Making the Floral Mosaic Damascus

I got commissioned to make a carving knife with pretty open ended criteria and price point early this year. Given the lax nature of the buyer I thought I’d try something new. I was familiar with mosaic damascus and the how-to but had never attempted it myself. Here’s my process, from concept to finish.

First step is making the billet. A billet is just a hunk of steel that is later shaped into the knife. Making a damascus billet involves taking alternating layers of two or more steels, forge welding them together then applying a series of folds, cuts and other manipulation to get the pattern you want.

Each step number shows what the billet should look like at the end of that step and the sub steps detail how to get there.

My pretty flowers :)

Now to do the real thing…