What to make Damascus steel from. Damascus, damask steel, wootz - technology. The process of making a knife in a workshop

greetings to all brain artisans! After almost a year of “communication” with a hammer and anvil, I finally acquired the necessary experience and tools to create forged crafts, such as a small "Damascus" knife from this brain articles.

And I started, by the way, with a small sledgehammer as an anvil, which I hit with a small hammer.

Now we will talk about creating a small, forged, not carved, knife with your own hands using a homemade forge, anvil, hammer and determination. I don’t pretend to be a professional, and this is certainly not the only way to obtain welded Damascus; this is the story of how I managed to make it.

Damascus steel today is called welded Damascus, obtained from welded metal plates of various brainsteel, subsequently forged and twisted. It's like molding different colors of plasticine together and twisting it to create a wavy pattern. After forging, such a workpiece is subjected to etching, in which the dissimilar metals of the workpiece are eroded unevenly, thereby creating a beautiful contrast. The original Damascus steel is obtained in a different, very specific way (although it looks similar to modern Damascus), and few people know how to create it; this fact has given Damascus a reputation as a metal supposedly endowed with magical powers. And the reason for this “power”, similar to samurai swords, is a process that makes it possible to obtain a more homogeneous, and therefore with the desired qualities, steel, which cannot be achieved in other ways, and makes it possible to include low-quality and high/low carbon steel in the workpiece. Which results in a much better quality blade.

ATTENTION!! A knife can be dangerous, please do not give it to people with mental disorders!!!

Step 1: Materials and Tools

- steel plates of two or more grades (preferably high carbon) that will contrast with each other, I took high carbon 1095 steel and 15n20 steel, with a small nickel content, which will add brightness and contrast after etching
- flux (borax, which can be purchased at a hardware store)
- a piece of reinforcement, a long rod (will be welded to the workpiece as a handle)
- wood of your choice for the knife handle
- epoxy resin (hardening in 5 minutes is ideal)
- brass rivets
- composition for processing the wood of the handle, I used linseed oil
– metal hardening oil (vegetable)
- ferric chloride

- an anvil (preferably a real steel anvil, although if you don’t have one, some other durable objects will do: a piece of rail, a sledgehammer, a large metal blank, an old bollard mooring post, or just a large strong, hard and flat surface. Remember how it all started with strikes with a stone on a large stone)
— hammer (I used a weight of 1.3 kg, with a transverse striker)
- pliers
- welding (optional, but advisable for welding the plates to each other and welding the handle, if you don’t have welding, you can tightly wrap the plates with wire)
— a forge (capable of heating the workpiece to the temperatures required for forging, which is very important for high-quality fusion of the plates with each other, more on this later)
- a belt sander or file with a lot of patience
- oven or other hardening method
- drill or drilling machine
- vice (very useful thing)

Step 2: Assembling the workpiece

Steel plates are cut to the required size brain size, mine for example 7.6x1.2cm; Moreover, the larger the workpiece, the more difficult it is to shape it with a hammer. Before welding them in a stack, the plates are cleaned from all sides of rust and scale. Next, the plates are stacked, alternating steel grades, so my workpiece consisted of 7 plates, three of which were grade 15n20, and four of which were grade 1095.

The plates, aligned relative to each other, are welded together (don't pay too much attention to my seam), and then a handle is welded to the stack to make it easier to handle the workpiece during forging. There is nothing wrong, especially after the stack of plates have been welded, in using only pliers. I forged my own anyway.

Step 3: First Forging of the Stack

A little about my forge: it was made with your own hands from an empty (I bought a new one on purpose as a precaution) gas cylinder, lined inside with a 5cm layer of kaolin wool and fireproof cement. It is heated by a Ron-Reil type burner, about which there are many good brain articles. The forge itself is not particularly large and can be heated to the required temperature without any problems.

So, the workpiece from the plates is heated to a cherry-red color; the heat for this does not need to be very strong. Heated billet homemade products sprinkled with borax, which immediately begins to melt and must be allowed to seep between the plates. This will remove scale and prevent oxidation by preventing oxygen from contacting the metal. This action will ensure the purity of the workpiece metal.

Then the workpiece is heated again in the forge and the procedure is repeated a couple more times, not forgetting to clean the scale if necessary. And after this, the workpiece is heated to forging temperature, I can’t say exactly how much, but I believe it’s somewhere in the region of 1260-1315 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the workpiece will have a very bright yellow-orange color, similar to moderate daylight.

To avoid wasting time, make sure that the anvil and hammer are at hand and there is enough free working space.

Then the workpiece is quickly placed on the anvil and with light, soft blows, evenly over the entire area, the forging of the plates begins. Next, the workpiece is again placed in the forge and heated to forging temperature, and then forged with blows of medium force.

And after this, the workpiece is stretched so that it can be bent.

Step 4: Folding the workpiece

It's time to increase the number brain layers in the workpiece. To do this, the workpiece is forged to a length twice the original length, but it is important to stretch it evenly and not just stretch it. In the middle of the stretched workpiece, a transverse recess of 3/4 or 4/5 thickness is made using a notch, chisel or other suitable method, along which the workpiece is then folded in half on the edge of the anvil, turned over and forged along the entire length, making sure that the halves do not moved relative to each other along the lateral edges.

Then the heating/forging process from the previous step is repeated: flux, heat, cool, heat, forge, forge. The procedure for increasing the number of layers is repeated until the required number of these layers, so I folded it 4 times and got 112 layers. (If you want more layers, please, then the pattern will be smaller. The formula for calculating the layers is as follows: initial number * 2 to the power of the number of folds, that is, 7 * 2^4 = 112).

Next, the workpiece is heated to forging temperature homemade products placed in the groove of the anvil, twisted well, and then it is again given a rectangular shape. But before twisting, the workpiece is punched in the corners so that its shape becomes more rounded, because when twisting and reverse forging into a rectangular workpiece, inclusions and impurities can form from the resulting folds if the temperature of the workpiece is lower than the forging temperature.

After that brain training it is forged again (I repeated it several times), and cooled, and to make sure that the forging is uniform, I cleaned one of the ends of the workpiece. During the forging itself, especially at the first stage, it is important to keep the temperature of the workpiece high and be careful, otherwise you can tear the layers away from each other (this is also called delamination, which is not at all good).

Step 5: Model and Rough Profiling

Now you need to imagine the profile of the future knife and roughly forge it from the blank. The more accurately you can forge the profile and bevel, the less you will have to bother with grinding (on a machine or with a file). There is a lot on this topic brain articles more experienced blacksmiths, so I won't go into detail. The bottom line is that the workpiece behaves approximately like plasticine; when it is heated, it is necessary to punch it in the desired direction.

Step 6: Sanding the Profile

The final shaping of the profile is carried out with a grinder and a file. Stock up on tea, because most likely this will take a lot of time, unless of course you have a grinder brain machine.

Step 7: Sanding, sanding, sanding...and thinking about the meaning of life

Step 8: Finished profile

After the profile crafts formed, it still needs to be finalized with a file with a finer grain, I used 400s. The edge of the blade is sharpened almost, but not completely; it is necessary to leave it slightly unsharpened so that during hardening the edge material does not deform. After this, holes for rivets are drilled in the knife handle and wooden dies for this handle are prepared.

Step 9: Exciting Moment

Hardening.
It will either “make” your blade or destroy it. It is important to concentrate and be careful, otherwise you can deform and destroy the blade. The method I used is not the most thorough method brain training, but it was the only one available to me with the tools I had, and the oil was the best I could get.

Before hardening, the blade must be normalized. This will relieve stresses built up during forging and twisting and reduce the likelihood of warping during hardening. This normalization is done by heating the blade above its critical temperature (when it is no longer magnetized, so it is useful to have a magnet on hand) and cooling it in air. The process is repeated three to five times, so I did this 5 times. In addition, this action will help you practice removing the blade from the forge, because no hesitations are allowed during hardening. This action is shown in the photo with my dangling knife. What’s also cool about this part is that as it cools, oxidation occurs, which begins to reveal the pattern of the steel.

Quenching: The blade is again heated above the critical temperature, and then quickly removed and placed, first with the tip, in warm vegetable oil (for such brands brainsteel like mine). To heat the oil itself, you can simply heat something metal and throw it into a container with oil; for example, I used a crutch for sleepers. Stir the oil, this way you will get a more even hardening. If your steel is high carbon, then do not use water to harden it, it will only ruin the blade because water cools too quickly, which is not suitable for high carbon steel.

WITH under the tree Now it should be treated like glass, because if the blade has been tempered correctly, it is so fragile that it can break if dropped.

After this comes the turn of vacation.

Step 10: Tempering the Metal

Tempering is the process of imparting some hardness to a blade to increase its life and strength. This is achieved by heating the blade at a certain controlled temperature. Vacation brain games I spent in the oven for an hour at 205 degrees Celsius. “Bake” until “ready” appears on the display.

