[Jonathan Stanley]

I love Damascus steel (particularly birds-eye)but since I am only thirteen I can not seem to find any that is affordable enough.
My question is, do you know of any Damascus steel providers that have any Damascus steel that could possibly fit my budget ?

Any help would be great.

P.s. I have thought about making my own but the machinery for that is much to expensive.

[Dwane Oliver]

Call Lacy Wise at Alabama Damascus, at $2.50 a sq/in you cant beat it. The patterns are bigger , but the price is right.

[Jonathan Stanley]

Thanks, I will have to try that.

[Kyle Royer]

Hey Jonathan,

I'm really impressed with your knifemaking and enthusiasm in knives and forging! I see here you're looking for some damascus steel at more of an affordable price. You may like to purchase some damascus from Alabama Damascus or one of the many other fine damascus makers. I'd like to give you another option for you to have available just starting out with damascus, if you would like I can send you a piece up to 8" X 1" X 1/4" in dimensions, which would be good for a really big hunter or a small fighter/bowie. This would be at no charge just for you to try out and have fun with. I'll send you some ferric chloride to etch it with too if you don't have any yet. The only thing is that if you want a piece of my damascus it will be two or three weeks before I can send you one. I am completely out of damascus right now and I'll be making some up for more projects in the next couple weeks, yours included if you want a piece. I can make you up a billet of 80 layer birds eye pattern damascus or I could make you up a cool single bar twist pattern if you would like. I can make it whatever size you would like up to 8" X 1" X 1/4". I would use 1080 and 15N20 steel which is my favorite for damascus and it heat treats well. If you accept my offer you will be the first and only maker so far to use my damascus for a blade. The only way I would ever let anyone use my damascus is if I give them a piece or if I were doing a collaboration with them on a knife, so that means you'll be using damascus that's not even available for purchase if someone wanted to buy some. Let me know what pattern of the two you'd like and the size if you're interested.

Have an awesome evening,

Kyle

[BrionTomberlin]

Kyle, thank you for the response and the great offer. Big thumbs up from me.
Brion

[Steve Culver]

Kyle,

What a generous offer!!! Thanks for helping out Johnathan.

Jonathan, there are knifemakers all over the world who would arm wrestle you for that piece of Kyle's damascus.

[Cheyenne Walker]

This is why the ABS is such a great organization and I am proud to be a memeber.

[Jonathan Stanley]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!


Wow! I don't know what to say but I'll give it a try.

8" X 1" X 1/4" is just the size I have been looking for.
My personal favorite is birds eye and I like billets better because they are easier to work with.
I do not have any ferric chloride.

Again thank you so much.
That more than made my day.

[Michael_Arguello]

Nice Job Kyle.! Class Act for sure....

[Kyle Royer]

Jonathan Stanley, on 13 March 2012 - 06:26 AM, said:

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!


Wow! I don't know what to say but I'll give it a try.

8" X 1" X 1/4" is just the size I have been looking for.
My personal favorite is birds eye and I like billets better because they are easier to work with.
I do not have any ferric chloride.

Again thank you so much.
That more than made my day.

Okay then, birds eye it is! I'll make it up in the next couple weeks and post a picture of it here when it's done so you can see if you like it. I'll also throw in some ferric chloride for you to etch it with. I've only made birds eye pattern once before and it came out nice, so it'll be fun making it again. The first time I made birds eye pattern I made it look very random with an eye here and there all over the billet. This time I'll make it so all the birds eyes are in rows and close together, it'll be fun!

Have an awesome day!

Kyle

[jared_foster]

Great offer Kyle...if anyone has seen the journey to master series that Kyle posted on U-Tube it seems obvious his passion for teaching

[ABS Webmaster]

I saw your post and took a look at some of Kyle's YouTube videos. The videos are well done and this is one of them.

[Kyle Royer]

Hey Jonathan!

Your damascus is done! This past week I made up a big, big billet of "W" feather pattern and while I was doing that I made up your billet of birds eye damascus. I ended up making it just over 100 layers. You are going to want to forge this damascus as close to the final blade shape as possible in order to keep the pattern and not get a distorted look. I'd say about 80% of the final shape would be good. The more you grind on this after forging the more the "birds eyes" will disappear and you'll be left with a billet that looks like random damascus. I'll send the damascus billet and some ferric chloride to you as soon as you PM me your address. The ferric chloride I send you will not be diluted so you'll want to mix it 4:1, four pars distiled water and one part ferric chloride. This damascus billet is just over 8" long X 1" wide and I surface ground it to 0.2410" thick which is just 0.009 under 1/4". This has not been normalized or annealed at all either. I hope you like the pattern! PM me your shipping address and I'll ship it off via USPS Priority Mail.

Thanks and have an awesome day,

Kyle

This is a close up spot that I sanded to 220 grit and did a very quick etch so you can see the pattern.

_MG_8069 by Kyle Royer, on Flickr

Here you can see the entire billet with the surface ground finish and the area at the end I sanded to 220 grit. You are going to want to sand your blade to at least 600 grit before etching but 1500 would be best and if you do so the etch will look really nice.

_MG_8070 by Kyle Royer, on Flickr

[Dwane Oliver]

WOW , good on ya Kyle.

Just FYI , we need more people like Kyle in this world

Dwane

[Jonathan Stanley]

WOW!!!!
(where's that "completely shocked beyond belief and speechless" smiley)
WoW!!!!,
That is beautiful damascus,
That is just what I had in mind only one thing,
I could not have ever even dreamed of dreaming of such pretty damascus,
While I am so so so thankful I do not dare risk making a knife with it till I have the skill.
I don't want to waist such special damascus.


P.S. Again I do not know how to ever thank you enough, God bless you.

[Gary Mulkey]

Kyle,

First class gesture! Proud of you.

Gary

[BrionTomberlin]

Kyle, excellent work, both in the damascus and being a real good person. You represent the ABS very well.
Brion

[Kyle Royer]

Thanks for the compliments fellas!

Jonathan, I'll ship it out Monday or Tuesday so you should receive it before the end of next week. I'm really glad you like it. I don't think you should wait to use it though. I think you are fully capable of using it now and doing it good. You can of course do whatever you like with it, however, I did make it for you to use and have fun with it. It doesn't matter if you mess it up or it doesn't come out how you wanted it to, what matters is that you learn with it and have fun making your first damascus knife! You have the skill to use it NOW! You can get/make more damascus later, use this now. If you can make knives like the ones I've seen that you make then you can use this billet, all you'll have to do is sand it a bit more and etch it in ferric chloride. You can do it, no problem!

Kyle

[Kyle Royer]

Hey Jonathan,

I shipped out your damascus and ferric chloride today. Let me know when you get it in the mail.

Thanks,

Kyle