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Damascus, Damasteel and Bulat

Damascus, Damasteel and Bulat. We understand the differences and nuances.

 

People looking for a damascus sword often see another steel called  Damasteel in their search filters  . What is the difference between this steel and ordinary Damascus? Short answer: The difference in the production process and, as a result, other properties. We will consider these points in more detail below.

 

Traditional Damascus steel.

In the traditional process of creating Damascus steel, a blacksmith welds and presses two or more types of steel into layers. During forging, steel is repeatedly bent until there are  100 or more layers in the workpiece  . The workpiece is heated, beaten, folded repeatedly. Clear patterns on the blade are created by twisting, folding and pulling the workpiece. 

Overall, this process allows for a very strong blade, but its durability is due to the steel alloys that are initially selected. Depending on the steel used, damask may or may not be stainless. In order for Damascus steel not to rust, all steel included in the package must contain  at least 14% chromium  . 

The pattern in Damascus steel is only revealed visually when the steel is cleaned, prepared and acid etched. The two types of steel can react differently to oxidation.

Damascus steel blade

 

Steel

Damasteel starts with the gas atomization steel production process. Molten steel is passed through a nozzle and sprayed. The resulting fine particles of steel powder have an ideal spherical shape with a high level of purity and a uniform distribution of carbides. 

This powder is then collected in a canister, which is sealed, compacted and bound using a process called  hot isostatic pressing (HIP)  . After the GIP process, the size of the steel material is reduced by approximately 30%. There are no welds in the steel, which makes it structurally extremely strong.

After that, the capsule is subjected to forging, and it is rolled in a special way to obtain different designs. This patterning phase is very similar on both steels.  Damasteel  is produced in a wide range and includes various complex patterns: rose, raindrops and many others.

Folding knife Benchmade Bugout steel Munin Damasteel
 

Advantages became Damasteel

The advantage of the gas atomization and GIP processing is that Damasteel contains fewer different inclusion impurities than traditional Damascus steel.

In the production of Damasteel,  RWL34  and  PMC27 steels are used  . RWL34 is a knife steel of Swedish production, named after the legendary knife of  Robert Bob Loveless  . It is most similar to CPM 154 and chemically similar to ATS 34.

When etched, RWL 34 appears as a lighter colored pattern in the overall pattern. The second steel in Damascus steel is PMC27 stainless, which is also made in Sweden. A darker pattern is obtained during etching. Both of these composite steels are produced by gas spraying and provide increased impact toughness and edge retention compared to conventional steels.

Visnovok

Overall, both traditional damask and  Damasteel  have the beauty and uniqueness that make this material famous. Damasteel, however, may be the best option if you're looking for a high-performance damascus, or if you're interested in rust-free properties. Damasteel has a slightly different pattern to traditional damask, and the resulting visual styles are a distinct feature.

 


 "Damascus" and "bulat" what are these tacos and how do they differ?
What is Damascus steel?
Damascus steel is called steel, which has a clear, clearly visible surface pattern, which is a consequence of its heterogeneous, layered internal structure. The drawing stands out in the form of light steel lines on a gray or black background. It becomes especially noticeable after etching the product with a weak acid. But sometimes it happens that the pattern appears after the polishing process.
Long ago, swords with such a pattern were attributed exceptional qualities: high sharpness, flexibility and strength. Sometimes (especially against the background of products of imperfect medieval technologies) it was so. We'll talk about why "sometimes" below.

 

In the photo: Knife "Enchanting Damascus" (damask).


Why is Damascus steel needed and why is it like that?
As you know, real iron is actually an alloy of iron itself with carbon.

  • If the carbon in the alloy is less than 0.3%, the metal will be soft, ductile and refractory. It was usually called "iron". The quality and properties of this alloy can be judged by evaluating the mechanical properties of an ordinary nail.
  • With a carbon content of more than 0.3%, but less than 1.7%, steel is obtained. Ordinary steel is very similar in its properties to iron. But it has one important difference: it can be hardened. That is, when heated and then sharply cooled, the steel acquires great rigidity. Unfortunately, along with this, it becomes fragile. In ancient times, when the technologies for obtaining steel and its hardening were still well developed, many products made of it (sometimes even swords and armor) differed little in quality from, for example, Soviet-made filings. This file is strong and tough, but try to drop it on the floor or hit it and it will most likely flake.
  • Well, if the carbon content in the metal rises above 1.7%, cast iron will be obtained. Cast iron melts easily, is good for casting, but is hard, brittle and not malleable. A cast-iron pipe that has fallen, even from a small height, is completely blown apart.