Step 11: Etching

I apologize in advance for the lack of photos of this and the next steps, but the process is quite simple. Ferric chloride is prepared according to the instructions supplied with it. brain instructions, and then the blade is kept in it for as long as indicated in the same instructions. In my case, it's 3 parts water to 1 part ferric chloride, and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. The process is truly exciting, and the result looks like Batman's knife.

Step 12: Handle and Sharpening

Again, there are many techniques and instructions on how to how to do handle of the knife and sharpen it, so I can do without brain details. Let me just say that for my crafts I chose cherry dies, which I glued to the knife handle using epoxy glue and secured with two brass rivets. I sanded it with 400 grit and coated it with linseed oil.

For sharpening, I do not use any special, labor-intensive method, but mostly use a regular whetstone.

Step 13: Time to pat yourself on the back, the knife is ready...

This is my finished knife, about 15cm long. People might think it's quite funny, but I have no idea how this fancy pattern came about.

Thank you for brain attention, I hope this is useful to someone!

There are many opinions about Damascus steel. Someone claims that her recipe is lost. And when you say that it’s Damascus steel, they look at you with a smile and leave. Others haven’t heard much about it at all, and ask ridiculous questions: “What is this drawn with?” or “Why isn’t the blade polished?”

Of course, in fairness, it should be noted that from year to year there are fewer and fewer ignorant people (especially in the city of Moscow). Once a person uses a knife made of high-quality Damascus once, he will never purchase a knife made of any other steel.

In terms of cutting properties, high-quality Damascus steel is several times superior to other grades of steel (be it 65X13, 440C, 95X18). Its only drawback is that it rusts. Therefore, she needs constant care. I worked with a knife - wiped it dry, greased it with neutral oil or grease and put it away. If rusty spots suddenly appear on the steel, they need to be removed with very fine sandpaper and oil, or better yet, kerosene. In principle, caring for such a knife is no more than caring for a gun with non-chrome-plated bores. All the troubles are compensated by excellent cutting properties (which cannot be compared with any stainless steel: both domestic and imported). Let’s look at the secret of the cutting properties of Damascus steel. Firstly, in manufacturing technology. Damascus is made as follows. It is obtained as a result of a long technological process, performed only by hand. The basis is taken from several types of steel (both hard and soft), which are assembled in a certain sequence to form a package (We do not name steel grades, because the secret of good Damascus steel lies precisely in the correct selection and proportions of various metals). A prerequisite is that more hard steels are used than soft ones. The steel package is placed in the forge and heated to forging temperature. After this, special additives are applied to prevent the formation of oxides that prevent plates of different types from welding together. Next, the package is punched several times with a hammer and sent to the forge to be warmed up for welding. As soon as the package is warmed up, it settles under the hammer, then it is sent back to the forge and warmed up for subsequent pulling. When the plate is welded and shaped to size, it is heated again and chopped into the required number of plates, which are cleaned of oxide and assembled into a package. The whole process is repeated all over again. The number of repetitions of the process is proportional to the quality of the product, respectively the order. After the welding process, and there can be from three to ten, the plate is unforged to the required blade size. Then the steel is normalized and the workpiece goes into further work. Steel obtained in this way is characterized by increased strength, excellent cutting properties and beauty. Damascus Russian Bulat LLC has 400 layers of metal or more. As a result of the process, a unique pattern appears, as unique as a fingerprint.

Sometimes at exhibitions you hear that a purchased Damascus steel knife quickly became dull. The answer is simple. Either a person bought “Damascus” (i.e., stainless steel 65X13, 95X18 etched in a special way), or he purchased Damascus welded from soft metals. It is much easier and faster to weld such metal. Visually distinguishing it from high-quality Damascus is almost impossible. Soft damascus was previously used to make guns, because... For these purposes, toughness was required and the cutting properties of the metal were not needed. A knife made of soft Damascus (no matter how beautiful its design may be!) cuts worse than any knife made of stainless steel. When trying to harden such a knife, no matter how hard you try, it is often no harder than 48 units. H.R.C. A knife from the Russian Bulat company has a hardness of at least 60 units. HRC (usually 62-64 HRC units). Some believe that a knife at 64 units. HRC is made brittle.

This is fairly applicable to homogeneous steels (U10, 95X18), but does not apply in any way to correctly forged Damascus. This, of course, does not mean that a knife with a hardness of 64 units. HRC can be bent into a ring! But with limited contact with bones (when cutting an animal), as well as with small chopping blows, this combination of hardness and elasticity is quite sufficient. A good knife steel should not only be hard, but also elastic. Let’s answer the question: “How does a knife become dull?” This happens in two ways. If you look at the cutting edge of a dull knife under a microscope, you can consider two situations:

The cutting edge is bent. (This indicates that the steel is too soft);

The cutting edge has broken off. (This indicates that the steel is too hard.)

While hunting I had to observe the work of a knife made of 95X18 steel. The owner assured that he bought the knife for decent money from one of the famous craftsmen (During the sale, the knife was praised: hardness 70 HRC units, steel taken from a spaceship debris, laser sharpening, etc.). But when the hunt has come to an end, the elk is captured, the owner of the “wonderful knife” approaches the huntsman and offers to work with the knife. After about five minutes, the huntsman politely returns the knife and advises us to buy something better (they say, such a knife is only suitable for cutting lard and sausage!). The owner is offended and tries to butcher the animal himself.

He is surprised to notice that the knife slides and does not cut... And the reason is the following. The knife was truly hardened to extreme hardness. Steel 95X18 is not particularly flexible anyway, but when hardened to more than 60 units. HRC generally loses all elasticity. In this case, when starting work, the cutting edge simply broke off. Moreover, this is not noticeable visually. When you try to sharpen the knife again, everything repeats. Often the cutting edge breaks off during the sharpening process, so a paradox arises: you sharpen the blade, the blade wears off, but the knife is still dull!

The situation is different with mild steel. For example, 40X13. When such a knife becomes dull, the cutting edge bends. It is possible to carve with such a knife if you keep a stone with you for editing - you work a little, shuffle on the stone, work again, shuffle again. This is undoubtedly better than the first case!

The optimal grade of stainless steel is 65X13. Although it is far from quality Damascus. This grade of steel is often called medical steel. For people raised in the Soviet Union, the terms “medical”, “military”, “space” have a magical effect. 65X13 is a good steel for knives. But the term “medical” is difficult to apply to it. Firstly, scalpels from steel 65X13 began to be manufactured only in the late 80s, and before that carbon steels U8, U10 coated with chromium were used.

Secondly, the tasks of a surgeon, who makes very minor incisions during the operation, and a hunter, butchering an elk or a bear, are completely different. In addition, the medical scalpel is not reused during operations (scalpels with disposable removable blades soon appeared). Therefore, the term “medical” steel does not obligate anyone to anything. Although we have been using this steel for inexpensive models for a long time.

Let's return to Damascus steel knives. These knives, manufactured by the Russian Bulat company, were tested by hunters in various parts of the country. 99% give a positive assessment of the knife’s performance. 1% are people who use a knife for other purposes. (For example, there was a gentleman who tried to cut a tractor valve with a knife, another, heavily drunk, threw a knife at a tree, etc.). According to reviews from various hunters, two moose in a row were skinned and butchered with a knife without additional sharpening; five small boars; large cleaver; several beavers. Maslennikov V.S. I personally tried to remove the skin of two moose with a knife from one sharpening point (the knife continued to cut after that!). If you look under magnification at the cutting edge of a Damascus knife after cutting an elk, you will see a micro-saw. It happened due to the fact that the soft steels were slightly crumpled, while the hard ones remained sharp due to the additional viscosity acquired during the forging process. Therefore, when we look at the cutting edge of a knife after prolonged work, the blade shines in places and it seems that the knife has become dull, but when we start cutting, it turns out that the knife cuts no worse than a new one! Even when a Damascus knife becomes completely dull, it is enough to carefully sharpen it with a sharpening stone to restore its cutting properties. This is where the effect of straightening the soft parts of the cutting edge comes into play. After long work, in the winter hut or at a hunting base, the knife needs to be wiped, the cutting edge should be adjusted on a good stone, lubricated with oil and put in a case.

The question that interests many is “Which is better: damask or damask steel?” What is damascus and what is damask steel? Steel prepared from plates through the forge welding process is commonly called “Damascus.” Steel, melted in a crucible and cooled in a special way, is usually called “damask steel”. There is also an intermediate technology where cast plates are mixed with other steels through forge welding. From a consumer point of view, good damask and good damask steel are one and the same. The same hardness, the same micro-saw effect, also easy to sharpen... Bad damascus and bad damask steel are identical: neither one nor the other will cut! To avoid buying a bad knife, you need to purchase a knife from a reputable company with a quality guarantee.

