Revealing Damascus Pattern?

M

MSingh_2003

Joined
May 3, 2006
Messages
4
Hello

Apologies if I have not posted this in the correct section. Recently I purchased a 19th century Indo Persian damascus dagger. However there is no apparent pattern on the blade I was told I would have to reveal this myself.

How exactly should I go around this? I am wary of soaking an antique dagger in lemon juice/acid etc

Thanks
 
Try lemon juice or vinegar first, and if that doesn't work try ferric chloride (PCB etching solution). Dilute the FC 4:1 to start.
 
Thanks for the reply

Could I just rub the juice on or will this require the entire blade to be soaked for a period of time?

Thanks
 
Cut a lemon in half and just rub it on the blade. Rub until u see the blade blackening a bit and revealing the patterns. Good luck.
 
Welcome to Bladeforums!

ThreadMoving.jpg
 
I have had good luck getting a patina and revealing temper lines by soaking in Coca Cola.

This is not a joke.
 
I gave the blade a good rub for about 5-10mins with half a lemon and no result; the blade looks no different. I will have trouble soaking it in anything as there is a small amount of gold koftgari on one side of the blade which I wouldn't want to damage.

Am I being impatient or is it possible it is not really pattern welded at all?
 
One problem that I faced is that the liquid acid (lemon juice or Coke or white vinegar) will not stay evenly spread on the blade when you wipe it on and you will just get spots of patina.

What I did was to lay a piece of tissue paper on the blade and then saturating the tissue with the liquid.

To reveal the temper line, what I did was to soak the blade until it turned black, then lightly sand with fine grit wet/dry paper (I used 1000 grit). After sanding ther blade will still be a bit darker than it originally was and a bit of detail will be shown. Then repeat the process 20 times or so. I left each soak for about 30 minutes.

I think that the process is the same for etching damascus but hopefully one of the experts will chime in. Suggest you wait a bit before you try.

For parts that you do not want to be etched, paint it over with nail polish. I used red polish so that I can see it to make sure that I have removed it all when done.
 
At this point I would give up and not try anything else, it could very well be a non damascus blade. Not all forged blades are laminated.

The Japanese method of revealing hamon lines and patterns is to gently polish with finger stones in water until the blade is almost mirror finished. They do not use and etchant. If you still believe that the blade has a pattern on it you could polish with very very fine wet sandpaper (2000 grit ) by hand not with power tools until at least the hamon is revealed.
 
Might be the blade was waxed? Try cleaning all oils and waxes off with a solvent such as alcohol, then try etching again.
 
Hi
what kind of damascus? if it is " wootz " steel then lemon and vinnegar don't work well or maybe not at all.... but if it is a patternwelded steel, the lemon and vinnegar treatment should give some results..

Greg
 
I think I was initially a little too gentle and cautious and having continued some more, some pattern has started to show (very slightly) but nothing like the type that I see on regular damascus blades. As a previous poster has mentioned the small amount that has been revealed is being done so quite un evenly only in some areas (almost none is showing on one side of the blade).

I attempted to wrap it in some soaking lemon juice tissue but this just made a superficial layer of oxidation/rust form so I am going to continue rubbing with lemon.
 
if you can get your hands on some ferric chloride... mix it with some water and this will etch patternwelded steels..

if not.... then try a container of hot vinnegar... this should speed up the etch
 
If this is an ancient blade (or a modern replica) there will be little or no pattern.Damascus steel in the old sense was just folded steel (like Japanese tamahagane).It has no pattern beyond some random lines.Modern "pattern welded steel" is a different animal.It has the pattern formed into the steel when the metal is manipulated in forging.If it is truly an ancient blade,it is valuable and should be left alone.There are MANY sellers on the Internet and ebay selling 200-300 year old blades with traces of gold koftgari that are being pounded out while I write this.They all have wonderful stories,but they are merely wall hangers (and not damascus at all).Same guys sell a lot of "ancient" kris knives ( ever wonder why every one is identicaly coroded?).
 
Dear viewers!!
i m a koftgari artist from india and we are the only artist who do fine quality in gold and silver koftgari and in damuscus production also.We also do customise work on customers demand.If anyone have any work related to koftgari let me know.

i also do koftgari art on damascus knives

If you want i can also show my koftgari art at ur place to those who are interested in learning this art


I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
sandeep
 
Dear viewers!!
i m a koftgari artist from india and we are the only artist who do fine quality in gold and silver koftgari and in damuscus production also.We also do customise work on customers demand.If anyone have any work related to koftgari let me know.

i also do koftgari art on damascus knives

If you want i can also show my koftgari art at ur place to those who are interested in learning this art


I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
sandeep
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top