wire rope damascus manufacturer

I start with 1" high carbon wire rope that I buy straight from the manufacturer. The reason I do this, as opposed to using scrapped cables is because I have no idea the sort of stresses it may have been under and there is no easy method of determining carbon content for hardening. Each knife is forge welded into a solid blade, fully hardened and tempered.

Wire rope manufacturers produce their products in order to provide a high load capacity, versatile alternative to weaker ropes like manila rope or hemp rope. Wire rope products are used for a wide variety of motion transmission applications, among them: lifting, baling, tie down, hoisting, hauling, towing, mooring, anchoring, rigging, cargo control, guidance and counterbalance. They can also be used as railing, fencing and guardrailing.

Wire rope is a must-have for many heavy duty industrial applications. From mining to forestry to marine and beyond, there’s wire rope for almost every job. Some of the many industries in which wire rope is popular include: construction, agriculture, marine, industrial manufacturing, fitness, sports and recreation (plastic coated cables for outdoor playground equipment and sports equipment), electronics, theater (black powder coated cables for stage rigging), mining, gas and oil, transportation, security, healthcare and consumer goods.

Wire rope as we know it was invented just under 200 years ago, between 1831 and 1834. At that time, the goal was to create a rope strong enough to support work in the mines of the Harz Mountains. Invented by Wilhelm Albert, a German mining engineer, this wire rope consisted on four three-stranded wires. It was much stronger than older rope varieties, such as manila rope, hemp rope and metal chain rope.

While studying at Freiburg School of Mines, a man named L.D.B. Gordon visited the mines in the Harz Mountains, where he met Albert. After he left, Gordon wrote to his friend Robert Stirling Newall, urging him to create a machine for manufacturing wire ropes. Newall, of Dundee, Scotland, did just that, designing a wire rope machine that made wire ropes with four strands, consisting of four wires each. After Gordon returned to Dundee, he and Newall, along with Charles Liddell, formed R.S. Newall and Company. In 1840, Newall received a patent for “certain improvements in wire rope and the machinery for making such rope.”

In 1841, an American manufacturer named John A. Roebling began producing wire rope for suspension bridges. Soon after, another set of Americans, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, started incorporating wire rope into coal mining and railroad projects, forming Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N Co.). In 1848, wire rope from their wire rope factory in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania provided the lift cables needed to complete the Ashley Planes Project. This project sought to improve the performance and appearance of the freight railroad that ran through Ashley, Pennsylvania, by adding lift cables. This increased tourism and increased the railroad’s coal capacity. Before, cars took almost four hours to return; after, they took less than 20 minutes.

Wire rope likewise changed the landscape (again) in Germany, in 1874, when an engineering firm called Adolf Bleichert & Co. used wire rope to build Bi-cable aerial tramways. These allowed them to mine the Ruhr Valley. Several years later, they also used wire rope to build tramways for the German Imperial Army and the Wehrmacht. These tramways were wildly successful, opening up roads in Germany and all over Europe and the USA.

Since the 1800s, manufacturers and engineers have found ways to improve wire rope, through stronger materials and material treatments, such as galvanization, and different rope configurations. Today, wire rope makes possible many heavy industrial processes. It has become a necessity of the modern world.

Strands are made by tightly twisting or braiding individual wire together. One strand could have anywhere between two and several dozen wire filaments depending on the necessary strength, flexibility, and weight capacity.

One of the most dynamic elements of wire cables is the inner core. The strands are wrapped around the core, and it can be made of different metals, fibers, or even impregnated fiber materials. For heavy applications, cores are often made of a different strand of wire called an independent wire rope core (IWRC). An IWRC has a considerable amount of flexibility and it is still very strong. In fact, at least 7.5% of the strength increase in a wire rope can be attributed to an IWRC.

While they sometimes use other metals, like aluminum, nickel, copper, titanium, and even bronze for some applications, manufacturers primarily produce wire rope from steel. This is because steel is very strong and stretchable. Among the most common types they use are: galvanized wire, bright wire, stainless steel and cold drawn steel.

