Ever Seen This Happen With Damascus?

Randy Lucius

Randy Lucius

Well-Known Member
Grinding after heat treat and a small “chunk” let go. It’s a mini clever neck knife that I was making out of a left over piece. Not sure I can sand it out and make it look decent but I guess I’ll give it a try.
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Hello Randy,

Yes this does happen, and a indicator of the cause is the very pronounced weld zones that can be seen on your freshly ground blade. There is a spot about 1" up from your divot that came very close to letting go as well. Watch your forge atmosphere, it would appear that you have a lot of oxides and decarb in the weld zones. I would not be surprised to see either silver or very deep lines at those wide weld zones, when you do etch, as the FeCl attacks the contaminated areas differently.
 
Kevin R. Cashen said:
Hello Randy,

Yes this does happen, and a indicator of the cause is the very pronounced weld zones that can be seen on your freshly ground blade. There is a spot about 1" up from your divot that came very close to letting go as well. Watch your forge atmosphere, it would appear that you have a lot of oxides and decarb in the weld zones. I would not be surprised to see either silver or very deep lines at those wide weld zones, when you do etch, as the FeCl attacks the contaminated areas differently.
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I didn’t make the Damascus. It was purchased. I’ve used a good bit if it and this is the first problem I’ve had.
 
If it was purchased I would raise the issue with the maker, seller. If you have those problems in the small piece the rest probably is inferior too.
 
Wayne Coe said:
If it was purchased I would raise the issue with the maker, seller. If you have those problems in the small piece the rest probably is inferior too.
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I got my monies worth out of the piece I bought so I wouldn’t feel right complaining about a small left over piece that I was just playing around with. I’ve purchased several billets from him and it’s all been excellent. I’ll sand and etch to see what it looks like. Finish it out and keep it as a shop knife.
 
J. Doyle said:
If someone cares about maintaining and improving the quality of their pattern welded steel, they would want feedback on any flaws. I know I would.
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I agree with John. You can tell the maker exactly what you told us, you got your money out of the billet but you wanted to let him know about the issue. I bet he will want to see the pictures too. I would. That way its not complaining but feedback from one craftsman to another.
 
If this was an end of the bar then that would help explain things. This sort of weld issue is more common in the ends of the billet, particularly on the end where the handle is tacked on. When I would sell bars to others, I would always cut about 2" off those areas just to play it safe, because I found that customers would try to squeeze every inch out of the bar that they could, even if they found an issue.

I sort of got out of selling Damascus because of the lack of control I had over my product, and my name, once it left my shop. I would always send along very precise directions for heat treatment and even tell them they could send it back to me for heat treatment. But when the customer would blow the heat treatment, the first thing they would say to others is who made the steel; as if that had anything to do with their heat treatment.

I did eventually have a piece with bad welds, I was mortified when it was brought to my attention and so I immediately refunded the money, but when I went to take the bar back the customer complained that they couldn't keep the steel as well. Tell me where on earth you can get a refund and also keep the problem merchandise? It was the last straw, all my steel is just for me now. That customer got a full refund and still wanted to trash my name by using that one piece of flawed steel.

So, Iong story short (I know- too late), yes the maker would probably appreciate the feedback and opportunity to uphold his good name.
 
Kevin R. Cashen said:
.....

I did eventually have a piece with bad welds, I was mortified when it was brought to my attention and so I immediately refunded the money, but when I went to take the bar back the customer complained that they couldn't keep the steel as well. Tell me where on earth you can get a refund and also keep the problem merchandise?
....
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Amazon, it's becoming quite normal!

YMMV
 
I understand. The real problem isn’t actually a financial thing. Most knifemakers would want to know immediately if one of their knives failed in use, and they would be very eager to get it out of circulation, and replaced with a good one. The Damascus thing just adds a whole other level to that. Anybody who has made Damascus themselves has had to acquire the discipline to throw it away as soon as they find a flaw at the grinder. It hurts to do it, since you just gave up a day or two and a lot of supplies, but it has to be done; there is no more futile effort in all of knifemaking than chasing a bad weld through a blade with a grinder. So, I can only imagine how difficult it is when you paid for the bar, but you owe it to yourself, and to the guy who made it, to replace it with a good bar and show the world the best work of both people. Thus, any Damascus maker should be grateful for a heads up on a bad weld, and the opportunity to make it right.

I also think that Randy deserves a thumbs up for being a true gentleman and not blasting out the name of the maker, I have seen that done on forums before ever giving the poor guy a chance to make it right, and it was horrible to see.
 
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