Steve: here's what the knife guys say, but we know they've been breathing fumes in a shed a bit too long
LOL!! Yea. You never know what knifemakers have been huffing!
Regarding the comments in this knifemakers thread, the colors that they are discussing come from the degraded steel left on the surface of the metal after etching. Knifemakers often use this degraded material for the coloration on damascus knife blades. Damascus gun barrels are typically finished by a rusting process. Knifemakers seldom use a rusting process for finishing knife blades.
Modern damascus knife blades and old damascus gun barrels are not quite apples and oranges. As they are both made of ferrous materials, some things are related. But the steels used, the heat treatment given each and the finishing processes employed are all different.
There is a lot of confusion about whether the iron or the steel is white in finished damascus gun barrels. I think we should start a new thread to discuss this. Maybe we can come to a consensus on this topic. We have a bunch of guys on this forum, who have finished damascus gun barrels. What do they say? Do they believe the iron finishes white? What are their observations during the finishing process?
Drew posed a couple photos that are a perfect example of the kind of thing that gives me pause on this finishing topic. They are the photos of the barrels with Rosen and Three iron Oxford patterns. The weld lines on the Rosen barrel are black. The weld lines on the Oxford barrel are white. Why?? What caused this difference? How does the fact that welds lines can color differently affect the probability of being able to predict whether the iron or steel will finish white?