Of the wire rope steels, cold drawn carbon steel wire is most popular, although stainless steel wire rope is sometimes employed as well. Stainless steel rope is most popular for its anti-corrosive properties. Bright wire rope, a type of ungalvanized steel wire rope, is also popular. For added strength and durability, galvanized steel wire rope/galvanized steel cables are a very popular choice. Galvanized aircraft cable, for example, is always a must in aerospace.

When choosing or designing a custom wire rope for your application, suppliers consider factors such as: the environment in which the rope will function, required rust resistance, required flexibility, temperature resistance, required breaking strength and wire rope diameter. To accommodate your needs, manufacturers can do special things like: make your rope rotation resistant, color code your rope, or add a corrosion resistant coating. For instance, sometimes they specially treat and coat a cable with plastic or some other compound for added protection. This is particularly important to prevent fraying if the wire rope is often in motion on a pulley.

Manufacturers and distributors identify the differences in wire cable by listing the number of strands and the amount of wires per strand so that anyone that orders understand the strength of the cable. Sometimes they are also categorized by their length or pitch. Common examples of this include: 6 x 19, 6 x 25, 19 x 7, 7 x 19, 7 x 7, 6 x 26 and 6 x 36.

More complex wire rope identification codes connote information like core type, weight limit and more. Any additional hardware like connectors, fasteners, pulleys and fittings are usually listed in the same area to show varying strengths and degrees of fray prevention.

Cable wire rope is a heavy-duty wire rope. To give it its high strength, manufacturers construct it using several individual filaments that are twisted in strands and helically wrapped around the core. A very common example of cable wire rope is steel cable.

Spiral rope is made up an assemblage of wires with round or curved strands. The assemblage features at least one outer layer cord pointed in the opposite direction of the wire. The big advantage of spiral ropes is the fact that they block moisture, water and pollutants from entering the interior of the rope.

Similarly, stranded rope steel wire is made up of an assemblage of spirally wound strands. Unlike spiral rope, though, its wire patterns have crisscrossing layers. These layers create an exceptionally strong rope. Stranded rope may have one of three core material types: wire rope, wire strand or fiber.

Wire rope chain, like all chains, is made up of a series of links. Because it is not solid, wire rope chain is quite flexible. At the same time, it is prone to mechanical failure.

Wire rope slings are made from improved plow wire steel, a strong steel wire that offers superior return loop slings and better security. The plow wire steel also shields rope at its connection points, which extends its working life. Wire rope slings, in general, provide their applications with increased safety, capacity and performance. Wire rope sling is a rope category that encompasses a wide range of sub-products, such as permaloc rope sling, permaloc bridle slings and endless slings. These and other wire rope slings may be accompanied by a wide variety of sling terminations, such as thimbles, chokers and hooks.

Wire rope offers its user many advantages. First, design of even distribution of weight among strands makes it ideal for lifting extremely heavy loads. Second, wire rope is extremely durable and, when matched properly to the application, can withstand great stress and elements like corrosion and abrasion. In addition, it is very versatile. Its many iterations and the ways in which the rope can treated means that users can get rope custom fit for virtually any application.

Depending on the type of wire rope with which you are working and your application, you may want to invest in different accessories. Among these accessories are: wire rope clips, steel carabiners, fittings, fasteners and connections.

To ensure that your wire rope quality remains high, you must regularly inspect them for wear and degradation. The right wire rope should be selected for a particular use. Watch out for performance-impacting damage like: rust, fraying and kinks. To make sure that they stay in tip-top shape, you should also clean and lubricate them as needed. Check for this need as a part of your regular inspection.

Rope care is about more than inspection. It’s also about making an effort to use and store them properly every time you use them. For example, never exceed your rope’s rated load and breaking strength. Doing so will not only cause the weakening of your cable, but it may even cause immediate breakage. In addition, always store your wire rope cable in a dry and warm area, away from those elements that could cause premature rusting or other damage. Finally, always carefully wind your wire rope when you’re done with it, so as to avoid kinks. If you follow all these tips and treat your wire rope assemblies well, they will reward you with a long and productive service life.

