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I'm making a chef knife. I have made 3 billets. I'm sorry to say it has not gone well. Strike 1= did not forge billet round before I forged it into a knife. Strike 2= forged it to thin and would not clean up. Struck 3= checked hardness at work. It came out low. Only 55 Rockwell. I was looking for 60/61. Back into the forge and quench. Soaked it for a minute. Big mistake. That one put a crack in my blade.

My blade is made of 1080 and 15N20. I started looking in all my books about heat treating and tempering. Jim Hrisoulas comments about using a hardness tester in his book. Not to use that because of the layers. You will get a bad reading. To use a file. Has anyone else found that to be true? New billet almost done. I will finish it tomorrow. If at first!! lol,,, Any info about hardness testing a damascus blade would be great. Thank you for your time.

Rockwelling Damascus is only a problem when very different materials are mixed together, like a water hardening steel mixed with a slower oil hardening steel, or any Damascus that includes pure nickel, or welded materials that incorporate heavy decarburized zones, like cable or chain. When two steels with similar alloying and heat treating requirements are combined I have not had any problem getting consistent Rc readings. I have never had too many problems with a 10XX series and 15n20.

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Rockwelling Damascus is only a problem when very different materials are mixed together, like a water hardening steel mixed with a slower oil hardening steel, or any Damascus that includes pure nickel, or welded materials that incorporate heavy decarburized zones, like cable or chain. When two steels with similar alloying and heat treating requirements are combined I have not had any problem getting consistent Rc readings. I have never had too many problems with a 10XX series and 15n20.

I did not think so. Not with 1080 & 15N20. Thank you Kevin.