DruSmithing

I'm barely getting into the subject, long before any blade will get forged successfully, so I'm asking out of curiosity to understand some major problems I am new to. I'm talking mostly about the way they used to make laminated blades and the problems of folding two different steels for combined properties rather than beauty, including calculating for certain degree of carbon loss in the process. The last part is what I'm not at all clear about.

Thank you Steve, and thanks for the replies, I guess I'm just gathering info, trying to understand the process as I find it fascinating. At this point I'm not sure I'm getting it right, so here's a quote from Kapp on Japanese swordsmithing. "[...] Each successive fold causes a loss of 0.03% as large carbon crystals continue to be broken up. Suppose the starting tamahagane has a carbon content of 1.4%. By the time of the first fold, this has already been reduced to 1.1%. Thirteen more folds causes a loss of 0.03% x 13 = 0.39%. This leaves the final steel with a carbon content of about 0.7%." How come a .3% loss upon the first fold? Very interesting about starting with a stack of thin layers to drastically minimize the number of folds. Would it work to combine two different steels, say, 1095 with a 2%Si spring steel?

Hi guys, I know there's carbon loss during folding, especially multiple times, as in Japanese bladesmithing, but is there enough loss for it to be a concern? Kapp in "The Craft of the Japanese Sword" throws a number of .03% carbon loss per fold, so after 10 folds, a 1%C stock would retain .7% but the question is how does it relate to carbon loss in modern stock steel like 1095? I'm not taking other factors into account, like forge environment or oxygen exposure, only multiple folding, say, 1024 layers after 10 foldings. In other words, if I forge a blade from 1095 and fold it 10 times, am I going to end up with ~.6%C?