Damascus

When there's free time in the store, one of my favorite things to do has always been to drool over pretty knives in Blade magazine or Knives Illustrated. (Hint: guys, make wallpapers of the pretty pictures for your free download section! Please!)

The general term "Damascus" is modernly used to describe metal with a visible grain pattern, sometimes with a texture, sometimes not. This can be created in many ways, from folding the metal to creating a mosaic of different steel rods to form any desired pattern.

Historically, Damascus steel blades were Middle-Eastern in origin, with legendary strength and sharpness.

If you're interested in the metallurgy and the history end of things, here's a very informative article from JOM, the Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. (50.9 1998, pp. 58-64.)

I highly recommend going to look at an image search if you're curious. Sadly, copyright prevents me from posting pictures here. For really drool-worthy pictures, I recommend the two magazines above.

Looking on Youtube there are a lot of videos about how to make Damascus steel of different sorts. However, if you want a more professional sort of tutorial video, this2 DVD set by Mastersmith JD Smith looks like it would be pretty good. Does anyone have any recommendations?