[Sca-cooks] Damascus Question

[Susan Fox-Davis]

oooOOOOooooh, I'd fork up $200 for a custom cleaver.
But I'm a known snobby snob who has been known to use
Tullimore Dew and Jamaican Blue Mountain for Irish Coffee
and considers chocolate fondue to be camp food.
[Witnesses on request]

Selene Colfox, happy owner of two Oso cooking knives and a Njall 
Damascus Spoon
selene at earthlink.net


On Feb 18, 2004, at 3:40 PM, Huette von Ahrens wrote:

> Caid has several Laurels who are blade smiths and
> who do Damascus knives, daggars and swords.  You
> may contact them at these addresses:
>
> This is the legendary bladesmith, Master Atar
> Bakhtar (mka Jim Hrisoulas) who wrote all those
> wonderful books on how to make blades:
>
> Jim at Atar.com
> http://www.atar.com
>
> Master Antonio el Oso (mka Tony Lemon) who was/is
> Atar's finest student and now a Laurel in his own
> right for blade smithing:
>
> oso at osoforge.com
> www.osoforge.com
>
> Both of these blade artists can help you and give
> you the advice you need.
>
> Tell them Huette sent you.
>
> Huette
>
>
> --- Johnna Holloway
> <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu> 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
>>