This is mine. I am wanting to build a damascus blade but my skill is not there yet. This is my best attempt to date.

 

I built this for a friend of mine. It is made out of 01 tool steel. 

 

It turned out pretty good but I still need to work on my heat treating. The blade holds an edge very well but it is a little to hard. My buddy put a couple nicks in the blade that I had to hone back out with the water stones.

 

I'm still very proud of it but I have a lot to learn.

I'm real proud of this one. It's my first in damascus. I swear, Popeye must have also been a blacksmith. Forearms are feeling like jello. Anyways, its 1095, and 15n20 to the tune of 33 layers. Before anyone asks, I did heat treat it. Held it at 1600 for 10 minutes, and then quenched in some warm canola. After that, I put it in the oven at 450 degrees for two hours. I'm still getting my legs under me with the grinder, so the lines are not perfect by any means. It is however, harder than hens teeth, and sharp as all get-out. 

The wood is cocobolo, and as you can see, the pins are large copper, and 3/8" stainless tubing.

I'm like the kid from the cartoon "Dexter's Lab". My latest is always my favorite. Lol. This one however was a challenge. 7" 80 layer waterfall pattern, stabilized mammoth tooth scales and wrought iron guard/pommel. Working that mammoth was nerve racking.  Since I don't have any power equipment this was done with hammers ranging from 2-16lbs.  Jed, that 16lber will wear you out.  :blink:

I'm like the kid from the cartoon "Dexter's Lab". My latest is always my favorite. Lol. This one however was a challenge. 7" 80 layer waterfall pattern, stabilized mammoth tooth scales and wrought iron guard/pommel. Working that mammoth was nerve racking.  Since I don't have any power equipment this was done with hammers ranging from 2-16lbs.  Jed, that 16lber will wear you out.  :blink:

 Very nice. 

 

I love the look of damascus blades. 

 

Beautiful work.

Thats a good one JMC. I really like the presentation too. Far better than my shabby iphone pic with a dingy mig glove. My big hammer is a rounded 8#'r, and I had my daughter pull iron out of the fire while I played striker. Lots of work these blades are for sure.

Nice contrast Jed, I don't really have a favorite particular pattern, it's good contrast that trips my trigger.

 

For you guys using ivory for scales, do NOT breath the dust! Most of the native ivory carvers I knew in the 80's and earlier are dead of a very TB-like lung disease from breathing ivory dust. A few rarely carved ivory but it got them anyway. The old days soap stone carvers gave themselves mesothelioma from breathing the dust. Then again masking up was a lot more rare then than now.

 

Just be really careful of ivory. Bone and horn don't seem to be too bad but is it worth the chance?

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for your kind words Jed. With knives, pictures can make a good knife look meh or make it pop. Take a lot of photo's, change the angle. That pic was taken in a group of four from the same angle, it just turned out different. Frosty, thanks for the reminder on the ivory. Very good work guys.

Still newbing around but this one stands out as a proud minute because it was the first success I had sticking stainless to 1095. The first attempt never took so  tried enclosing the whole sandwich in a thin wall tube with the ends welded shut and got it to stick in that O2 free environment.  It was exciting to pry it out of the wrapper and see that it welded. Small victories.

Osage orange w/nickel spacers