The Unsuspected Origins of Damascus Steel
Did you ever wonder, where Damascus steel is coming from? Damascus is well-known for its watery pattern. It may have appeared for the first time in Syria from 900 AD and one of its potential origins is that it is named after Damascus, the capital city of Syria.
There are two other possible sources for this term:
- The word "damas" is the base word for "watered" in Arabic and Damascus blades are easily recognizable by their watery or wavy pattern on their surface and are frequently called "watered steel" in various languages.
- It may also refer to swords made and forged in Damascus
Originally Damascus steel was cast from wootz, a type of steel made in India. It was the first high quality steel produced in the world. Weapons made from wootz became famous in the 3rd and 4th century. Unfortunately, the methods of making wootz were lost in the 1700s, so the source material for Damascus steel was lost.
Nowadays, there are various techniques for making Damascus steel including pattern-welded Damascus. Apart from making any knife’s design unique, Damascus steel knives are known for their remarkable sharpness and durability.
Damascus steel is not a single type of steel but a combination of several materials which we call the pattern-welded practice. It is made by layering iron and steel and forging them together by hammering them at high temperature to form a welded bond. Forge welding many layers produces the watery pattern. Our Damascus knives are folded 5 times starting from 9 layers of 1080 and 15N20 giving approximately 300 layers to our pattern, making our hunting knives real piece of art.
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