Always make sure that you purchase wire rope that matches your industry and regional standards. Some of the most widely referenced standards organizations for wire rope include: ISO, ASTM International and OSHA. Talk over your specifications and application with your wire rope supplier to figure out what’s best for you.

If you’re in the market for a wire rope or a wire rope assembly, the best way to know you’re getting something that will both perform well and be safe if by working with a vetted professional. Find one among the list we’ve provided on this page. Check out their profiles to get an idea of the services and products they offer. Pick out three or four to whom you’d like to speak, and reach out. Talk to them about your specifications, standard requirements and budget. Ask about lead times and delivery options. Once you’ve spoken with all of them, compare and contrast their answers. You’ll know you’ve found the one when you talk to a wire rope company that is willing to go above and beyond for your satisfaction.

Let’s talk about wire “damascus”. It’s not really wire. It’s not really pattern-welded steel, and it’s not really Damascus, but it’s fun and easy to do. It’s a great first project, and you can find your stock in any scrap-yard in the world. Almost fool-proof for a beginner so far as mistakes are concerned, and if manipulated properly can produce some striking results in terms of pattern. I’ve sold a few small knives as letter openers, and I’ve used it to make “Celtic” pommels, and guards, as well as chapes, accents for scabbards, and jewelry. I’ve used it to trade for chain mail, and other stuff I choose not to take the time to do myself. Among the better Master Blade-smiths, at the larger Blade Shows it will be “poo-poo’ed” as “cheesy” but that’s okay for me, as I’m an up and comer, and also the kind of guy that really doesn’t feel bad that I didn’t come out of the womb knowing everything. It’s pretty, and if made from high carbon suspension bridge, or industrial cable (non-galvanized ) makes for a pretty good knife, short sword, and if you weld on a solid edge… sword. I’ve seen stuff by Colonel Hrisoulas and Charles Kain that rivals anything, by anyone, ever, out of cable.

Lots of guys start off with wire, and others take it on to an art-form. I know a few that have stuck with it, and make great table cutlery, and artwork to dazzle. Google the expression “Wire Damascus” and see some of the books in the bibliography at the end of this tutorial, and see good shots of some magnificent pieces. I myself have done a few, and have on hand enough bridge and crane cable to make much more in the future.

The bottom is low carbon, “choker” cable, like you find on oil riggers, and boom lifts. Not so great for blades, as it won’t harden properly without a sandwich of high carbon on the cutting edge. It has either a solid steel center, or a nylon rope center, and must be taken apart, and re-twisted before being forged. Lot of work for a crap steel right? As you can see I’ve done just that. I took a six inch section of oily cable, degreased it in my cleaning station, heated it up some to burn off all the junk. Don’t use your normal gas forge for this, as old crap oil, and gunk, will come oozing out of it once it’s reached 600 degrees or so and severely contaminate your forge. No matter how good you clean it with gas, and no matter how clean it looks on the surface, and no matter how much anti-greasing agent you use. Nevertheless, make sure all grease, dirt, grime, and the rope are wholly burned out. I do this in my trash bin -for as of yet out in the country the EPA doesn’t swoop down on every outdoor barbecue. Wouldn’t they love to taste my hot dogs?

Heat up the cable a section the width of your vice, 3-5 inches if it’s a longer piece. Heat wise, once cherry red, have a pipe wrench, or as I have done, an old style pipe-wrench, pre-set to size, with a two foot handle welded on, and twist the wire down on itself. I try to use counter-clockwise as a goal. As above.

And here is the long 2″ wire in the first picture up above, welded solid, and drawn into a blade billet. I have not finished it into a blade as of yet, this will be posted soon after I do the pic’s for welding on a high carbon edge.

Below is a nice shot of a finished piece. Done in chain-saw blades. Same idea as the wire, but you just forge down a glob of chain-saw blades. Each chain saw has three different metals in it. The tip is usually some sort of carbide, the pins holding the chain bodies together is high carbon, and the bodies are a lower carbon steel.

