The age old art of Damascus steel knife making is still practiced today, this specialized method is used to create beautiful patterned steel by folding the steel during the forging process. Learn more about this art at these links:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel
Modern Damascus steel knife making video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3nojb-gFH4
Cheaper imitations are also available and use surface etching to create a similar visual effect. In this very preliminary application study, CT scanning was used to analyze the internal structure of two knives to see if the folded steel layers are present and thereby identify the authenticity of the object.
Shown below are some images of these two knives. The first knife had a typical Damascus organic pattern, while the second had a mosaic pattern. The first knife shows no internal layered structure indicating that it could very well be a surface-etched steel, while the mosaic pattern knife clearly shows the 3d internal structure with layers – see the animation of the central section of this knife: knife2 rotation.
Animation of knife 1: knife 1 rotate
Knife 1 3D view and slice view with slice plane on the surface:
Knife with mosaic pattern 3D view and slice plane inside the material
A comparison of internal slice images for knife 1 and 2:
Knife-makers and experts are welcome to share their thoughts and contact us for more information on these scans. For 3 scans at different resolutions and settings to positively confirm structure or a lack of structure inside the object requires 3 hours of work, approximately totalling R4500.
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