Now there are many different individual entrepreneurs and new companies that have recently been producing knives. Previously, the organizers of these companies were engaged in everything except metalworking; and have absolutely no understanding of metals. They don’t have the necessary production base, they don’t make blades, but buy them wherever it’s cheaper…. When buying a knife from such companies, it is difficult to hope that it will serve for a long time (although there are no rules without exceptions). Although the prices of many individual entrepreneurs for Damascus knives are quite low (from 900 rubles to 1500 rubles). When purchasing a knife, you should remember that if you follow the technological process, a Damascus steel knife will cost from 2000 rubles. up to 3500 rub. Tempted by cheaper knives, you risk remembering the proverb: “The miser pays twice!” Cast damask steel is somewhat more expensive to manufacture than damascus. Question: “Why does one Damascus knife from the same company cost 3,000 rubles, and another $300?” Expensive knives use end-damascus. What is this, “end Damascus blade”?

Take two, three or four plates of damascus with different patterns, layers and properties. They are welded together along the height of the blade and follow the contour of the cutting edge. What does this give?

This adds beauty to the product (due to beautifully selected three or four patterns);

Allows you to place very hard Damascus with a large amount of hard metal on the cutting edge; soft Damascus is used on the butt of the blade (the same one from which gun barrels were made). Thanks to the combination of these damasks, the strength of the knife increases. The cutting properties of such a blade (albeit not much) increase.

The main effect of end damask is beauty and unique handiwork. The best specialist in end-damascus in Russia is Mr. Arkhangelsky and his daughter Maria. Their prices, of course, are much higher. One more question has to be answered: “How many layers does your damask contain?” We determined for ourselves the optimal price-quality ratio - 400 layers. Even a specialist cannot visually determine the number of layers. As a rule, blacksmiths know how many layers they have forged. A record is kept for each batch of Damascus…. You hear from buyers at the exhibition: “Your Damascus has 400 layers, but your neighbors have 600 layers!” It’s important to remember: it depends on what you layer. You can forge Damascus with 600 layers of nails and it will be worse than Damascus, which has 200 layers of good metal. And one more thing. When forging above 400 layers, it is necessary to change the production process (it is necessary to additionally saturate the metal with carbon, since carbon burns out during the heating process), which significantly increases the cost of the workpiece (and, accordingly, the knife). If a knife with 1000 layers is forged in the same way as with 400 layers, then no matter what metal you take, it will look like metal from tin cans. But if you take this seriously, following the technology, then a knife made of 1000-1500-layer Damascus will be better than a 400-layer one, but its cost should be at least $200.

People often ask: “Which damask is better: with a longitudinal pattern or with a transverse twist?” From a consumer point of view it doesn't matter. Just like mosaic damasks. Only some types of end damascus may differ in working qualities. Often, mosaic damasks are inferior in cutting properties to regular ones. Because Often, in pursuit of a design, little attention is paid to the cutting properties of the metal.

A question often asked at exhibitions: “Does your knife cut nails?” Of course, it’s not very clear why people would chop nails with a knife?! Maybe they are connected with this occupation due to the nature of their work or have mental disabilities... But we will still try to answer this question. Let's say right away that cutting nails is not such a big problem! Knife made of any steel with a hardness of 50 units. HRC will cut a nail on the working part. You just need to change it slightly structurally: the thickness of the blade in the cutting part should be at least 1 mm (thicker is better), and the sharpening angle is at least 45 degrees (thicker is better). Order such a knife and you will be able to chop all the nails you want! Remember that the hardness of a nail is much lower than the hardness of a knife (even from mediocre steel); it’s all about the design of the blade. For Damascus steel, when cutting nails, the thickness of the working part can be made less than 1 mm (up to 0.6 mm), the angle can also be smaller. There are knives that cut paper, then cut the nail (by hitting the butt with a hammer) and then the knife can cut the paper again (though a little worse). In general, if you want to check the quality of the blade on a nail, it is not necessary to cut it. It is enough to plan the nail or make small notches on it. Any knife made of good Damascus steel can withstand this operation without any problems. We do not take into account knives with a very thin working part from 0.1 m and thinner (for example, fillet knives and an “Uzbek” knife). And yet, we do not recommend doing such experiments with knives, because... We believe that this is not why an adult buys a knife.

Of course, if in an extreme situation you have to use a knife to cut nails, cable or thick wire, that’s a different question. There is no need to do this unless necessary. There are other tools for this (for example: chisels, metal cutters), which are much cheaper than a good knife. With such constant experiments, especially if the objects being cut turn out to be red-hot, your knife will still break. Our company produces knives for hunters, fishermen, tourists, and for lovers of long hikes. The knife can open cans without any problems, it can easily cut the carcass of a large animal (moose, bear) without sharpening; when planing wood, it holds an edge for several days in a row. They can process several tens of kilograms of fish. It is for these purposes that the Russian Bulat company produces knives. If the knife is used for its intended purpose, the company provides a 10-year guarantee on the blade! Since our company is already 13 years old, and during this time there have been practically no complaints about blades from our Damascus. If a person buys a knife for cutting nails, throwing at wood and all kinds of experiments, then it is better to turn to some other company. True, as practice shows, if a person plans to break a knife, he will still break it, no matter where and no matter what steel the knife is made of! But this is already a sign of insanity.

We wish all readers of this article good shopping and successful hunting!

The material was prepared by V.S. Maslennikov, General Director of Russian Bulat LLC.

Currently, the art of metal forging is experiencing a period of revival. The skill of such gunsmiths as Leonid Arkhangelsky, Sergei Danilin, Andrei Koreshkov testifies to the fact that Russian weaponry and blade-making traditions remain unsurpassed to this day.

The articles published by master blacksmiths widely cover the question of the history of their art, the theoretical basis for making, say, cast damask steel, but I am sure that many read these articles in order to get an answer to the questions: “How is this done?” what to start with?" and similar ones, but, at best, they stumble upon a statement of the fact that such art is complex and accessible only to the initiated. In this article I will try to cover the art of the blacksmith-gunsmith from scratch, for those who want to start practicing this fascinating activity, but do not know where to approach it. The article will be devoted mostly to complex technological composites. The fact is that I began to get acquainted with the art of forging with independent attempts to obtain Damascus steel, so first of all I am counting on readers who, as they say, “rave about Damascus.” I will touch upon basic forging techniques very sparingly, ~ firstly, enough literature is already devoted to this; secondly, to learn how to simply forge, you can find a private forge and work as an apprentice for several months, but getting apprenticed to a renowned bladesmith who makes patterned composites is difficult. I hope that this article will somewhat compensate for this injustice. I will also not touch upon the problem of hardening in this article - competent hardening of steel, especially Damascus - the material is limitless, but basic information on hardening steels with different carbon contents can be gleaned from textbooks on metal science. I would like to immediately make a reservation that these materials are in no way a guide to the manufacture of edged weapons, which, let me remind you, is in accordance with Art. 223 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is a criminal offense. A plate of hand-forged Damascus, polished and etched, will bring you no less satisfaction at first than a knife or sword. I am going to talk about how to make the MATERIAL and I am not responsible for the further use of this material. If you do not have a license to manufacture weapons or if you cannot find work at an enterprise that has such a license, you can always find a way to do what you love without violating the norms of the Criminal Code and the Law of the Russian Federation “On Weapons.” Basic tools. So let's get started. First of all, you need equipment. Some of it will need to be purchased, some can be made yourself. You should start by determining the territory where your blacksmith shop will be located. If you have a country plot of land - wonderful, even in the most primitive version of a forge - in the open air - forging from April to November is guaranteed to you. In addition, when forging in the open air, the important problem of removing gaseous products of fuel combustion, most of which are toxic, is automatically solved. In order not to depend on the weather, a canopy on poles must be installed over the site of the future forge, the roof of which must be made of iron sheet, since the temperature even two meters above the mountain is sufficient for a rapid fire. If you do not have the opportunity to work in the lap of nature, then the forge can be equipped indoors. The main problems that arise in this case are exhaust hood and fire safety. In addition, using, for example, a garage as a forge requires much larger capital investments and is associated with greater organizational difficulties. Wherever you are located, flammable and flammable building materials and substances must not be used near the forge fire; the floor, ceiling and walls of the room must be metal or concrete, and a powerful exhaust hood must be located above the forge. Personally, I still prefer to work outdoors under a canopy, and in my experience, this is possible even in winter. Having decided on a place for a workshop, it is necessary to solve “the main issue of a blacksmith” - the issue with the tool. Unfortunately, buying blacksmith tools is now very difficult. Those items that you simply need to purchase include: A bench with a vice. The vice is desirable to be powerful and rigidly attached to the workbench tabletop. Acquiring both is usually not difficult.