One of the most beautiful wire damascus knives I think I can remember is one of Jim Ence’s in the book: Points of Interest, Volume II ( ISBN 0-9613834-2-9 ). If you can beg, borrow, or steal a copy, they are very collectable now, as only so many were made. I don’t have permission to publish the picture here, so I may not, but you can also see nice pieces in books still in print. Try Decorative and Sculptural Ironwork: Tools, Techniques & Inspiration by Dona A Meilach, 2nd Edition 1999 ( ISBN 0-7643-0790-8 ) for our craft pages 199-234. And as already mentioned, Col Jim Hrisoulas book The Complete Bladesmith, back cover, left pic, and on page 150-153 of his book for how too.

Starting to reveal the soul of it. Got to keep it happening both ways. Notice the wire brush and chisel still sometimes necessary. Always remember the more you do hot, the less you do with grinders and files later.

It’s possible you have heard of Damascus steel, particularly if you are familiar with old swords, knives and guns. A book, The Art and Beauty of Damascus Steel, has been written on the subject. While this treatment of the topic might not do the book justice, Damascus steel is quite beautiful and holds much mystery.

Although the heyday of Damascus steel was between 900 and 1600 AD, the origins began as early as 300 BC in India. At that time, wootz steel was made using a new technique that produced high-carbon steel of unusually high purity. Glass was added to a mixture of iron and charcoal in a small, sealed, clay crucible, and it was then heated. The glass acted as a flux to combine with other impurities in the melt, allowing them to float to the surface. The result was a more pure steel. This technique spread from India to modern-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan around 900 and to the Middle East around 1000.

Modern metallurgical analysis has proven that Damascus steel differs from pattern welding (to be discussed later). Blacksmiths of today use pattern-welding techniques to reproduce the look of Damascus steel.

No one really knows why this steel is so unique, but it is believed to be due in part to its vanadium content. In addition, it is believed that the steel was “hot short” due to its sulfur and phosphorus content. Our theory would be that this hot shortness required a lower and more precise forging temperature than conventional European blacksmiths were accustomed to. The vanadium content, and possibly also molybdenum, could create “primary” carbides, which would not be affected by the lower-temperature thermal processing (forging). Some of the iron carbides might go into solution during forging, but the primary vanadium carbides and certain other metallic carbides would flow in a pattern established by the forging process. These flow lines would lie parallel to the forging plane of the blade, and the bladesmith exploited this to create a more exotic pattern upon polishing and etching of the blade.

Another forging-process creation was not known until recent metallurgical analysis revealed the presence of carbon nanotubes and nanowires in a 17th-century sword. The complex forging and annealing process is believed to have developed the nano-scale structures. These nanostructures help give Damascus steel its distinctive properties.

The origin of the Damascus steel name is almost as mysterious as the steel itself. The assumption is that the steel or the swords were made in Damascus, Syria. It’s just as likely, however, that it comes from the Arabic word “damas” meaning water, referring to the surface pattern that resembles turbulent water. One source refers to swords made by a man named Damasqui, which could also have been the origin of the name.

Damascus steel is both hard and flexible, which made it an ideal sword-making material. The primary and/or precipitated carbides that create the pattern are much harder than the low-carbon steel matrix. These carbides allowed the swordsmith to make an edge – using the precipitated carbides – that would cut hard materials, and the softer matrix allowed the sword to remain tough and flexible.

The beauty of Damascus steel has resulted in craftsmen attempting to duplicate it. Present-day blacksmiths use one of two techniques: cable Damascus or pattern welding. The cable technique began with the availability of steel-wire rope in the 1830s. The wire rope is forged, creating repeating images along the blade similar to the Damascus steel of old.

Believe it or not, if you start with a single bar and fold it 16 times, you will end up with 65,536 layers. If, however, you start with a pattern-welded, eight-layer billet, 17 folds will result in 1,048,576 layers! The resulting layers will be aligned parallel to the forging direction, producing superior strength properties as well as a pattern similar to the Damascus patterns of old.

