There was a time in my career when I created a lot of Cable Damascus....Unless YOU purchase it new, and know exactly the type(s) of steel it's produced from, it's pretty much reinventing the wheel each time you use it when it comes to heat treating....that means you have to do a lot of experimenting to figure out the correct heat treat.

Generally, the pattern in cable damascus is a product of the decarb of welding.... the lines/patter you see in a finished cable damascus blades is the product of decarb at the weld lines of each "wire". That decarb is a double edge sword....it gives you the pattern, but since decarb is occurring, you're also getting a lower quality cutting implement due to the decarb.

So what does that mean in relationship to your question? It means that the cable you use should have individual wires with the largest diameter possible. As a general rule, the smaller the individual wires within a cable, the poorer quality the blade produced from it will be. When I was producing cable damascus, the best blades I produced, came from a 3" diameter drag line cable....the individual wires within the cable were 1/8" & 5/32" diameter.... of course it was more difficult to work with, just because of it's massive size, but it easily made the best quality cable blades I ever produced.

That's some good info and advice Ed.

James, remember this about using unknown steel: "it's pretty much reinventing the wheel each time you use it when it comes to heat treating....that means you have to do a lot of experimenting to figure out the correct heat treat."

I too have a bunch of heavy cable in my scrap pile. It's slated for experimentation and processing ....someday. If you want some ideas, try forge welding it down into flat bars and laminating a known piece of steel between two layers (San Mai style). This will give you the cable Damascus look on the outer jacket and a HC steel for the edge. That, you can heat treat for the edge steel and be pretty sure of the outcome.

Also if you have access to lots you may also have access to the spools it came off which will give you the info of its construction. For carbon content the wire ropes are classified as improved plowshare, extra improved and extra extra improved plowshare. The spools will read as IP, XIP, or XXIP. From lowest to highest carbon content. Since as Ed said we're going to experience alot of decarb, if it all possible it would behoove you to start with XXIP.

Also never use galvanized.

That's my two cents. Have fun

Oh and if you can come by swaged rope it will weld easier on account of having pre flattened wires.

Take care.