As a result, we see that iron gives plasticity to the alloy and increases its melting point. An increase in the carbon content in the metal gives rigidity, up to brittleness, and makes the material more malleable.

Blacksmiths and metallurgists have always sought to combine in their products these two contradictory qualities - plasticity and hardness, so that they complement, rather than contradict, each other. In addition, elasticity was considered an extremely important property, which none of the mentioned alloys originally had.

In the old days, tools made of pure iron were too soft, and tools made of overheated steel of that time were very fragile.

We do not know what genius thought of combining these two alloys in a kind of "sandwich" and thereby combining the properties of different materials in one product. But it was definitely a genius similar to the inventor of the wheel or the bonfire.

Thus, when making a blade, a layer of hard steel was placed between two layers of soft iron and forged. As a result, a product was obtained, which, thanks to such a "layered" structure, was stronger purely iron and plastic than the hard, but fragile due to unsuccessful tempering, steel of those years.

Tools and instruments from pure iron were too soft, and from pure steel too brittle. Therefore, to make, for example, a sword, it was necessary to make a sandwich from two iron plates, between which a steel plate was placed.

Such steel was called welded.

In the photo: Hunting knife "Sea drop". The blade is made of mosaic damask.


Damascus is a further development of this technology. Someone (probably in India) thought that if the product had more alternating layers, it would become even more flexible and strong.

The method of obtaining such steel was quite time-consuming - the iron billet was forged in length, folded in half, then forged again and folded again. This action was repeated sometimes dozens of times. Thirty or forty repetitions would not surprise anyone. Although hardly anyone would start sharing such subtleties of technology. For a long time, the masters kept it in the strictest secret.

In the future, other, slightly (somewhat) less time-consuming methods were invented. But the principle of action always remained approximately the same.

The result was a blank in which many of the thinnest high- and low-carbon layers created an amazing structure with new properties. It is the mixing of layers that gives birth to the beautiful pattern that distinguishes Damascus steel. It is the structure and special arrangement of the layers that determine the quality of the blade. Determine the combination of strength and flexibility in it.

By the way, for the outlined eye, the drawing began to say a lot. Thus, the famous medieval Arab connoisseur of weapons Al-Kindi wrote: "Looking at the patterned steel, you see it both from the outside and from the inside." And, perhaps, one of the best European connoisseurs of pumice and Damascus steel P.P. Anosov claimed that "... an experienced Asian will not make a mistake in choosing a blade and one in 

sight will determine whether the elm is strong or fragile, hard or soft, elastic or weak."

It is interesting that modern specialists often claim the opposite, saying that "the quality of steel has nothing to do with the pattern on it." Most likely, this interesting curiosity is connected with the fact that long-known methods of chemically and mechanically applying a damask pattern to the surface of any piece of steel, even an ordinary iron, which never lay near a blacksmith's mine. Of course, nowadays such fakes have become extremely common.

In addition, from the hammer of a "master" who does not know all the peculiarities of production, blanks with a pattern may well come out, like a real damask, but do not rise in terms of their characteristics above completely ordinary steel. And here, to figure it out, one must already be a real connoisseur, no worse than Anosov or Al-Kindi.

So, first of all, from all that has been said, we can conclude that Damascus steels can be of different quality, and it depends on the internal structure of the layers and, of course, the skill of the blacksmith.

And secondly, we note that along with the word "Damascus" the word "bulat" is also used. This is probably worth talking about separately.

In the photo: Hunting knife "Mosaic Damascus"


What is "bulat" and how does it differ from "damask"?


There was no single terminology in ancient times, but there were many different local traditions. In addition, the means of transmission were very imperfect. For this reason, words and concepts were constantly changing and distorting, creating an unimaginable variety of confusion and illogicality.

We, who are used to the unambiguity of the terms, should remember this when we deal with different concepts and ideas of our ancestors.

Road and high-quality steel were called differently in different countries and different times. "Damascus", "bulat", "vutz", "kharalug", "taban", "khorashan", "sham" - these names cannot be listed.