I made a cable Damascus blade for the first time this weekend and I couldn"t get it to quench without taking a warp. It"s an old 1/2 inch steel cable, I believe 7 large strands. I forged it down into a flat and then folded it and welded it back together to start with a thicker billet. When I forge welded the cable I lightly tapped it into the corner of my anvil horn so I can set it without it splaying. I also tack weld the ends before welding so they stay together.

Also if you have any tips on cleaning the cable out before weld, I"d love to hear it. I tacked the ends together and loosened the cable on a vice and cleaned it out the best I could with flux and wire brushing.

As this is a labor intensive process, a good knife made from Damascus steel may cost in excess of 1,000 dollars. The making of such a knife is the ultimate challenge in a blacksmith’s ability to work metal.Several theories on the origins of the term “Damascus steel” exist, but none of them may be confirmed definitively.

The swords forged in Damascus. For instance, al-Kindi, refers to swords made in Damascus as Damascene. This word has often been employed as an epithet in Eastern European legends (Sabya Damaskinya or Sablja Dimiskija meaning “Damascene saber”), including the Serbian and Bulgarian legends of Prince Marko, a historical figure of the late 14th century in what is currently the Republic of Macedonia.

Historians such as Hobson, Sinopoli, and Juleff state that the material used to produce the original damascus was ingots of Wootz steel, which originated in India and Sri Lanka and later spread to Persia. From the 3rd century to the 17th century, India was shipping steel ingots to the Middle East for use in Damascus steel. Today, the term is used to describe steel that mimics the appearance and performance of Damascus steel, usually that which is produced by either crucible forging or pattern welding.

The original method of producing Damascus steel is not known. Whatever the lost methods of making Damascus steel, of ore refinement and forging, they harnessed impurities and changes at the molecular level. Although modern steel outperforms these swords[citation needed], the microscopic chemical reactions may have made the blades extraordinary for their time. The process was lost to metalsmiths after production of the patterned swords gradually declined and eventually ceased circa 1750. The raw material for producing the original Damascus steel is believed to be wootz imported from India.

The discovery of carbon nanotubes in the Damascus steel’s composition supports this hypothesis, since the precipitation of carbon nanotubes likely resulted from a specific process that may be difficult to replicate should the production technique or raw materials used be significantly altered. Since pattern welding was a prominent technique used for swords and knives, and produced surface patterns similar to those found on Damascus blades, a belief existed that Damascus blades were made using a pattern welding technique.

Pattern-welded steel has been referred to as “Damascus steel”, since 1973 when Bladesmith William F. Moran unveiled his “Damascus knives” at the Knifemakers’ Guild Show. This “Modern Damascus” is made from several types of steel and iron slices, which are then welded together to form a billet. The belief that Damascus steel was pattern welded was challenged in the 1990s when J. D. Verhoeven and A. H. Pendray published an article on their experiments on reproducing the elemental, structural, and visual characteristics of Damascus steel.

Experimental archaeology is a means which has attempted to recreate Damascus steel. Verhoeven and Pendray started with a cake of steel that matched the properties of the original wootz steel from India, which also matched a number of original Damascus swords to which Verhoeven and Pendray had access. Verhoeven and Pendray had already determined that the grains on the surface of the steel were grains of iron carbide, so their question was how to reproduce the iron carbide patterns they saw in the Damascus blades from the grains in the wootz.

Although such material could be worked at low temperatures to produce the striated Damascene pattern of intermixed ferrite and cementite bands in a manner identical to pattern-welded Damascus steel, any heat treatment sufficient to dissolve the carbides would destroy the pattern permanently. However, Verhoeven and Pendray discovered that in samples of true Damascus steel, the Damascene pattern could be recovered by aging at a moderate temperature.

Most modern steels intended to mimic the appearance of original Damascus are a lamination of folded steels selected with cosmetic qualities, with grinding and polishing specifically to expose the layers. A limited amount of steel makers attempt to recreate the original Damascus steel by using ingots produced through wootz methods.

