my EDC folder and maybe a set of blades for a small slip joint. I just don't want to go through the trouble if it isn't worth it.
 
I guess the question is do you figure to use the folder on a regular basis or perhaps have it with you as a gentleman's carry show piece that you will only use occassionally? Frank
 
Stew said:
What's the damascus pattern?

Will the nickle actually form part of the edge?
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Here ya go- crappy cell phone pic but it should give you an idea of what I have:

dmscs1.jpg


Frank Niro - it will be for my EDC knife. I'm really easy on it though, so if it just happens to be soft I'll just have to sharpen it more often. The knife never sees any use really except maybe a piece of tape on a box every now and then.
 
It is true that nickel does not have the edge retention qualities of steel, however when used responsibly it can be of benefit to the pattern without a big loss to the overall performance of the blade. In fact, on fibrous materials can be a benefit. I use a maximum of 1.5% nickel in my damascus and most of that nickel winds up less than .0001" thick. I have done much testing and am satisfied with the results.
Thanks,
Del

I do not speak for other peoples practices, but you can use this information to ask questions of other smiths.
 
I'm just finishing one for myself as well. It has a random damascus blade with a bit of nickel that I know cuts like a good thing should that hass been etc hed and heat coloured almost a brown colour; bolsters of Seymchan meteorite; unmatched mammoth ivory from the bottom of the North Sea, one side with a tiny bit of gold and the other with some smears of silver; a back bar or spacer of 416 fileworked insibe as well as out, which has two small inlays of abalone and liners of .050 titanium with file work on both sides and then anodized. Well, I couldn't post a picture so I just wrote about it. Frank
 
Doesn't Alabama Damascus use a nickel alloys (203E and 15n20) not pure nickel. Big difference.
203E C .09 Mn .64 Si .34 Ni 3.58 Cr .030 Mo .010
15N20 C .75 Mn .75 Si .25 Ni 1.5

The rest of the steel in their damascus is 5160 and 52100. At around 416 layers, carbon migration should have the jump the carbon in the 203 up enough. But that would be my only concern.
 
SteelSlaver said:
Doesn't Alabama Damascus use a nickel alloys (203E and 15n20) not pure nickel. Big difference.
203E C .09 Mn .64 Si .34 Ni 3.58 Cr .030 Mo .010
15N20 C .75 Mn .75 Si .25 Ni 1.5

The rest of the steel in their damascus is 5160 and 52100. At around 416 layers, carbon migration should have the jump the carbon in the 203 up enough. But that would be my only concern.
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This is correct info. Brad does use some nickle in his high contrast bolster stock but what you have is 5160,5210,203e. Brett
 
Assuming equal weights of the three steel, a mixture of 5160, 52100, and 203E should give about 60 points of carbon in the final mix. With the thickness of the layers and the time that the bar would have spent at welding temperature the carbon distribution should be pretty much even as carbon migrates quickly at those temperatures. That bar should make a great blade with no problems in edge holding.

Doug Lester
 
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