Anvil. Fortunately, they have not stopped producing them yet. In principle, you can work on any suitable piece of iron weighing at least 20 kg. and with a flat surface, but this presents some difficulties. Firstly, nicks from the hammer will soon appear on the unhardened surface of a homemade anvil, which will then transfer to the surface of the workpiece. Secondly, you will be deprived of the opportunity to use those special surfaces that the branded anvil has (horns, etc.). Therefore, I advise you to still purchase a ready-made anvil, and the larger its mass and working surface area, the less constrained you will be in your creative imagination. The anvil is mounted on a wooden block sunk into the ground in such a way that, standing next to it, the blacksmith can touch the surface of the anvil with the fingertips of his lowered hand. Naturally, the base deck should not wobble, and any fall of the entire structure or the anvil itself should be excluded. Set of sledgehammers. At first, I advise you to get the following set of sledgehammers, which can be purchased at hardware stores: a small sledgehammer weighing 1-2 kg, an average sledgehammer weighing 5 kg, and a large sledgehammer for working with a hammer weighing 8-10 kg. All sledgehammers must be extremely securely mounted on the handles and wedged. The fighting surfaces must be level, they should be maintained in this condition, if necessary, leveling the plane on the sharpener. In addition to this set, you should also acquire a set of large hammers weighing 0.5-1 kg for fine work. In some cases, you will also need hammers with a spherical fighting surface, which can be made from ordinary ones using an electric sharpener.

Blacksmith's pliers. This is a difficult question. You most likely will not be able to buy real blacksmith pliers. Making it yourself is also very difficult. To get out of this situation, I advise you to purchase several large carpenter's pliers and modify them. Some ticks are left unchanged. For the latter, the sharpened jaws are ground down until a flat gripping surface is obtained. Still others have semicircular cutouts cut into the jaws for round workpieces. Long (70-100 cm) handles are welded to all pliers (it is convenient to use thin water pipes for this, putting them on the handles of the pliers and welding them with electric welding.) It should be noted that due to shock loads, the pliers fail quite quickly. It is necessary to monitor the serviceability of the pliers - the quality of work greatly depends on them.

Chisels. You will need several large quality chisels. A real blacksmith's chisel is designed like a hammer and has a handle perpendicular to the body of the tool. It will be very difficult to hold a short metalworking chisel over a hot workpiece, so the chisels must either be quite long (about 40 cm), or they must be equipped with handles by simply welding a pipe or a thick rod to the body of the chisel approximately in the middle of the length, which can be either parallel, and perpendicular to the cutting plane of the chisel. You need to have an assistant to work with such a chisel.

Power tools. An electric sharpener (or, as an equivalent, an angle grinder (“grinder”) with a set of cutting and grinding wheels) and an electric welding machine (the “Rusich”, powered by a regular electrical network, is convenient) will be absolutely necessary. Follow safety precautions when working with these devices!

Forge. With this set of tools you can already start working. However, there remains one more device, which is rightfully considered the main one in the forge. This is a blacksmith's forge. The question of constructing a forge in practice is perhaps the most difficult, and often it is the lack of a forge that stops beginners. Let's resolve this issue too. I can congratulate the reader who has the opportunity to purchase a standard gas or electric forge. However, most people do not have this opportunity, so I offer simple and effective designs of a forge, tested from my own experience, that provide the required temperature. The main parts of any forge are: a fire bowl with or without a grate, and a device for supplying the air necessary for the combustion process. This is where difficulties arise with this device. A proven way is vacuum cleaners. For a medium-sized forge, two Soviet-made vacuum cleaners are enough to ensure an acceptable temperature. This option is also the most inexpensive, since even two new domestic vacuum cleaners will still cost less than any other air supply device. In addition, vacuum cleaners provide good pressure and intensity of air supply. For convenience, they should be equipped with a single switch. It is desirable that it has the shape of a pedal and is constantly under the blacksmith’s foot. It should also be possible to turn off one of the vacuum cleaners, for example, to reduce the blast during some forging operations. As for all kinds of blowers and fans, they are, of course, good, but it should be taken into account that there may be insufficient air supply, as a result of which fuel combustion will be inactive and the required temperature will not be reached. Two vacuum cleaners supply a sufficient amount of air to the rectangular fire bowl measuring 300 x 200 mm, which is quite enough for forging long products and ensures the most economical fuel consumption. Therefore, when further describing the structure of the forge, I will rely on these dimensions of the fire bowl. The construction of the forge is possible in two main ways, which will be described below.

The first option is the so-called “Japanese horn”. It is installed directly in the ground. To work with it, you will have to make a low bench next to it or sit on the ground. This is due to the peculiarities of the Japanese forge - the Japanese forge not standing, but sitting, and all the tools and anvil are located directly on the bare floor. However, no one bothers to put the Japanese horn on a stand and raise it above ground level. The most important feature of such a device is the absence of a grate. Air is supplied from the side directly into the mass of burning fuel. This design is easy to clean, gives a good temperature and can be recommended for use without any reservations. The second option is a regular European open forge. It consists of two parts - the lower one, into which air is supplied, and the upper one - the fire bowl itself, separated by a grate. Since fuel combustion products (ash and slag) enter through the grate into the lower part of the hearth, to ensure cleaning, the grate must be removable, for which a steel corner with a shelf width of 5-6 cm is welded at the middle of the height along the perimeter of the hearth, on which the grate is placed . This forge is also easy to use. The body of the forge, whatever it may be, is most conveniently welded from sheet iron with a thickness of at least 5 mm. Such a forge will work for a long time and its walls will not burn out soon. The grate is welded from reinforcement with a diameter of 10 mm or more, and the distance between the rods should be less than their diameter. I recommend installing the forge on a base made of refractory bricks on stove clay, at a height convenient for work. To reduce heat transfer, it is also recommended to line the side surfaces of the furnace with the same brick on refractory clay. This design is durable and aesthetically pleasing. The figures show the recommended dimensions for two furnace options, the air supply to which is carried out by two vacuum cleaners. In this case, air supply pipes are welded into the body of the forge, the outer end of which is adapted for connecting a vacuum cleaner hose. For better air distribution, pipes are introduced into the furnace from opposite sides, but so that the air flow of each of them is not extinguished by the flow of the opposite one. As an adapter from the vacuum cleaner hose to the forge pipe, you can use a piece of a bicycle tube approx. 150 mm, one end of which is pulled with force onto the forge pipe, and the aluminum tip of a vacuum cleaner hose is attached to the other. This method ensures tightness and minimal air loss. Firewood, charcoal and coal can be used as fuel in the forge of the described designs. Firewood often does not provide the required temperature; charcoal is good and preferable in most cases, but is quite expensive. Therefore, despite some disadvantages (the main one is the abundance of impurities that deteriorate the quality of steel), hard coal is most often used, preferably shiny anthracite. Before use, it is crushed into cubes with a side of up to 3-4 cm. There are many ways to ignite a forge, I recommend starting with getting a stable flame by burning bark, wood chips, paper and small wooden logs with only one vacuum cleaner running, and then gradually adding small pieces of coal and , after they ignite, increase the blowing by turning on the second vacuum cleaner. With a little practice, you will be able to light the forge the first time. So, all the difficulties in purchasing tools, installing and setting up the forge are behind us. However, blacksmithing is a dangerous craft, so it would be useful to remind you about safety precautions. I have already spoken about fire safety rules and the prevention of carbon monoxide poisoning. In addition, there are some other rules. First, buy yourself a thick canvas or leather apron that protects your chest and legs to the knees, and always use it, as well as gloves (or mittens) made of the same thick material. This will help you, if not avoid, then minimize burns from hot drops of metal. The eyes must be protected with glasses made of transparent glass (there will be nothing left of plastic ones in the atmosphere of a forge very quickly) with seals on the sides of the glasses. In addition, the forge usually produces a high flame, so hair, especially long hair, should be protected with a hat. The forge must always contain containers with cold water and sand. Fire extinguishers are highly desirable. Remember that the main skill of a blacksmith is the ability to work without injury to himself and others! You should also take into account the location of all the elements of the forge relative to each other. Materials. At the end of this section, I will briefly describe the set of materials that will be needed in the work. Firstly, it is, of course, steel. The more different grades of steel you have at your disposal, the better. When working on the production of Damascus steel, you will not need all the stainless steel grades. It is most convenient to use steel in the form of plates, but if you have round rods, you can forge them into plates as a training and equipment test. Try to keep the plates smooth, uniform in thickness and with a minimum number of nicks. The main grades of steel that are easiest to find and that you will need are the following: StZ - low-carbon steel 0.3% carbon (mainly used for the production of hardware), tool steel U8, U9 (files, hacksaw blades - 0.8 and 0.9% carbon, respectively ), spring steel from any springs (0.5-0.7% carbon depending on the brand), cast iron (for example, from heating radiators - 6% carbon). When purchasing blanks at a dealership or somewhere else, always inquire about the grade of steel and its chemical composition. You will need this when later determining the composition of your composite. I repeat, the more samples of different steels you have, the better, but it is advisable that you have reliable information about each of them. In addition, stock up on pieces of reinforcement with a diameter of 10 mm of different lengths - they will be needed for the manufacture of auxiliary devices, such as handles, which you will weld to the workpiece and, thus, do without the use of pliers. You will also need some chemicals. This is, in particular, borax, which is used as a flux and is sold in welding stores or chemical stores. To start, you will need about 1 kg of borax. To develop the pattern on the surface of a Damascus steel product, acid is required. Traditionally, a 5% nitric acid solution is used, but 9% table vinegar and a 10% ferric chloride solution can be used. All these reagents give almost the same result. Follow safety rules when storing chemical reagents - they should be stored in unusual containers with large inscriptions, in places inaccessible to unauthorized persons, especially children! Finally, you are fully equipped and can get to work.

