First attempt at etching

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by Roland_M

Hello Marius,

laminated means pattern welded, but obviously without a specific pattern. I would call it "wild mechanical damascus".

Imho, just in my honest opinion, a salt like Iron(III)Sulfate or Sodium Persulfate may bring out more details from mechanical damascus than Nital. Nital also has a nasty tendency to penetrate deep into the surface.


Roland

Hey Roland,

Pattern welded is laminated but not all laminated is pattern welded.

Pattern weleded refers to multi-layered laminated steels of diferent compositions such that the resulted surface displays a specific pattern.

San-mai is laminated but not pattern welded (as it involves only three steels) for example.

Japanese Katanas have laminated but not pattern welded blades despite displaying even the characteristic patterns (Hada), as they do not empoy diferent steels with different compositions.

Also some modern blades like for example Helle or Mora knives do have laminated but not pattern welded blades.

So calling any laminate "Damascus" whether wild or domesticated is a little over-stretching in my oppinion.