We have been working with Charles Sauer of Custom Sauer Knives, to explore the use of damascus in some of our actions. Here is the first sample, a damascus floor plate.



If you want to contact Charles about his damascus, www.sauerknives.com or 406-387-4272.

That floorplate is indeed interesting. My immediate thought is that it would look nice on a laminated stock. But then I remembered I don't like the looks of a laminated stock either.

Sometimes the real good ideas take a while to be realized.

karl,
stunning!!

make me an ejector box?

www.damasteel.com makes stainless steel damascus ans according to their website damascus barrels also !This is not the traditional damascus but is made with powder metal.

Thats pretty cool! I've seen a few rifles by Bruce Russel where he made the scope bases and quarter rib out of damascus. When rust blued damascus can look quite stunning.

Caspian did some 1911 slides a while back

quote:

Originally posted by WaffenfabrikHein:
We have been working with Charles Sauer of Custom Sauer Knives, to explore the use of damascus in some of our actions. Here is the first sample, a damascus floor plate.



If you want to contact Charles about his damascus, www.sauerknives.com or 406-387-4272.

Karl,

Beautiful work and the possibilites are endless

I think that looks pretty neat Karl.

Mete,

Per Billgren of Damasteel is someone with whom I have had more than a little correspondence. He suppies steel for barrels to Flodman for their shotguns and Gobec in Austria buy his steel to make rifle barrels.

Now, if Hein would make a rifle with a Damascus action and put a Damascus barrel on it! That would be the most spectacular rifle made!

I am trying hard to resist buying a barrel billet as well. The price 6 months ago was 800 Euros for a small billet that would make a standard contour rifle barrel and 1100 Euros for something large enought to do a quarter rib, barrel band and integral banded front sight.

I noticed someone sold a finished Damasteel barrel here for a little less than $800 a while back. That was a real bargain that came along just when I had no way in hell to do the deal. Too bad.

What is damascus steel?

quote:

Originally posted by Tex21:
What is damascus steel?

Basically, it's laminated steel.

Damascus steel is two or more types of steel that are forged together. One that may be more suceptible to oxidation or hardening than the other.

You take a block of one type, put in together with a block of another type, heat 'em up, hammer and flatten them together, heat 'em up again, fold them in half, heat them up again, pound them flat...

Repeat several times and you get a laminated steel that can take on the properties of both types.

After finishing you treat the part with something that will affect one type of steel more than the other - an acid wash or hardening and tempering. The layers of one type of steel changes color more than the other, giving the interesting pattern.

The pattern can be controlled by the forging and folding process. It really is an art.

Like laminated steel, or steel salt water taffy.

This was the approach taken in the early days of the Middle East and is associated with very sharp blades and durable edges. You could use one type of steel that was tough and easy to sharpen, and another that was harder and held an edge better. The combination was better than the seperate parts.

It may be a matter of taste, but I think it adds another dimension, and arguable enhanced function in the case of blades, and just looks really cool.

Would there be any problems drilling the Bore for a rifle - in a straight line?

Or would you all visualize a Liner being inserted into the barrel? After drilling and a whole lot of reaming?

Looks like it would "Foul" similar to running a bullet across a File without a Liner. What am I missing?
---

It does make perhaps the finest Knife blades I've ever used.

Damasteel is a modern process that uses two similar alloys in powdered form that are layed into what amounts to a press in different patterns for different effects. The mix is then heated and pressed to over 1000 bar to make a billet. The steels can be CM or stainless but aren't mixed between the two.

The result is something that looks similar to true damascus but the two alloys are so close in composition that they machine and heat treat virtually the same. The patterns are integral to the billet; it does not need to be folded afterward. Plus, they are fused in a manner that gives them the strength of a homgeneous alloy. Only when they are acid washed does the minor difference show, causing the pattern. I think they use 4130 and 4140 for the CM Damasteel.

tiggertate, interesting information on the "modern" damascus. I was thinking that a set of rings would look great with Karl's floor plate. Thanks

Original damascus was an art in fact some barrels had the maker's logo in the pattern !! However there were good quality and bad quality damascus barrels and even faux damascus where the pattern was just etched into the steel .

quote:

Originally posted by Customstox:
tiggertate, interesting information on the "modern" damascus. I was thinking that a set of rings would look great with Karl's floor plate. Thanks

Chic- a grip cap in damascuss would also look great....

Cheers
/JOHAN

If you want to learn more about true Damascus steel do a google search for "wootz steel". It is a very interesting material from the Middle East. The manufacturing process was lost for many centuries but has been rediscovered in the recent past.
Try this URL: http://www.brisa.fi/wootz3.html

Jay