Damask Steel – Unalloyed Carbide Class Steel

Once, the question was posed: “What is damask steel – special steel or technology?” and I could not answer. Everything is simple and simultaneously complicated. People have used damask steel for a thousand years. Legends are made up about it. Today secrets of the microworld are being opened up, but damask steel microstructure, determining its properties, has remained in the shade of its reputation. However, only composition and structure govern steel properties. Any steel is prepared by specific technology. There is technology for preparing die steels (X12), and there is technology for preparing high-speed steels (R18), and consequently there should also be technology for preparing damask steel. As a result of searching for technology for preparing damask steel it has become known that for the very best damask steels the amount of carbon within their composition approaches that of cast iron. With high-temperature treatment of these alloys there is a risk of forming free graphite, as a result of which there is inevitable loss of toughness. A condition for forming graphite is the presence of crystallization centers (silicon compounds). Composition purity is a starting factor for revealing the main structural components governing damask steel properties. So, in order to understand today why blade sharpness is combined with high elasticity it is necessary to reveal the true structure of damask steel and to establish the underlying features of its individual properties. Experimental study of the structure makes it possible to determine what all of them are in the field of unalloyed carbide class steels.