Damascus

[Paul B]

What is this? I have seened or heard of Damascus barrels on old shotguns, is this what you guys are talking about?

[Woody]

Damascus is a term that is used to describe layered steel. In knifemaking bars are made up of usually at least 2 different alloys of steel then they are forge welded together and then drawn out and folded back on themselves. This process is repeated to produce the desired number of layers. The blade is then forged and when polished it is etched with acid which shows the pattern more clearly. Damascus shotgun barrels were made in a similar fashion except strips of steel were wound around a mandril and forged together. It also produced a nice pattern in the barrel however these guns were made to shoot black powder and did not stand up well to the pressures developed by the use of smokeless powder which resulted in multiple barrel failures and injuries to shooters.

You can check out the pictures in the knife forum and see examples of damascus blades.

[tribal forge]

Another name for this is Pattern-Welded metal(steel) I use Damascus because it is easier to write out and remember/Selden

[Sask Mark]

A lot of people refer to pattern welded steel as Damascus steel. Damascus steel was a form of steel that originated in Damascus, Syria. It was a superior steel for many applications at the time, and it showed patterns on the surface. Glenn recently posted an article where a researcher recently thought he cracked the secret with how damascus steel was originally created

The modern 'equivalent' is pattern welded steel. It shows patterns in the steel when it is etched. The patterns are accomplished when the smith forge welds different types of steel together into a billet and the billet is manipulated (twisted, folded, punched etc.).

Damascus gun barrels were formed by wrapping a band of steel and forge welding together.

Sorry if this doesn't answer your question. I'm by no means an expert and there are other members that can do a lot better job clarifying the matter.

edit: geez I'm a slow typer. In the time it took me to type this, 2 other members posted answers.

[Paul B]

Thanks for the replies. I do now have an understanding of both the pattern weld and the damascus barrel.

edit: typing error

[Steve Sells]

IF you wish to know more, have a step by step tutorial on my web site at

How we make our Blades

[ThomasPowers]

Damascus is a term used for two very different materials: Wootz a crucible steel process that did NOT originate in Damascus Syria; but rather in Central Asia and was traded to the middle east/west through Damascus Syria; (cf Dr Fuerbach's thesis "Crucible Steel in Central Asia")

And Pattern Welding, a process that grew up wherever the bloomery method of making wrought iron was used. (note a common "urban legend" is that Crusaders were exposed to the wootz blades of the middle east during the crusades and pattern welding was developed to try to copy them by folks who did not know how they were made. Sounds great except that Europe was making pattern welded blades 500+ years before the first crusade...cf "The Sword in Anglo Saxon England"; but be warned that Anstee's explicanion of pattern welding methods in the appendix has been supersceeded by more recent work

Almost all knifemaking usage of the term Damascus refers to pattern welding; with a rare few makers working with real wootz; Al Pendray is probably the best known one.