Thus, for a long time, steel of the highest quality in general on the territory of the Russian Empire was called "bulat" (bulat steel). And, apparently, they did not think at all that this word comes from the Iranian pulad, which meant   cast steel.

As V. N. Khoreev writes in the book "Weapons from Damascus and Bulat": "Bulat is a steel with an abnormally high (about 2% or more) carbon content, which has a complex of properties incompatible with ordinary metal, namely - the maximum possible hardness and density combined with the same high plasticity. Natural bulat is obtained by melting, when a small ready-made ingot comes out of the furnace, which initially carries a magical internal structure.

In the photo: Hunting knife "RYS 3" (damask).


The word "damask", perhaps (but not exactly) comes from another Arabic "damast", which means "wavy", "streaming". It is possible that this name comes from various associations with the East and the colorful pattern of the famous damask fabrics. As always, in such cases no one can say for sure.

The main thing that we see is that bulat and damask were obtained using completely different technologies. Since most regions of our planet did not know how to smelt iron for a long time, bulat was even rarer than welding steel.

For this reason, the use of the term "bulat" for "damask" is a clear result of confusion and, most likely, a consequence of the fact that very few people saw real bulat in the territory of the Russian Empire.

By the way, a drawing on a cast pumice stone can also be beautiful and pleasing to the eye. It is believed that it was deposited during the crystallization of the ingot. This happened because iron and carbon, as we have already written, have different melting temperatures. Later, during forging, this drawing could turn out in one way or another. But, by the way, some experts claim that it was the fine-grained, unpatterned type of cast duck (as the Hindus themselves called it) that were the best.

Unfortunately, in the place of the invention of bulat - in India, the secrets of its production were hidden so carefully that in the end they were completely lost. A. Vasylenko in his article "Bulatna steel" states that: "Even by the end of the 12th century, blades made of cast bulat of the highest quality... could not be made either in India, Syria, or Persia."

At the end of the 18th century, Indian metallurgists were ruined by the import of cheap iron from England, and all hopes of restoring the lost tradition to its homeland evaporated finally.

Since then, metallurgists of many countries have been looking for the secret of obtaining the "same bulat". From time to time there was a joyful announcement that the secret of the legendary "wutu" had been solved. But whether it is really the same alloy, no one will tell you.

However, even now, some manufacturers produce limited series of knives, the blades of which are declared as bulat. This happens rarely, such knives are very expensive. One such manufacturer is, for example, Herbertz Limited Edition.

 

In the photo: Knife "DEER" (damask).
 

Are knives now made of welded Damascus?

Yes, they do. It is forged damask, thanks to its beauty and surrounding legends, which is still very popular. In addition, the method of its production has long been no longer a secret.

Some knives made of real forged Damascus can be seen and bought in the Grand Way online store, and relatively inexpensively. For a very reasonable sum, you can become the owner of a knife for which in ancient times you would have given a small herd of horses or a considerable plot of land.

We have a separate category for Damascus knives.

What is damask?
Working with damask, it is possible to obtain many different patterns. There is almost no imagination between the master. Blacksmiths working with Damascus steel usually do not stop experimenting, looking for new patterns and methods of obtaining them.

Different types of damask are distinguished primarily by the features of the pattern. Yes, striped, mesh and wavy damasks are distinguished.

A knee pattern across the entire width of the blade was considered quite rare and therefore very valuable in the old days. In the East, the Taban ("shining") and Khorasan ("east") varieties were more distinguished. These were very high-quality damasks, with a surprisingly beautiful pattern: the dark background with a golden tint had clearly visible, clear light lines that formed a large knee-shaped or mesh pattern.

In general, a whole tree of options and forms diverges from the specified main types. Masters do not stop experiments and searches, so the variety of drawings only grows.

 

In the photo: The blade of the BEAR PAW knife (damask) is an excellent example of the so-called striped damask.

Does Damascus steel have any disadvantages?

Of course, everyone has flaws in this world. There are no exceptions.

The main disadvantage of damask at all times was the laboriousness of production and the high consumption of material. It is believed that the medieval masters lost up to 85% of their weight during dozens of repeated forgings until it finally turned into damask.

Due to such a significant expenditure of material, time and effort, products made of such steel have always been very expensive. In addition, the increase in price was influenced by the secrecy of the technology, the limited number of craftsmen capable of producing such swords.