There are a lot of articles written about Damascus steel, but since you're about to make it, it's worth repeating some of the theoretical points. Damascus steel consists of alternating layers of high and low carbon steel. The average carbon content in Damascus plays an important role.

It can be calculated as follows. Suppose you welded a package of 30 grams of StZ and 70 grams of U8. So your Damascus is 30% steel with 0.3% carbon and 70% steel with 0.8% carbon. Using a simple proportion, we calculate that (0.3 x 0.003+0.7 x 0.008) x 100 = 0.65. Therefore, the average carbon content in the bag is 0.65%. Not enough. It is also necessary to take into account that when the package is first heated to welding temperature, about 0.3% of the carbon burns out, and with each subsequent heating - about another 0.03%. This means that it is necessary to use higher-carbon steel grades, or to increase the relative content of U8 in the package. Using this formula, you can calculate the average amount of carbon in the package and, accordingly, select the appropriate hardening mode. An operation called carburization can increase the carbon content. It should also be remembered that a contrasting pattern is obtained when using steels whose difference in carbon is equal to or greater than 0.4%. The finished product is etched in one of the above reagents. In this case, the product must already be hardened (hardening increases the contrast of the pattern) and polished. The entire defatted product is placed in the etching solution, and the operation is continued until the pattern is clearly and completely visible. Medium-carbon Damascus The main difficulty in obtaining Damascus steel is high-quality welding of the initial package. It is important that it has a sufficiently large number of layers (about 200 will be enough for a start) and the absence of defects. The main defects when forging Damascus are overburning and lack of penetration. Burnout is a defect in which a section of the workpiece is heated above 1200 degrees Celsius for a significant period of time (20-30 seconds). As a result, the steel reacts directly with oxygen in the air - in fact, the steel burns. The burnt section of the workpiece is not subject to further processing and is usually removed. Since Damascus welding occurs at temperatures close to the burnout temperature, this defect occurs frequently and can sometimes ruin the entire job. Lack of fusion is a defect in which layers of steel are not welded together due to unremoved scale, insufficient proximity or insufficient welding temperature. On the finished product, the lack of fusion looks like a crack in the damask pattern. Only experience will help you catch the moment when the steel is already heated to welding temperature, but has not yet ignited. Get ready for the fact that before you succeed, you will burn a lot of blanks. Remember: it’s better to be undercooked than overcooked! Lack of penetration is eliminated, although it is difficult, and the burnt workpiece can only be thrown away. In the future, when describing forging processes, I will often determine the temperature of the workpiece not in degrees, but by indicating the color of the heated metal. I hope this will help reduce the number of incomplete welds and burnouts to a minimum. I know from my own experience that a beginner wants to quickly get a workpiece that has many layers. Etch it, and personally verify the presence of a mysterious pattern characteristic of Damascus. Therefore, we will start with a technology that we will call “Damascus for Beginners”. You will need 10 double-sided hacksaw blades for metal. They are wider than single-sided ones and more convenient as a raw material. Such blades are made of U8 steel. When purchasing, try to find out how the canvases are made - entirely from tool steel, or using hard coating on a soft base. For our purposes, only the first are suitable. In addition, stock up on enough soft iron tape to cover wooden boxes. Strips of any steel other than stainless steel will also be needed. U8 is still desirable. You can use old files with a thickness of about 2 mm, a length equal to half the length of the hacksaw blade and a width equal to the width of the iron strip. You will place these strips in the package as outer layers, which will prevent the thinner inner ones from completely turning into scale. You can also use a softer steel, such as StZ, as the outer layers, but this will lower the average carbon content of your Damascus. Use an electric sharpener or a grinder to remove the teeth from the hacksaw blades. After this operation they will become equal in width to the iron strip. Each canvas must be cut into two equal parts in length. You will get 20 pieces of hacksaw blades. Cut 20 pieces of iron tape with metal scissors. Finally, it is advisable to use a pharmacy scale to weigh a piece of iron tape, a piece of hacksaw blade and a thick steel plate. You will need to know the weight when calculating the composition of the resulting steel. Now let's do an operation called assembling a package. This operation is thorough and long, so it is best to perform it while sitting. Place a piece of steel 2 mm thick on the table. Its surface does not need to be cleaned of rust, but if it is a file, it is necessary to grind off its working surface. Moisten it with plain water and apply a fairly thick layer of borax (about 2-3 mm). An iron strip is placed on the borax layer, moistened, and a layer of borax is applied. A piece of hacksaw blade is placed on it, moistened, and a layer of borax is applied. Thus, layers of iron, borax and steel alternate until 5 pieces of hacksaw blade are used. On the top section of the iron strip, place a piece of thick steel, the same as at the very beginning of the package. Now very carefully tighten the bag along the edges with clamps and, trying to prevent the borax from spilling out, electric weld its beginning and end. Then, to reduce the possibility of delamination, weld in several places along the length. In this case, pieces of steel wire or nails can be placed across the side surface of the bag and welded. This will serve as an additional guarantee against delamination. During the welding process, it is necessary to add borax powder to those places from which it spilled or leaked when heated by electric welding. The final stage of creating the package is welding the handle to one of its ends. This will be a piece of reinforcement about 20 cm long when using pliers, or 1 m when working without pliers. Try to keep the handle welding area as strong as possible. If the handle falls off when the bag is heated in the forge, getting it out of there will be very problematic. When you succeed, most likely, the package will no longer be suitable due to burnout. It is even advisable to grind down one of the ends of the rod used as a handle to a small thickness, and wedge it between the layers of the bag, and then scald it. As one of the layers, you can use a rod, forged onto a plate at one end. Its long remainder forms a handle. This option is the most reliable. Be that as it may, you should get 4 bags of the same design. As an alternative to electric welding, the following technology can be used. The package is first assembled without borax, after which through holes are drilled at the beginning and end of the package using an electric drill. Next, using the technology described above, the package is assembled with borax and tightened with bolts through drilled holes. This technique is in some cases more effective, since it ensures reliable tightening of the package. And with the use of electric welding, the package may fall apart in a hot forge. Some authors of the literature on Damascus steel advise assembling the package without any borax, which plays the role of flux during welding, and sprinkle borax on the package already heated in the forge. I would not recommend this for beginners. There may be places in the middle of the bag that the molten borax cannot reach. Lack of penetrations form in them. As you gain experience, you will reach the level of skill when you can flux and weld a package assembled without borax, but at first it is better to play it safe. In addition, the use of technology with preliminary insertion of borax allows steel with an uncleaned surface to be placed in the bag - with a layer of rust, scale, etc. And in the latter method, all layers of steel must be thoroughly cleaned. So, you have collected four packages. Inspect them carefully - all the cracks between the layers should be tightly filled with borax. Make sure the long handles are welded to the bags as securely as possible. Light the forge. When the flame is steady and the forge is burning at full power, carefully place the first package into the mass of burning coals. It is very important that the bag heats evenly. It must be constantly monitored, rotated around the longitudinal axis and moved if the heating is uneven. Remember that the workpiece in the forge appears hotter in color than it actually is.

It is very important to learn to catch that one moment when you need to pull out and forge the workpiece. Typically, the beginning of this moment is characterized by the appearance of small sparks, like sparklers, that emanate from the surface of the workpiece. Be on your guard - these sparks indicate that the maximum welding temperature is approaching and the metal is beginning to burn. Wait until sparks fly from the entire area of the workpiece, and not just from one section. At this moment, quickly remove the workpiece (its color should be from lemon yellow to white, with an abundance of sparks). Place it on the anvil, and with frequent blows of a small sledge hammer, hammer it from end to beginning and back again. Turn over and forge again from end to beginning and back. If everything went well, the welding has already occurred. To be sure, forge the workpiece with even, flat blows until it reaches a red color. Forge welding is possible at lower temperatures, for example, when the metal glows light orange, but the risk of cold lack of fusion increases. If the shape of the workpiece after this series of forging is not perfectly rectangular, heat it again, just until it turns orange. Adjust the shape of the workpiece so that it is as close to rectangular as possible, and both surfaces are as flat and even as possible. The thickness of the workpiece after this first welding should be about 4-5 mm. Forge and weld all four bags in this way. After this, the four resulting plates can be collected again into a bag and boiled, but I recommend stopping, taking a break and at the same time examining the quality of the welding performed. When the forgings have cooled, grind off a small layer of metal from the side plane of the package with a grinder or electric sharpener.

