What Type Of Steel To Go With L-6 To Make Damascus

[millironknives]

I just got home from forging my first 1084 and 15n20 billet. My friend, mentor and I started with 21 layers and then folded it three times and then twisted to get around 168 layers for a twist pattern. It was a lot of fun as we do not get to get together much with our work schedules. I was wondering what would make a good steel to go along with L-6. I have some 3/32 bandsaw steel and some 1/8 inch buzz saw steel and I was wondering if maybe I should go with 15n20 or something else. Any thoughts would be great.:confused:

[Ed Caffrey]

Go with some type of carbon steel such as the 1084. If you put 15n20 and L-6 together, the etch will be very faint. These two steels are close enough in element content that they don't produce much contrast. I, as well as many others have had good success with O-1 and L-6 too.

[sjaqua]

I agree a carbon steel like 1084 will give you a good contrast. I just hope your salvaged saw blades are in fact L-6. A lot of Saw blades are made from M-2 and I found that to be a pain to work. I am steering away from salvaged steel because of problems like that. Pattern welding is too much effort to waste, because the steel isn't what you thought it was.

[m williams]

Something to be considered when welding up billets besides contrast is the TTT characteristics. A very deep hardening steel steel with a very short time such as 1095 sometimes causes problems when mixed with L6 because the transformation rates are so far apart. I have seen some 01/L6 damascus that looked very good and cut very good. 1084 and 15n20 are both fairly shallow hardening steels with time lines that run pretty close, which when welded together makes a good blade also. I think that most L6 shows about a 6 second transformation rate; which is far slower than 1084. The chrome content of L6 puts it into a little different ball game than 15n20, which my spec sheet shows 0 chrome. If I were welding up bonafide L6 I would go with 01. Great contrast, cuts great. The tempering range of each steel in the mix must also be considered. But this is only a pennies worth. Mike

[KandS_KNIVES]

I beleive Kevin Cashen uses L-6 and O-1 for his swords and rope cutting contest knives.
Ken (wwjd)

[Danbo]

You are correct. Kevin Cashen ONLY uses O1/L6 for his damascus. He has stated many times that the heat treating specs being so close is one main reason for this mix. The fact that either steel will make a great blade by themselves is another selling point.

As a side note about Kevin Cashen's damascus; I sent a small piece to Nick Wheeler for him to make a hunter out of. Nick told me that when he quenched the blade and checked it with a file for hardness, it took teeth off his file. I would say that blade got plenty hard.