The second disadvantage is the considerable susceptibility of damask to corrosion. The reason for this sad fact is the high carbon content and almost complete absence of alloying elements in these grades of steel.

Therefore, Damascus swords, like expensive horses, have always required special care.

After use, they should be well dried. Keep away from moisture. And if rust appears, immediately remove it with available means (kerosene, sandpaper, etc.)

In the photo: Folding knife "AVIATOR" (damask).


Is there anything better than damask and bulat nowadays?


Perhaps more obviously, the secret of the bulat was revealed to modern civilization by the same Anosov in 1830. Many minds in Europe fought over this problem, but only Anosov had Tagil magnetite at hand for experiments.

However, soon after this discovery, more advanced, technological and cheap methods of obtaining steels combining strength and elastic properties were developed. These types of steel may and may not have always been better than cast bulat in all respects, but they definitely made a more convenient alternative to it in production.

Progress does not stand still. The technologies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as well as the deep knowledge of modern scientists in physics and chemistry, have given us steels and alloys that are simply incredible and unimaginable for ancient blacksmiths. Moreover, they made products from these steels available not only to kings and shahs, but to almost all of humanity.

For example, in the Grand Way store, you can find many models of knives, the quality of which will not be inferior to many swords from ancient legends and tales.

Yes, the blade of the CH 3510 folding knife from CH Knives is made of 154CM - a fine American high carbon steel. This brand of steel was originally developed for turbines. But the combination of its characteristics turned out to be so attractive to fakers that this steel is now firmly established in the knife industry. The 154CM is used by knife brands and individual craftsmen around the world.

In the photo: The blade of the folding knife of master Oleg Lesyuchevskyi.

The fact is that the structure and chemical composition of this grade of steel allows it to be hardened to high hardness values ​​(usually around 60HRC) without loss of viscosity. At the same time, the steel does not become brittle. So, such a blade can be made very sharp, but it will still perfectly resist both painting and mechanical stress.

Of course, 154CM, like all high-carbon steels, can rust when exposed to water or aggressive environments for a long time. But with proper care, one hundred and fifty-fourth shows itself from the best side.

The 154CM steel blade allows the CH3510 knife to rightfully occupy a place in the list of really top, premium models sold in the   knife.net.ua online store.   It should be noted that the quality level of assembly of this knife is also adequate for its high status.

In the photo: GOLDEN AUTUMN, an exclusive collector's knife handmade by the KUSTOM KNIVES studio, buy and order in Ukraine (Steel - Damasteel® mosaic blade 58-60 HRC) - an attribute of the highest class product!

The S3 puukko flipper from Real Steel is no less interesting in this regard. His sword is made from Böhler M390 premium martensitic chrome powder steel. This steel has a high strength-to-toughness ratio, keeps the cutting edge sharp and withstands mechanical loads. And most importantly, at the same time, it perfectly resists corrosion!

Böhler M390 is the highest grade steel. Knives from it are produced in a limited edition (according to Real Steel knives USA, the S3 puukko flipper series - 600 pieces). Therefore, a personal serial number is printed on both sides of each copy, which is also written in the passport attached to the knife.

Does damask retain its meaning in our time?


Yes and no. Moreover, the romantic "yes" here clearly prevails over the dry practical "no".
Of course, obtaining forged damascus is no longer the only available way to obtain quality blade steel.
But what has gone nowhere is the aesthetic and cultural significance of this steel. A damask sword knife is still a very good thing. A welcome addition to the collection and a prestigious, valuable gift.
The legends surrounding Damascus steel swords only give them exclusivity and significance in the eyes of people. After all, when you buy such a knife, you are not just buying a high-quality cutting tool, you are buying a part of a legend, a small piece of the glorious history of mankind, a reminder of the times of brilliant blacksmiths, great kings and glorious heroes.
Such values ​​are eternal and probably cannot be counted in money.
CPM-S90V steel knife

CPM-S90V steel knife

 

Thus, the exclusive handmade knives of knife.net.ua are characterized by high strength and can withstand quite heavy loads and at the same time perfectly retain their sharpness. They have excellent anti-corrosion properties and do not react with most alkalis and acids, that is, these knives do not require special care, which makes them a huge plus when used in nature, hunting, fishing and/or in extreme conditions *. Perhaps the only disadvantage of knives made of M398 steel is their cost, which is quite high and you need to be prepared for it.

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