San-Mai / Damascus Billets

Description

HOW TO PREPARE AND HARDEN DARKWING BLADES SAN MAI (3CR12 S/S AND 52100 HIGH CARBON STEEL)

NB – The steel should never be hardened at its full thickness. This will result in the billet splitting in two.

 ANNEALING PROCESS

The steel, when received, is in an annealed state, and ready for stock removal and drilling. If you choose to forge the billet, the handle will need to be annealed thereafter to be drilled. To do this, the steel temperature should be raised to just below critical temperature and then placed in an insulating medium to cool slowly i.e. perlite, vermiculite, wood ash, agricultural lime, or a combination of these.

Before hardening:

To prepare for hardening, the blade should be rough ground to at least halfway to three-quarters the width (height) of the blade and the core must be exposed on the edge.

Normalising:

Heat the steel to non-magnetic and allow to cool to a black heat (this can be repeated three times for best results).

Hardening:

Heat the steel to non-magnetic and edge quench.

The blade should be submerged in the oil no more than halfway to three-quarters the height of the blade, allowing the spine to cool down slowly outside the oil.

Once 90 percent of the red colour has disappeared from the spine the knife can be fully submerged. Once out of the oil and still warm the steel is in an elastic state for a minute or two and can be straightened by hand and must then be placed directly into the tempering oven.

NB – It is imperative that you have your tempering oven ready at temperature before you start your heat treatment. The blade should not be left lying around in its hardened state for any amount of time. This will also reduce the chances of any splitting.

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Damascus steel is a type of steel easily recognisable by its wavy patterned design. Aside from its sleek look and beautiful aesthetics, Damascus steel is highly valued as it is hard and flexible while maintaining a sharp edge. Damascus also tends to stay sharper for longer, which is a definite advantage for slicing and dicing. Remember, too, that there are different kinds of Damascus. Carbon Damascus is softer to work with but once hardened, it’s harder than stainless.

All forms of high carbon DAMASCUS / San-Mai Billets are also prone to rust. (Rust is just red iron oxide.) Do not let this alarm you though; it is still very simple to care for your Damascus steel. Because the main enemy is moisture plus time, the main rule is: don’t leave your blade wet for too long. We recommend the use of Fluid Film to prevent rusting. https://www.sdknives.co.za/product/fluid-film-rust-corrosion-protection/