A.G.
Maybe the looking of exposed nickellayers is more a feeling or a suggestion for me than a fact. I have also used often pure nickel for damascus ( outer layers with nickel, but with a hard core as an edge ) starting with 20 layers 2 mm carbon steel and 20 ( 19 of course ) of 0,1 mm nickel the first result was allways „thick black layers and thin white layers“. After doubling to a result of 40 black + 40 white the black looks like half thickness but the whites „seems“ to have the same thickness as before or seems to have a higher presence and the hole billet becomes now more white than before. After folding to 160 and then to 320 layers the layers of the nickel becomes more and more present and looks now as they have the same thickness as the black steel. I saw some microscope pictures and yes indeed the nickel was really thin and you saw thick carbon steel layers. Visual the nickel looks more present and wider than they realy are. I made a billet with above 2000 layers and it etched with no more optical visible layers it stays against acid like a 1% Nickelsteel. Under microscope the layers and a strong border between steel and nickel was clearly visible. To that time I had a good source to make some microscope investigations but I lost this source too early ( I worked in a plant for forged shafts for electrical power plants) I wanted to take a more detailed look weather there were really movement of nickel into the steel or if the nickel layer just looking wider than they are because the black steel was washed away by the acid. After your comment and thinking about I’m now interested again and I think the washout effect was the reason for the effects that I saw and you’re right.
Thanks and best regards Thomas
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