Several steelmaking techniques, other than the original wootz steel (such as Damascened steel and sometimes watered steel), can result in patterned surfaces, though not for the same reasons, and have been sold as Damascus steel. Historically authentic Damascus steel is processed from wootz steel or equivalent. Modern materials intended to mimic the appearance of Damascus steel are usually made by pattern welding two tool steels, one with high nickel content, appearing bright, the other appearing more grey so that alternating steels produce light-dark stripes.

Treating or pickling the steel with dilute acid after polishing enhances the pattern by darkening one of the steels more than the other. Folding and twisting while hammer forging the steel controls the striped pattern, and the method used is often trademarked. Experienced bladesmiths can manipulate the layered patterns to mimic the designs found in the surface of the medieval Damascus steel.

Carbon nanotubes and nanowires were found in a sample of a 17th century sword forged from Damascus steel. Peter Paufler, a member of the Dresden team, says that these nanostructures are a result of the forging process.Prior to the early 20th century, all shotgun barrels were forged by heating narrow strips of iron and steel and shaping them around a mandrel. Because of the appearance to Damascus steel, higher-end barrels were made by Belgian and British gun makers. Current gun manufacturers such as Caspian Arms make slide assemblies and small parts such as triggers and safeties for Colt M1911 pistols from powdered Swedish steel resulting in a swirling two-toned effect; these parts are often referred to as “Stainless Damascus”.

"Based on domestic market and expand overseas business" is our improvement strategy for 18 Years Factory Stainless Damascus Steel Bar - 347 Stainless Steel Plate – Saky Steel, The product will supply to all over the world, such as: Turkey, Mexico, Washington, Our Company has qualified engineers and technical staff to answer your questions about maintenance problems, some common failure. Our product quality assurance, price concessions, any questions about the items, Be sure to feel free to contact us.

Conventional pattern-welded Damascus steel uses alternating layers of steel which will etch at different rates to provide contrast between the two different types. Layer counts can be modified by using thin stock, taller billets, or by cutting, stacking, and re-welding the billet.

I previously wrote about the history of pattern-welded Damascus steel in this article about Damascus steel myths. I did not provide a full history of pattern-welded Damascus steel in that article nor can I do so in this one. For convenience I will refer to “pattern-welded Damascus steel” simply as Damascus steel for the rest of this article. Damascus steel was produced anciently and production of it continued into the early 20th century especially in rifles. It was popularized in the USA as a knife material by Bill Moran starting in 1973. In the 1970’s and 1980’s there was a steady evolution of different patterning techniques in Damascus to make different types and looks of the final steel. One of the patterning techniques explored was the use of specific images in the steel, recognizable pictures, words, etc. Gun barrels were produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries with the name of the gun manufacturer forged into the Damascus [2]. Daryl Meier was able to use a similar technique in 1978 to produce Damascus steel that had his last name in it:

The knife was produced from “multi-bar” Damascus which you can see with the different sections, the bottom being a twist pattern, above that the “USA” section, then the flags, and finally another twist Damascus bar. Below you can see a closeup of one of the flags in the knife.

Both the stars in the flag produced by Meier and the hunter scene produced by Schwarzer used wire EDM blocks to produce the images. This requires two large blocks of steel in contrasting materials where a male and female block are produced so that once mated they can be forged to the final solid piece. Once etched the two different materials will be different colors so that the image is visible. Wire EDM and large blocks of steel are very expensive so this method has never had particularly widespread use.

In the mid-1980’s, Steve Schwarzer was presenting on Damascus steel at a Jim Batson hammer-in. Gary Runyon was working for Allegheny Technology and had access to nickel powder. Runyon was attempting to get nickel powder to stick to cable to produce a nickel-infused cable Damascus. Schwarzer suggested that he put it in a piece of pipe so that the powder could not escape. In the early 90’s Schwarzer had his signature cut out with wire EDM and was attempting to stuff thin nickel sheet around the signature but it was not working. He contacted Runyon to acquire nickel powder and poured that around the wire-cut signature instead.