If you see only the shiny surface of the monolithic steel, the welding was successful.

When dark lines are visible - the boundaries between the layers, it means that there was a lack of penetration. If there are one or two small imperfections, the process can be continued. Most likely, delamination will not occur, and the lack of penetration will be eliminated during further welding. If the lack of penetration is large, then the package should be heated, cover the uncooked area with a layer of borax, continue heating to welding temperature, and forge the uncooked area across the entire width of the plate again.

So, you have in your hands four plates of 13 alternating layers. By collecting them in a bag and boiling, we get a plate of 52 layers. While hot, cut it lengthwise with a chisel into 2 or, if width allows, 3 parts. While the process of cutting with a chisel scares you, you can cut the plate with a thin cutting wheel, however, in this case some metal will get into the sawdust. By assembling and welding the resulting plates, theoretically it is possible to obtain any number of layers. But it should be borne in mind that initially the package contained rather thin layers of metal, so with more than 200 layers, the pattern will be very thin and difficult to distinguish. Therefore, I recommend stopping at 150-200 layers. During final welding, try to ensure that the package takes on a shorter length and width, but a greater thickness than those that you have planned for the future product. This is necessary for the final metal forming process. So, you have your original piece of Damascus steel. It contains about 0.6% carbon - the Japanese consider this steel optimal. This is the so-called “wild” Damascus. When etching a product from it, you will get a pattern of almost parallel lines of different thicknesses. This type of damask is also called “striped”. You can be satisfied with it, or try to somehow complicate the pattern.

Option one: "PEACOCK EYE".

This is a pattern in which concentric circles, ovals or squares occur. The pattern is achieved in the following way. Before molding the product from the resulting plate, shallow (1-2 mm) round or ellipse-shaped recesses are cut on its side surfaces with a drill or a grinding wheel in the right places. After this, the heated plate is subjected to forging, during which its surface becomes flat again. In this case, the lower layers come to the surface and form concentric figures. The use of this method gives quite wide possibilities when forming a pattern.

A fundamentally different method is “TURKISH” or “TWISTED” Damascus.

To obtain it, you must try to ensure that the starting material - a package with the required number of layers - takes the form of a round or square rod. To do this, you can chop a wide thick plate or cut it lengthwise into strips, the width of which is approximately equal to the thickness. The rods are heated to a light orange color, after which one end is clamped in a vice, and the other is grabbed with pliers with flat jaws. It is twisted along the longitudinal axis several turns, but so that the rod does not burst. The resulting spiral-shaped workpiece is forged into a plate, at a temperature close to welding, with flux in order to eliminate possible delaminations. The product formed from such a plate has a complex pattern in the form of concentric four-rayed repeating stars. When working with Damascus, there are a huge number of pattern options. There are no limits to artistic imagination here. Therefore, do not be afraid to experiment and look for new pattern shapes and ways to obtain them. We will touch on this topic in the section devoted to mosaic Damascus.

Welded damask steel:

This type of welded steel is characterized by a high carbon content, which brings this Damascus closer in strength and cutting properties to cast damask steel. This carbon content is achieved by using cast iron powder in forge welding. Cast iron contains up to 6% carbon. It is convenient to use cast iron from steam heating batteries, but its quality is not high. In any case, you should know the composition of the cast iron used, at least data on its carbon content. Cast iron is highly brittle, so it is quite easy to split it into small pieces with a sledgehammer. Then crush them on an anvil into a powder, the particles of which should be about the size of a grain of rice. Cast iron must be crushed carefully so that the particles do not fly away in different directions. For the required amount of welded damask steel you will need several glasses of crushed cast iron, so be patient. In addition to cast iron, this steel includes StZ in the form of water pipes and steel U8-U9 from files. The file steel must be ground into pieces about the size of a fingernail. It can be easily pricked with a hammer. Using the above formula, calculate the weight parts of all components. Finished steel, with all adjustments for carbon burnout, should contain no more than 1-1.2% carbon. Homogeneous steel with this composition is very brittle, but due to the heterogeneity of the composite, it can be hardened to greater hardness. Take a 1/2 or 3/4 inch water pipe - this, as I already said, is StZ steel. You will need several pieces of pipe about 20 cm long. Using an iron wire brush, thoroughly clean the inside surface of the pipe from rust. Weld tightly one end of each piece of pipe. Mix crushed cast iron and U8 steel fragments in the proportion you calculated (when calculating, do not forget to take into account the weight of the pipe). Usually, U8 is required by weight more than cast iron. Now fill the pipe sections with the mixture. Compact the cast-iron-steel mixture as thoroughly as possible using a pin of suitable diameter. The packed mixture is compacted in the pipe by vigorously tapping with a hammer on a pin inserted into the pipe like a piston. When the pipe is stuffed, weld the other end and weld the handle to it. You can use the pin you used to compact the mixture, leaving part of it in the pipe and welding it firmly. Having filled all the pipe sections, take an electric drill and drill 10-20 small-diameter holes in each pipe, placing them evenly over the surface. These holes are needed to allow the remaining air and excess molten cast iron to escape. Light the forge and heat the pipe section to maximum temperature. In this case, a slight burn on the pipe surface is not dangerous, since the pipe walls are quite thick. Make sure the heating is even. When the pipe section turns white, hammer it with a heavy sledgehammer (preferably the help of a hammer) several times from end to beginning and back. Bring the resulting plate to a thickness of 3-4 mm. Forge the remaining pipe sections using the same pattern. The resulting steel still has a lot of internal lack of penetration, voids, and its composition is very heterogeneous. Therefore, you will have to weld the resulting plates many times. First weld them together into one. The resulting plate must be divided in two alternately lengthwise and crosswise and the welding must be repeated at least 10 times so that the steel becomes even in composition. At this stage, I advise you to start mastering one technique little by little. It will allow you to avoid the procedure of cutting the plate into parts and assembling it into a package using electric welding. The plate is cut with a chisel along the desired line to 1/2 the thickness. Then, on the edge of the anvil along the notch line, the plate is bent 90 degrees. On the plane of the anvil, the bend is brought to an acute angle. After heating, the bent plate is carefully fluxed with brown, especially those surfaces that will be welded. After applying flux, the forging is heated to welding temperature and forged. In fact, the plate simply folds in half. It must be remembered that it folds alternately - sometimes along, sometimes across. Let's say there were five lengths of pipe that you forged into plates. By welding them together, we got a 5-piece package. After the first folding in half there will be 10 layers, after the 2nd - 20, after the 3rd - 40, after the 4th - 80, after the 5th - already 160! Thus, after my recommended 10 welds, you will have several thousand layers. From such a package it is already possible to form a finished product. I do not recommend using any tricks to complicate the pattern on welded damask steel - it already has its own, unique characteristic chaotic pattern. You can read about the features of hardening welded damask steel and the amazing technology that allows you to achieve the formation of microscopic diamond crystals in layers of such steel in the article by V. Basov “Bulat - the line of life.” Mosaic "Mosaic Damascus" is a steel in which sections with different types of patterns are welded together. The possibilities for imagination here are endless. I propose to make a damascus with the Sutton Hoo smoke pattern, after the name of a fossil Scandinavian sword. Weld a package consisting of 7 layers of three steels - StZ (gives white m

Arrangement of the forge

So let's get started. First of all, you need equipment. Some of it will need to be purchased, some can be made yourself. You should start by determining the territory where your blacksmith shop will be located. If you have a country plot of land - wonderful, even in the most primitive version of a forge - in the open air - forging from April to November is guaranteed to you. In addition, when forging in the open air, the important problem of removing gaseous products of fuel combustion, most of which are toxic, is automatically solved. In order not to depend on the weather, a canopy on poles must be installed over the site of the future forge, the roof of which must be made of iron sheet, since the temperature even two meters above the mountain is sufficient for a rapid fire. If you do not have the opportunity to work in the lap of nature, then the forge can be equipped indoors. The main problems that arise in this case are exhaust hood and fire safety. In addition, using, for example, a garage as a forge requires much larger capital investments and is associated with greater organizational difficulties. Wherever you are located, flammable and flammable building materials and substances must not be used near the forge fire; the floor, ceiling and walls of the room must be metal or concrete, and a powerful exhaust hood must be located above the forge. Personally, I still prefer to work outdoors under a canopy, and in my experience, this is possible even in winter.

Required Blacksmith Tools

Having decided on a place for a workshop, it is necessary to solve the “basic issue of a blacksmith” - the issue with the tool. Unfortunately, buying blacksmith tools is now very difficult. Items that you simply need to purchase include:

Mosaic Damascus

“Mosaic Damascus” is a steel in which sections with different types of patterns are welded together. The possibilities for imagination here are endless. I propose to make a damascus with the Sutton Hoo smoke pattern, after the name of a fossil Scandinavian sword.

