ok,been out playing,was using A6 and 203E in my stuff,ran out of A6,and was wondering if A2 would work as well,don't want to waste what I have so,if anyone tried this please let me know. TY

I don't mean to be rude, but why that combination? The first is air hardening, meaning an increased possibility for red shortness, cracks, etc., and the second is low carbon, meaning a decrease in performance. As long as you are out of A6, why not go to a combination of two high carbon steels with similar heat treats? (1084 and 15n20 or O1 and L6 are the two most popular at the moment, I believe.)

John

I use them because of the contrast,the a6 gets black,the 203e has alot of nickel in it,so its really silvery,the two gives me the color I want.I heat treat the steel in a paragon kiln,with wrap,so the decarb and scale is low.

I believe Wrathlord is using steels for what they best do in Damascus, one to be very hard and maybe brittle, the other to be fairly soft and tough to support and protect the first. The same reasoning applies to the 1084 and 15n20 combination, though 15n20 is used mostly for contrast. A6 is pretty tough stuff by itself though.

yea thats the theory,1 hard,1 soft. Actually this combo was a Tai Goo method I read about like 10 years ago,Knives Illiustrated had a story on his damascus,and how he went about doing it.I just changed a few things,like the scrounging the desert for meteors part,here in Long Island thats not possible.So I use Iron ferrite I get from a chemistry supplier for the local school,that adds some carbon,I don't know if as much as a meteor,but it works.The mystique of the meteor in the damascus was what drew me to the article in the first place.Anyway I did use the A2,the results are basically the same.