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This "Modern Damascus" is made from several types of steel and iron slices welded together to form a billet, and currently the term "damascus" (although technically incorrect) is widely accepted to describe modern pattern welded steel blades in the trade. The patterns vary depending on how the smith works the billet. The billet is drawn out and folded until the desired number of layers are formed. In order to attain a Master Smith rating with the American Bladesmith Society, the smith must forge a damascus blade with a minimum of 300 layers. Special thanks to the band Foreign Fields from...

William F. Moran, a legendary figure in the world of custom knives, died yesterday morning in the hospital at Frederick, Maryland of cancer at the age of 80. Born in 1925, on a family farm near Lime Kiln, Maryland, Moran began making knives as a ten year old boy working in a smithy on his father’s farm, using discarded tools as his source of steel. By his teenage years, Moran had learned the skills of tempering and heat-treating blades, and his homemade knives had already developed a local reputation for holding an edge.

Is the rise of Islam an accident that owes its spread to Damascus steel? The original Damascus steel is not the same as what is sold as Damascus steel today. Todays Damascus steel is a number of layers of light and dark metal that are repeatedly folded over and hammer forged together (called pattern welding). Usually, it is a dark and a light colored steel; a ductile and a hard steel; or, a high carbon and a stainless steel. The original Damascus steel was a single material. After repeatedly hammer forging the ingot, the resulting steel showed curious marking known...