When the word “Damascus” is pronounced, images of the distant past come before our eyes when brave warriors enter Damascus’s armed battle with steel blades. The iron of Damascus has been known since ancient times for its superior strength and reliability. The first Damascus blades were made in Persia and ancient India. The Damascus steel produced in this area was called “Tabane” or “Fernand”.
In most cases, Damascus, born in Central Asia, is remembered when it comes to Damascus’ historic steel. And Asia is the cradle of Damascus steel. However, historical sources say that ancient Russia also knew the technology of making and cooking Damascus (ballet) and making swords and spears from them. Some confusion may be because in ancient Russia Damascus was called “red” or “blue” iron.
History of Damascus
The term Damascus appears only in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (in terms of metallurgy). Here we must focus on one important point. We can say that there are two types of Damascus. Damascus is part of the history of the ancient world, which gradually became a beautiful legend. In a beautiful and charming legend, the story is similar to how Prince Oleg nailed his shield to the Czar’s door.
The gist of the myth is this: People say that there was once a magical metal that made swords with extraordinary strength and flexibility. The secret of making such swords was kept in the strongest confidence and later lost.
Another Damascus iron is just a technique for making carbon alloys. Damascus occupies a middle ground between Egypt Steel and Cast Iron. The main differences between cast Damascus alloys are the high carbon content (as opposed to steel) and the ability to make forged products by hand (as opposed to cast iron). The secret of making such alloys was not lost anywhere and no one hid it, on the contrary, at a certain historical moment it served as a good reason for the development of industrial-scale metallurgy.
Discover the secret of Damascus.
Damascus’s historic blades are still alive today, and the biggest problem with trying to shape such blades was that no one could replicate them on Damascus knives. Damask Experiments with different combinations of steel by varying the proportions of the silly components of the steel. And only Russian engineer Anusov was able to rebuild the historic Damascene Steel. The answer, as always, was a place no one was looking for. After long experiments, they came to a simple conclusion. Cast steel differs from conventional steel in its physical composition, not in its chemical composition.
One processing method will produce the same components of alloy steel, and the other processing method will produce cast Damascus. Simply put, we can say that Damascus, first of all, is a manufacturing technology, not a chemical structure. Thus, we concluded that by mixing iron with carbon and passing this mixture through a special technology, we get molten steel. An important point in Damask steel production technology is the moment of crystallization. This is what creates a solid dendritic network in the structure of the compound. The same chaotic Damascus pattern on the blade.
Many artisans make handmade knives from Damascus cast iron, but each has its alloy production technology. Some have steel and some have thrown Damascus.
Read More: WHERE TO BUY A DAMASCUS FOLDING KNIFE
