In this video from the American Bladesmith Society, master smith Ed Caffrey details how to make mosaic damascus. This technique yields stunning steel for beautiful blades.

How to Make Mosaic Damascus: The Billet

From the video:

First, I built a 4″x4″x6″ “can” and plugged one end with piece of 3/8″ place, then laid out a stack of 1080 & 15N20 diagonally. I filled the remaining space in with 1/4″ W1 rods, then took up all the air space with 1095 powder, to which I added 10% nickel powder.

Caffrey wound up cutting the billet in half after forging for a bit. This made the halves easier to work.

How to Make Mosaic Damascus: Two Becomes Four

From the video:

Next, I forged the two halves down to about 1 1/2″ square, anneal, and mill off the can, then cut each in half again.

That will give me four pieces to decide how to orient and 4-way. Depending on what I come out with, it go to an 8- or even 16-way.

I then performed a quick clean-up of the ends with a 220 belt and an etch so I could orient everything.

How to Make Mosaic Damascus: The Trick

The “trick” to getting what you want is being able to visualize in your mind how the pattern will look after welding and accordion cutting/folding. You might be surprised at just how different a pattern will look from where it is now.

How to Make Mosaic Damascus: Welding

Finally, I face mill off the mating faces of each piece. Then it’s just a matter of placing them together and forge welding. It can be wet welded, dry welded or whatever you’d like. Each method will have an effect on the finished product.

Watch the video for full instructions on how to make mosaic damascus.

Keep Learning with This Great Download from BLADE

This video was only a taste of the richly rewarding craft of making mosiac damascus. Once you get going, you won’t want to stop creating these incredible designs.

For only $4.99, you can learn much more in this excellent download from BLADE on how to make mosiac damascus.