Weld a package consisting of 7 layers of three steels - St3 (gives a white metallic color when etched), U8 (black color) and any spring steel (gray color). The alternation can be anything. The finished plate should be wide and thick enough so that 8 square-section rods with a thickness and width of approximately 7-8 mm can be cut from it. You may have to make several plates. The length of the rods should be about 30 cm. After this, mark 4 cm sections on each of the rods. Heating and clamping the rods in a vice, according to the marks obtained, twist half of the rods in one direction (say, clockwise), and half in the other. Twisting will occur in sections, so that twisted sections alternate with untwisted ones. Try to keep the twisted and untwisted areas on all rods in the same places. After this, hammer each rod again, restoring their square cross-section along the entire length.

Now take four rods - two, twisted in each direction. Lay them sideways on the workbench, making sure that the layers of metal in each bar are facing you. The twisted sections will touch and alternate. A rod twisted clockwise next to a rod twisted counterclockwise, and so on. You will end up with a package that resembles folded fingers. Place several thick nails across the bag on each side - they can be removed later - and electric weld, holding the bag together. Weld also the handle rod. Since the thickness of the package is small, fluxing can be done immediately before forge welding. Heat the bag until scarlet, sprinkle thickly with borax on both flat sides, and heat further. Welding is carried out at the highest possible, but excluding burnout, temperature, with very light blows of a hammer (to prevent delamination of the fan-shaped package). They are applied along the side surface of the package, and not along a wide plane. Mastering this art, called end welding, is not easy. First, it makes sense to practice on square steel bars, so as not to spoil the complex layered steel.

As a result, you should have two monolithic plates. Each consists of four sections of bars twisted in opposite directions. By itself, such steel is not very strong, so it should be welded onto the base. The base can be either Damascus or simple (in this case, the best option is a plate made from a tempered and forged spring). It should be the same size as the resulting mosaic plates. The base is collected in a bag with the resulting plates and welded together. The result is a finished piece of steel, the surface of which has a beautiful pattern, similar to smoke from a candle. A product made from such damascus should be forged very carefully, trying to achieve the most approximate shape through forging. When turning with a grinder or on a wheel, the pattern may deteriorate. Proceed with grinding work only when the shape of the future product is indicated in almost all details. Make sure that the metal deforms evenly when forging, so that the core and outer patterned plates do not move relative to each other.

Making mosaic, or any other damask, is fascinating. For the sake of pleasure from the unique beauty and properties of steel, it is worth looking for your own path, and not being afraid to start over again and again. Good luck to you in your endeavors, and may Volund, the ancient patron of Scandinavian blacksmiths, help you!

Any civilized person knows about the properties of the legendary weapon steels - Damascus, damask steel and wutz - at least by hearsay. They are evidence of the unique capabilities of masters of the metallurgical profession.

What is the secret of these amazing alloys, who produced them and when and how did they process them? It seems that modern science has found the answers to these questions.

Continuation of the series of publications from the encyclopedia "Metallurgy and Time".

Previous articles in the series:

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“Cast ironing” and “quenching”

A metal structure with high-carbon layers can be obtained by using crushed cast iron as a flux during forge welding.

At welding temperature, the carbon in the cast iron instantly combines with the scale, robbing it of oxygen. As a result, instead of scale, carbon dioxide and reduced iron are formed, which is immediately carburized by contact with the carbon of liquid cast iron. Cast iron in this case serves as a more efficient source of carbon than charcoal, since at the welding temperature it melts and the carbon is in it in a dissolved, more chemically active form. Spreading over the surface of the workpiece, liquid cast iron cleanses it of scale, simultaneously losing its carbon and, as a result, hardening. During subsequent forging, part of the liquid cast iron is squeezed out, but thin layers of fairly tough, carbon-depleted cast iron and high-carbon steel remain.

Further unforging of the package is carried out at slightly lower temperatures so that the high-carbon layers do not melt, so some gunsmiths say that they do not weld the package, but “solder” it with cast iron. Carburizing the surface of a metal with molten cast iron is called “cast ironing” or “quenching”. The result is an alternation of layers of viscous iron, steel and extremely hard white cast iron, i.e. “ultimate” version of Damascus steel. The classic Japanese method of making blades was precisely the use of molybdenum-containing iron, steel (according to some sources, imported from China) and crushed cast iron.

Forging cast steel

The historical coexistence of two types of weapons steel - cast and welded - corresponded to two forging technologies. It is known that the Wutz blank before forging had a small mass (no more than 1 kg).

The lightness of the original workpiece allowed craftsmen to accelerate the heating of the product and make extensive use of local heating of its parts for subsequent forging.

If you look closely at the state of the microfibers emerging on the surface of the wootz, you can see not only their “swirling” as a result of the use of complex forging techniques, but also their fragmentation. This circumstance indicates the implementation at a certain stage of forging of a powerful “one-time” effect on the fibers, previously brought into conditions favorable for crushing. Apparently, it was this forging operation that had a decisive influence on the final quality of damask steel and the totality of its phenomenal properties.

At the same time, many experts note that the condition for correct forging of damask steel is its “graduality.” The slower the forging is, the higher the quality of a damask blade. Careful forging at low temperatures, requiring numerous heatings, leads to increased contrast of patterns. When heated, small carbides and sharp edges of large carbides dissolve, and upon subsequent cooling, carbon is again released on the surface of large particles in a high-carbon strong fiber. Therefore, the initially blurred pattern acquires sharpness and contrast.

Damascus forging

In heterogeneous Damascus, the type of macrostructure greatly influences the properties of the blade. Dozens and perhaps hundreds of grades of welding steel have been developed in different countries. Despite such abundance, all these varieties can be ordered by dividing them according to the principle of formation into several groups: “wild”, “stamped” and “twisted (Turkish)”.

The “wild” pattern of Damascus is formed by the random mixing of metal as a result of simple hand forging. The best craftsmen preferred to forge blades from “stamped” Damascus with a regular pattern. The pattern was called “stamp” in Germany based on the method of its formation by applying a special stamp - a stamp of a strictly ordered relief to the blade blank, as a result of which, during forging, the layers were distorted in a given order. There are few types of patterns formed in this case: stepped, wavy, rhombic (mesh) and ringed. The stepped pattern is characterized by relatively narrow strands of lines running across the blade.

Scheme of pattern development (a) and the main types of heels for making stamp damask (b)

A common type of “stamp” pattern is the rhombic one, which has two varieties. One of them is obtained by cutting the surface of the workpiece with a chisel crosswise, which is why the pattern looks like a mesh woven from threads, thrown over a blade made of “wild” Damascus. Accordingly, the pattern is called “mesh”. The second variety is a pattern that in Germany is called “small roses.” It has the form of clear concentric rhombuses and is stamped with a stamp having pyramidal protrusions. The ringed type of “stamp” pattern is called a “peacock eye” in the USA, although it is more similar to a “peacock tail”, since numerous concentric circles are arranged in a clear order on the blade.

"Turkish" or "pink" damask

The pattern of “Turkish” damask is considered especially beautiful. So in the XVII-XVIII centuries. it was named in Europe when they saw sabers brought from the East from local varieties of welding metal. Its other name is “pink” damask, due to the similarity of the pattern with rose flowers.

A distinctive feature of the “Turkish” Damascus was that the blades were forged from pre-tightly twisted rods of heterogeneous metal. The patterns turned out to be extremely diverse and bizarre. Berualdo Bianchini, the author of the book “On Damascus Blades of the Turkish Type” published in 1829, wrote: “... the mass used today to create Damascus blades is exactly the same as that used to make completely ordinary blades, i.e. . a uniform mixture of steel and iron in a two to one ratio.

Stages of pattern development in twisted Turkish damask

The drawing of twice-refined blanks into a strip and the subsequent forging of the blade between two dies occurs in the same way as in the manufacture of a regular blade. The only difference is that the damascus stamp must be equipped with various reliefs, which it is advisable to transfer to the blade. In hammer forging, successive sheets of steel and iron of the blade are pressed into the recesses of the die, resulting in indentations or relief, which, when then sawed off, produce the desired pattern.”

Hardening of weapon steel

Heat treatment regimes for damask steel products have always attracted the close attention of researchers. It is this stage of its production technology that is surrounded by the largest number of legends and mysteries that have come down from the depths of centuries.

And in relatively recent times, for example in the 19th century, many metallurgists attached great importance to the methods of hardening damask steel and even considered them to be the main secrets of making damask steel weapons.

At that time, no one could explain why the metal became stronger and harder, but there were a great many hardening recipes: almost every master had his own secret.

It is known that both spring water and water from mineral springs were widely used as a quenching medium. The temperature of the water and the salts dissolved in it had a great influence on the cooling rate of the products, so the place where the water was taken and its temperature during hardening were kept strictly secret. Due to the fact that blades made of steel with a high carbon content, after hardening in cold water, easily broke from a blow, in Persia they began to harden edged weapons in wet canvas. There is a well-known hardening method, in which, before heat treatment, the blade was coated with a thick layer of special clay with various impurities for thermal insulation. The composition was removed only from the blade to be hardened in water. The resulting “demarcation” line in each workshop was given a unique original design, by which it was possible to distinguish the master who made the bladed weapon.

