| Author |
Message |
|
Karl Knisley
|
 Posted: Sat 14 Apr, 2012 3:13 pm Post subject: Damascus blades on ebay? |
 |
|
Hello
There are alot of damascus short swords and bare blades on ebay. Does anyone have any experience with the stuff
on there?
|
|
  |
 |
Glen A Cleeton
|
| Posted: Sat 14 Apr, 2012 3:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Example?
Are you seeing wootz/crucible or modern manipulated and folded pattern welding? The latter is quite common and available from India at low cost.
Cheers
GC
|
|
|
|
|
|
Karl Knisley
|
| Posted: Sat 14 Apr, 2012 3:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hello
I think it`s the modern stuff. Is the wootz steel,better,or just harder to make?
|
|
|
|
|
Glen A Cleeton
|
| Posted: Sat 14 Apr, 2012 4:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
That kind of leads to the everlasting "best" threads.
In a simple sense, making wootz steel traditionally is more difficult than modern pattern welding of available steels. Pattern welded billets from India are very cheap, making a lot of available finished knives very cheap comparatively. Is wootz a better steel? Not necessarily. Are modern billets ground to knife form acceptable? Some will find such so. Other nutz like me will buy pattern welded knives and swords from folk like Kevin Cashen, Vince Evans and a host of others. Is that value better than modern billets from India? It all depends. Do smiths make wootz now, in a sense, yes some do. Are they better than..... what? I dunno 
You still have not posted an example. A picture would do. Cheap knives generally mean ground from ready made billets..
Cheers
GC
|
|
|
|
|
|
Karl Knisley
|
| Posted: Sat 14 Apr, 2012 5:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
Heres what i`am looking at.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Timo Nieminen
|
| Posted: Sat 14 Apr, 2012 5:33 pm Post subject: Re: Damascus blades on ebay? |
|
|
| Karl Knisley wrote: | Hello
There are alot of damascus short swords and bare blades on ebay. Does anyone have any experience with the stuff
on there? |
A lot of them have poor geometry - just a flat slab with a hollow ground edge and a badly done secondary bevel (or left unsharpened). A lot of them have welded on rat-tail tangs. Some of them are very soft.
I'm slowly turning a large blade (about 10") into a seax. It's very, very hard steel, so it's file-resistant; every now and then, I grind/sand it a bit more. It was cheap, and I'm happy with it. I also have a cheap Medieval-style utility knife blade, but haven't done anything with it yet, other than slightly modify the tang. I don't think this one is super-hard.
"In addition to being efficient, all pole arms were quite nice to look at." - Cherney Berg, A hideous history of weapons, Collier 1963.
|
|
 |
|
Glen A Cleeton
|
| Posted: Sat 14 Apr, 2012 6:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Pakistani,. it is more a matter of personal appeal.
Cheers
GC
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is a standard topic