MoonDog Knives

Month: July 2022

  • Clarification On the Two Mike Neal Knives

    mike neal other blade
    mike neals 2 blades

     It seems that there is some confusion regarding the two knives I did for Mike Neal (Pictured above – Photo by Mike Neal) – I did not forge make the ‘Forge Welded’ blades.

    The Filleting Knife (At the top in the image of both knives) is a piece of American Forge Welded steel bought unworked, and it is somewhere around 512 layers. I shaped the slug and put an edge on it, an amazing edge, which should hold up well. I used some Desert Ironwood for the handle.

    Mike sent the brisket/sashimi blade to me (Lower in the image of both knives and the solo image) with some incredible pieces of wood in exchange for making him a knife. He wanted to know whether it was “Real Forge Welded” steel and if I could do something with it. I tested it with Ferric Acid and ‘Super Blue’. It IS “real”, but I have no idea where it came from so I don’t know the quality of the steel. I re-beveled the edge and honed it to the best edge I could get (I use Japanese ‘Water Stones’ and ceramic rods). It took a half decent edge, but time will tell if it is made with good steel and will hold that edge. I also refinished the surfaces, then made the handle out of some of the curly Koa Mike sent me. You can’t see it in the picture, but it has a pattern similar to ‘Tiger Stripe Maple’ or ‘Quilted Maple’ which I’ve never seen in Koa before. My wife tells me Curly Koa is quite rare and very much in demand… when you can find it!

    I had made 2 of the fillet knives already in ‘440C Stainless’ that Mike saw and decided that was what he wanted. Well, I really wanted to give him a ‘Nice” knife (so he’d send me more of his scraps) and wanted to do it in Forge Welded steel. But I could/can not afford to screw up on a piece of this stuff because it’s so expensive! You buy it by the inch, not foot like “regular” steel. The two stainless ones I previously made were a nightmare for me to do and I won’t be making any more of them (It wasn’t as bad as trying to get 4 bevels on one blade! I went through a lot of good steel making the Defender 01 and quite honestly, it’s selling for less than the cost of all that steel I wasted!

    NOTE: Do not let your knives get dull. It is MUCH easier to touch up a sharp blade than it is to put an edge back on the blade that you can’t cut yourself with.

  • What’s In A Name Where Blade Steel is Concerned?

    Damascus, San-mai, Wootz, Forge Welded, and Eletro-Etching

    There seems to be some confusion as to what is Damascus and what isn’t. Real Damascus can usually only be found in museums. The secret recipe/formula was lost over 200 years ago.

    Modern day “Damascus” is actually a steel combination that the original Damascus was made of, and can be found in a steel combination known as ‘Wootz’.  What we are calling Damascus today is actually “Forge Welding’.  Layers of different types of steel are stacked in together; heated to a critical temperature; then pounded out and folded over and put back into the forge and reheated to critical temperature. This is done multiple times.  The resulting piece of Forge Welded Steel can be anywhere from 3 layers to thousands of layers. The more layers, the more expensive the blank will be. This stuff is bought by the inch not by the foot like other steel.

    San-mai is a type of Forge Welding that uses a High Carbon Steel center which is sandwiched between more pliable metals. This makes the resultant steel tougher and more flexible than a straight High Carbon Blade. It is often mistaken for Damascus, but if you look at the spine of the blade you will see a dark strip running down the middle of the blade with lighter colored steel on each side as in the image below.

    little brute blade back

    On a Forge Welded blade, if you examine the spine you will see hundreds of tiny lines running the length of the blade spine. These are the layers of folded steel. That is how you can tell a real Damascus blade from a fake one. There are two types of the fake stuff coming out of the Middle East. One looks and feels like the real deal – however, the steel used is very inferior steel that will not hold an edge. The other one again ‘Looks’ like Forge Welded steel, but when you feel the blade it’s surface feels rough and looks crude in comparison to the real steel. I’ve bought some of this stuff from the Middle East and taken the belt grinder to it only to find it is a plain steel that has been etched to look like a Forge Welded blade. There are no layers of different metals. People often ask if my knives are Damascus. They are not, unless I specifically say so in the write up on them. They have been ‘Eletro-etched’ and I do not TRY to make them look like Damascus.