Red-haired boy's piss and young slave's buttocks

Metallurgists sought and were able to find environments in which steel cools faster than in water. Thus, urine and other salt solutions take heat from hot metal faster than the coldest water.

Noticing this feature, medieval metallurgists developed various hardening options and sometimes achieved considerable success. This is how Theophilus describes the tempering of steel that cuts “glass and soft stones”: “They take a three-year-old ram, tie it up and feed it nothing for three days. On the fourth day he is fed only fern. After two days of such feeding, the next night the ram is placed in a barrel with holes punched at the bottom. A vessel is placed under these holes in which the sheep's urine is collected. The urine collected in this way over two or three nights in sufficient quantities was removed, and the instrument was tempered in the said sheep’s urine.” There are legends according to which damask blades were tempered in the milk of a mother nursing her son, in the urine of a red-haired boy, a three-year-old black goat, etc.

As the legend tells, in Ancient Syria a blade was heated to the color of dawn and stabbed 6 times into the buttocks of a young slave. There are known methods for such hardening of steel by cooling in the body of a pig, ram or calf. In Damascus, saber blades were heated to the color of the rising sun and tempered in the blood of a Nubian slave being killed. And here is a recipe for hardening a dagger, discovered in one of the temples in Asia Minor and dating back to the 9th century: “Heat (the blade) until it glows like the sun rising in the desert, then cool it to the color of royal purple, plunging into the body of a muscular slave. The strength of the slave, passing into the dagger, gives the metal hardness.”

Ancient blacksmiths also knew ways to protect metal from oxidation during the heating period for hardening. The blacksmith took bull horns, burned them on a fire, mixed salt into the resulting ashes and sprinkled this mixture on the products, which were then heated and hardened in water or lard.

The Mystery of Cast Steel

Paradoxically, man has not yet been able to fully understand the essence of damask steel, the nature of its unique properties and the peculiarities of the technology for its production. And this despite the fact that for a long time he used products made from damask steel, improved it, lost the secrets of manufacturing and again revealed the secrets of damask steel, just as he did in the middle of the 19th century. Russian metallurgist P.P. Anosov.

It should be noted that P.P. Anosov, repeatedly noting in his works the high qualities of the damask steel he received, which was not inferior to the best Asian damask steel, never said that he had revealed the secret of the Indian wootz; Moreover, he abandoned the then established concept of “Damascus steel” and put forward a new one - “Russian damask steel”.

Many prominent European scientists, including Michael Faraday, the son of a blacksmith, sought to unravel the secret of cast weapon steel. In 1819, he examined samples of cast steel and concluded that its exceptional properties were due to the presence of small quantities of silicon and aluminum. Although this conclusion turned out to be erroneous, Faraday's paper inspired Jean Robert Bréant, the Assay Officer at the Paris Mint, to conduct a series of experiments in which he introduced various elements into steel. It was Bréant who first suggested in 1821 that the unusual strength, toughness and appearance of cast weapons steel should be due to the high carbon content. He found that its structure had light areas of carburized steel on a dark background, which he simply called steel.

The production of ancient weapons from damask steel, surrounded by a legendary aura of super-virtues and sacred secrets, as is already well known, was carried out from Indian wutz. It was supplied to the markets of Persia and Syria in the form of a “cake” of cast steel cut in half. The carbon content of Wootz was very high. Thus, the chemical analysis of wutz, carried out by order of P.P. Anosov, showed a carbon content of 1.7-2.0% wt. and more.

The Indian Wutz blank had a diameter of approximately 12.5 cm, a thickness of about 1 cm and a weight of approximately 1 kg. In addition, the Wutz ingots had peculiar patterns, different from the pattern on the finished blades. According to most experts, the best blades were forged in the 7th-12th centuries. After sharpening, the blade of an Indian blade acquired incredibly high cutting ability. A good blade easily cut a gauze in the air, while even modern blades made of the best steel can only cut thick types of silk fabrics. True, an ordinary steel blade can be hardened to Wootz hardness, but it will be as fragile as glass and will shatter into pieces at the first blow.

Unfortunately, in Ancient India they hid the secret of smelting and the technology of making blades so carefully that, in the end, they lost them completely. Already in the 12th century. taban, for example, could not be made either in India, or in Syria, or in Persia. Currently, not a single craftsman or company in the world can reproduce the best types of Indian steel, examples of which are still preserved in some museums in Europe. The loss of the secrets of producing Indian wootz in the presence of a wide market for its preparations indicates a limited number of craftsmen who owned the technology for producing wootz, as well as rather high productivity indicators for their time, yield and reproducibility of the technology for producing wootz. Taking this into account, we can assume the following: the technology for producing an Indian Wutz ingot was quite simple (as, probably, it should have been, otherwise would it have been worth hiding it so carefully), and the shape in the form of a flat cake was in those distant times the only correct way to represent the finished semi-product .

In the Middle Ages, when determining the advantages of a particular blade, real masters assessed the coarseness of the pattern (width of the fibers) of damask steel, the nature of the relief, weave and number of fibers, the color of the etched background of the blade and its tints, the height and duration of the sound of the blade when struck, elasticity and etc. It seems largely clear that these quality control criteria had a deep meaning, providing information, in particular, about the cutting properties of the blade. The width of the high-carbon fibers characterized not only the method used for producing damask steel, but also the cutting properties of the blade, its elasticity and self-sharpening ability.

It is obvious that after sharpening and polishing the damask steel blade, its cutting edge already had a serrated relief, due to the hardness and wear resistance of its components varying along the length of the edge. If we take into account that each high-carbon fiber of damask steel, when reaching the cutting edge, has a profile of a certain curvature - a factor that significantly increases the cutting ability of the blade, then the ancient craftsmen were simply obliged to evaluate the orientation of the fibers relative to the cutting edge of the blade and its handle.

The first to strictly scientifically explain the nature of damask steel and connect it with the properties of this amazing steel was the outstanding Russian metallurgist Dmitry Konstantinovich Chernov. He believed that when steel hardens, it splits into two different compounds of iron and carbon, which “play a very important role in the purpose of such steel for blades: in hardening, the harder substance is strongly hardened, and the other substance remains weakly hardened, but since both substances are thin layers and fibers are closely intertwined with one another, the result is a material that has both great hardness and high viscosity. Thus, it turns out that damask steel is incomparably superior to the best grades of steel prepared by other methods.”

Legendary composite

So, damask steel is a composite material. Let us note that the idea of creating such materials was borrowed by man from nature.

Many natural structures (tree trunks, bones and teeth of people and animals) have a characteristic fibrous structure. It consists of a relatively plastic matrix substance and a harder and more durable substance in the form of fibers. For example, wood is a composition consisting of bundles of high-strength cellulose fibers of a tubular structure, connected by a matrix of organic matter (lignin), which gives the wood lateral rigidity. The teeth of humans and animals consist of a hard and tough surface layer (enamel) and a softer core (dentine). Both enamel and dentin contain needle-shaped inorganic hydroxylapatite microcrystals embedded in a soft organic matrix.

Now we can say with confidence that damask steel was discovered not by chance and much earlier than is commonly thought. Metallurgists of the Bronze Age could not help but pay attention to the herringbone structure of bronze ingots. Having received the first iron ingot with the same herringbone structure, the ancient craftsmen probably began to forge it like bronze. Of course he fell apart. However, this did not stop the ancient metallurgists, and after some time, having gained experience, they were able to find a solution.

The uniqueness of damask steel lies in the fact that it represents a fundamentally new class of composite materials. It cannot be attributed to any of the known and scientifically defined types of natural and artificial composites, among which it is currently customary to define fibrous, layered and dispersion-strengthened. The special properties of damask steel are achieved as a result of joint thermomechanical processing of fibers and matrix and subsequent thermal hardening of the composite through the mutual influence of its individual components and the processes occurring in them.

In conclusion, we note that under certain conditions, a patterned ingot can be obtained from a homogeneous melt. This is achieved by slow crystallization of a high-carbon alloy, during which large crystal grains grow, the size of which can reach several millimeters. Along the boundaries of these dendritic crystals, carbides are released, forming a cementite network. Forging such a coarse-grained metal at low temperatures makes it possible to crush a solid cementite network into small particles and form a pattern visible to the eye. Researchers currently call the patterned metal obtained in this way “dendritic” steel - based on the dendritic nature of crystallization of the ingot, or “liquation” damask steel - based on the mechanism of pattern formation due to carbon segregation. Modern blacksmiths forge blades from “liquation” damask steel by heating them to temperatures not exceeding 850 °C. This is a prerequisite; otherwise, with stronger heating, the carbide particles completely dissolve and the magical patterns disappear.