[Sca-cooks] Damascus Question

[Elaine Koogler]

He might want to check out www.historicenterprises.com.  They sell 
knives for both eating and cooking, and they are quite nice. 

I know that $200 for a handmade knife is probably quite 
reasonable...especially when you compare them to Wusthoff, Dick and some 
of the others.  I think that the "acid" test would be to see if Master 
A. would trade in his 10" Dick!  ;-)

Kiri

Johnna Holloway wrote:

> On one of my other lists, this question was posed
> regarding the making and sale of Damascus knives within
> the SCA....
>
> Would anyone on SCA-Cooks care to comment and let Danr
> know what you think as regards price and market?
>
> You can reply directly to him at:
> irontree at visi.com
>
> Johnnae
> ---------------------
>
> Greetings,
>        I have a question for anyone.
>
> Background: I have been blacksmithing for many years now and I reached a
> milestone.  I learned forge welding sometime ago, but recently my 
> skill level
> with welding reached the point that I am now making Damascus Steel 
> billets.  It
> is these billets that are then ground into knives and other items.  
> For those
> of you that do not know, Damascus steel is layers of different kinds 
> of steel
> welded together and then repeatedly folded (or cut) and rewelded.  The 
> more
> folds you do, the more layers you make.  I have read that some 
> Japanese swords
> had as many 246 layers. (I have never heard of a sword that had 2000 
> layers
> except in the movie Highlander)
>
> The Question: I sell ironwork at events and though I like making 
> Damascus, I
> don't like the idea of making daggers. The idea of making Meat 
> Cleavers and
> Damascus Chef's Knives however, that is appealing. I know it is a fine 
> line,
> but that is my comfort level at the moment. I just finished a small 
> French
> Chef's Knife.  Would people be interested in buying these?  Should I 
> include
> these in my stock.  They would not be cheap.  A 10 inch knife would 
> take over 6
> hours and cost about $200-$300 dollars depending on how elaborate the 
> pattern
> and the number of layers.
>
>    I will likely make one for A&S no matter what happens but Damascus 
> is fun
> to do and I would like to do more, but I can't justify doing alot of 
> it unless
> I can sell it at my booth.  Merchanting iron work is my summer job and 
> I have
> to make moeny at it or get a "real" job.  (shiver)
>
> Comments welcome.
>
> Danr Katlasmiðr
> www.irontreeworks.com
>
>
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