Damascus Steel Blade – MoonDog Knives

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.

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.

cristie-cutter

What do you give a woman who has saved your life? The Christie Cutter is one man’s answer to that question. His heart surgeon is not only a superb thoracic and heart surgeon but a woman with children and a very active lifestyle. He wanted to give her a knife that would be as special as she is and that would give her years of use and enjoyment.

The blade on this knife is full tang 416 fold Damascus heat treated to 58-60 RC so it is a strong blade as well as a beautiful one. There are 3 different steels (5160, 203E 52100, 15n20 for those of you who know steel) used to create this type of blade and it is so expensive it is sold by the inch, whereas most blade steel is sold by the foot. The blade is 2 1/2” flat ground and as already stated, full tang. It is 1/8” thick and 11/16” wide.

The handle is unusual in that it is camel bone, dyed green to emulate the look of jade! The person who commissioned it originally wanted a malachite handle, but after researching the properties of that stone, I was convinced it was not a good choice for a knife that will be used regularly. A strictly show piece? Maybe. A working knife? Nope!

The liner is two layered, one green and one cinnamon, of G-10 resin impregnated fiber.

It has a copper guard and pins.

The sheath is made of stamped and dyed cow leather with braided cord lacing and brass rivets.