Pelle Billgren was the CEO of Söderfors [7], a division of Erasteel, a producer of powder metallurgy steel. I wrote about the history of powder metallurgy steel in this article. Billgren visited bladesmith Kay Embretsen who produced Damascus steel using traditional methods. They decided together to develop a method using the powder metallurgy steel to produce a Damascus steel product. This method relies on “hot isostatic pressing” of two or more steel powders to produce relatively large billets in different patterns. They submitted a patent application in Sweden in the beginning of 1994 [8]. This product was branded as Damasteel and is still sold today.

Hank Knickmeyer is another USA bladesmith that started using powder in the early 1990’s. Knickmeyer had heard about the use of powder from Steve Schwarzer and Daryl Meier. Knickmeyer credits Daryl Meier for teaching him many patterning techniques when he got started with Damascus steel. Knickmeyer was aware of the wire EDM work being done by Meier and Schwarzer but felt it was too expensive to be worth it. Knickmeyer had been experimenting with the use of different steel shapes and odd pieces in canister Damascus but needed a filler in between the pieces. He started with steel “sandblasting grit” to fill in the pieces. Hank says that he is most proud of the way that he used “distortion” of the bars of steel as he forged them to make unique and interesting patterns. Hank told me that he presented the use of this powder method at the 1994 ABANA conference in St. Louis. He suggested that I attempt to find a list of presenters from that conference to check his dates. The summary of the 1994 conference did not list Knickmeyer’s name though it was a summary of the highlights, not a full list of presenters. So if powder Damascus was presented there it apparently wasn’t a highlight (Ha!). I did find, however, that Knickmeyer presented at the 1995 conference of the Florida chapter of ABANA where he discussed mosaic Damascus.

Ed Schempp was experimenting with different powder metals around 1996 where he tried some unusual combinations like canister Damascus with solids and powder nickel. He also later attempted some stainless steel powder mixed with tungsten carbide. Sources for powder steel were rare at this time. The first iron-based powder he purchased was “reduced iron” which is produced for fortifying breakfast cereal and other foods. It was purchased in a 750 pound drum so it was split between Ed Schempp, Devin Thomas, and a few others. Because this was iron it had insufficient carbon for good hardness and contrast after etching in acid. So they were adding graphite to increase the carbon content of the iron. The graphite was lighter than the iron so it tended to float to the top. Schempp added WD-40 to the graphite so it would stick to the iron and better mix through. Schempp also made a competition chopping knife using 1084 and 3V powders along with 15N20 and roller chain. He successfully cut 7 pieces of free hanging rope with the knife.

Devin Thomas used long pieces of nickel sheet to form different shapes and then fill them with powder. This provided a cheaper method than the use of wire EDM blocks for producing images. Relatively intricate designs can be produced this way without expensive wire EDM.

A Knife produced by William Henry Knives (circa 2000) which was one of four pieces commissioned by Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top. The Damascus steel was produced by Devin Thomas using nickel sheet and steel powder which has the letters “ZZ TOP” forwards and backwards.

Devin made a piece of Damascus with a fish in it using his nickel sheet and powder method and showed it at Rick Dunkerley’s hammer-in in 1997. Dunkerley is one of the original members of the “Montana Mafia” which included Shane Taylor, Barry Gallagher, and Wade Colter. The four had been producing a range of different mosaic Damascus steel patterns and the use of powder offered new possibilities. At Dunkerley’s 1998 hammer-in he presented how to produce mosaic Damascus using nickel sheet and powder. Rick Dunkerley produced a knife for the 1999 Blade show using powder steel and nickel sheet for the Damascus. At that time Dunkerley only knew of one other person who had produced a knife using powder (Schwarzer). So despite the use of powder by Schwarzer and Knickmeyer in the early to mid-90’s, it hadn’t really begun to build in popularity until about 1998 or 1999.

Another powder Damascus knife produced by Dunkerley. The inset piece in the handle is fish Damascus produced by Devin Thomas described earlier in the article. Image provided by Eric Eggly of PointSeven Studios.

Before the mid-90’s, there were a variety of steels being used in Damascus such as W1, 1095, 5160, 52100, A203e, and others. There was no wide agreement about the appropriate steels to use, and forge welding could be difficult with all of those different steels with varying compatibility. Rick Dunkerley tells me that Devin Thomas began encouraging people to switch to 1084 and 15N20 because they were easier to forge weld and very compatible for forging and heat treating. 15N20 has a similar carbon content to 1084 but with a 2% nickel addition to provide contrast after etching. When stock for Damascus steel became regularly supplied by people like Jeff Carlisle of Swains Spring Service, 1084 and 15N20 became the standard choices.

After learning about powder Damascus from Rick Dunkerley, Jeff Carlisle acquired 1084 and 4600e powders to sell to any Damascus makers that wanted to use it. 4600e was similar to 15N20 so it was easy to use for Damascus steel makers that were using 1084 and 15N20 sheet of plate in their Damascus. Bob Kramer found the source for 4600e that Carlisle began purchasing for sale to Damascus steel makers. Because of the ubiquity of 1084 and 15N20, 1084 and 4600e were easy choices as alternatives to the prior sheet and bar stock. Somewhat later Kelly Cupples also became a popular supplier of powder and sheet for Damascus steel.

Many of those I interviewed expressed how much of a collaborative atmosphere there was at this time in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. There were many small discoveries related to Damascus steel patterning techniques and who offered each one is a bit difficult to track down now. There were several hammer-ins at the shops of different people like Ed Schempp, Rick Dunkerley, Shane Taylor, Jim Batson, and John Davis. There was a lot of sharing between Damascus steel makers at that time leading to rapid growth of different techniques. I obtained a copy of “Hammer Doodles” by Joe Olson (thanks John Davis) where Joe illustrated demonstrations from several different Damascus steel makers between 1997 and 1999, which you can see here: Hammer Doodles. His illustrations included humor and some good information on making steel, to boot.

Many other Damascus steel makers at this time began experimenting with powder and offering their own tweaks to the process, people such as John Davis, Gary House, and Robert Eggerling along with those mentioned so far. John Davis sent me a photo of a knife he made in 2000 where he made a lion using nickel sheet and it won “Best Damascus” at the 2000 Oregon Knife Collectors Association show. So it was pretty shortly after Dunkerley’s knife that others were making their own.

With teaching of powder techniques being more widespread and easy availability of powders to use, the number of Damascus makers using powder and nickel sheet grew rapidly. One of the most impressive users of nickel sheet and powder for “picture Damascus” is Cliff Parker, which you can see an example of below:

Matt Diskin saw a presentation of powder Damascus produced with powder and thin sheets and first tried using a similar method. However, Diskin had learned CAD in college and was familiar with laser cutting and waterjet methods. He used laser cutting to cut shapes out of sheet steel and then stacked them on top of each other and then filled that with powder. Matt tells me that he first produced steel using an elephant that he cut out. Because of the much lower cost of this method when compared with wire EDM other makers were interested like Steve Schwarzer and Shane Taylor. Diskin produced plates for several of those makers. Diskin’s favorite was Shane Taylor who did interesting and unique images like dragons which you can see below:

Powder isn’t only used for the creation of images. Perhaps its most common use is as filler material when making Damascus with bicycle chain or ball bearings. While images were an exciting new possible use for patterning in Damascus, powder offers other more subtle patterning techniques. The use of powder continues in a range of different Damascus pieces. Powder is applicable in any situation where it is difficult or impossible to fill steel in between other types of “solid” steel stock.

Damascus steel has greatly grown within the knifemaking community since the 1970’s when it first gained popularity. Patterning techniques have evolved to where a large range of possibilities are available, from simple random to complex mosaic patterns. The use of powder is a fun one to cover for my site since I like to discuss different material types and creative uses of steel for knives. There are many people who contributed to the level of mastery we see today among the greatest Damascus steel makers. Understanding the development of these processes and the methods that are used in making more complex pieces means that future Damascus steel producers will be able to take Damascus to further heights. And buyers will have a greater appreciation of the knives that they purchase and the work that the maker put into it.