A- Send us a mail and ask for a pricelist and we will send you one by e-mail or as a regular mail. Please inform us of what country you are from.

Q- I´m nickel allergic. Is there a steel that I can use for jewellery.

A- None of our steels are completly free from nickel. However, We recomend that you should try the Austenitic steel rather than the Martensitic.
Martensitic should not contain any Nickel, but it is always some nickel atoms in the steel anyway. This Nickel is "loose" and can jump from the jewellery to the skin.
Austenitic contains about 12% Nickel, but this is hard combined to the steel and does not want to jump to the skin.
When a jeweller is talking about "Nickelfree" jewellery they often really mean the Nickel emission from the jewellery. Eg. it will not give any Nickel away.
Medical eqipment (such as instruments or sutur threads that you sew wounds with) are often made from Austenitic steel (316L). It gives a idea of how good this steel are to keep the nickel to itself.

Ofcourse we cannot guarantee that you can wear the jewellery depending on how serious your allergy is, but we know people with nickel allergy that use the Austenitic steel with no problem.

Q- Are the barrelsteels only for gunbarrels or can they be used for other things?

A- Barrelsteels are often used for axes and hammers. The barrelsteels are ofcourse developed to be a good steel that can take extreme pressures, as when you fire a gun. These steels are not able to harden up to more than approx 56 HRC. Most people want more in a knife, but for an axe or a hammer that is perfect.
A hammer should not be harden too high because you do not want the risk of small pieces cracking of the hammerhead when you hit something equal hard.
A crowbar is even more important not to harden all too hard.
So the barrelsteels, both the stainless and carbon steel, are often used for things like above. The Martensitic steel are not bad for this types of applications, but a normal hardening makes that steel very hard.

Q- Can I forge the Damasteel material myself and if so, is there anything important to know about?

A- Many people are afraid of trying to forge the Damasteel material due to that it is not as soft as mildsteel. It is also sensitive for overheating.

The benefits of forging is however obvious.
- You can create your own patterns.
- You save expensive material as you forge to right shape directly. Eg. you do not need to grind away a lot of material.
- You can start with a less expensive material, for example roundbars.

When heating the material it is important to not exeed 1210 deg Celcius. If a electric furnance is used this is seldom a problem, just put it at 1150 deg C. A gas furnance is also quite accurate in temperature. If an ordinary forge hearth is used, heat rather too low than too high in temperature.

The martensitic steel is the most overheat sensitive. The other steels are more forgiving.....

If you work with small bar sizes it is possible to forge by hand. Bars over, lets say, 16 mm round needs a powerhammer to be able to forge. The Damasteel steels (exept for the Low alloy carbon steel) does not form much mill scale so there is not a problem if you need to reheat several times.
(Loss of carbon close to the surface can however be a problem if it is reheated during a excessive long period. In a knifeblade there is normally so much grinding tovards the edge, that the lowcarbon surface material is removed, and the edge is in perfect material.)

So, in other words:
Forging Damasteel materials is not so hard.
If using larger dimensions, get a powerhammer.
If you are afraid of overheating the material, use electric furnance, or do not heat so high i temperature, and reheat more often instead.

Q- How can I etch the Carbonsteel "926" (barrelsteel).

A- Use hydrocloric acid (HCl) 30% The acid must be fresh and clean.
If the acid is starting to change colour, normally to some kind of green, it is time to get new one. Is it black, it should have been replaced a long time ago.

1. Put the piece in the acid for about 10 minutes while stiring the acid. Then clean the piece in water.

2. Heat the acid to 40-50 degrees Celcius. Put the piece in for another 5-10 minutes while stiring. Clean the piece in water again. Polish the piece if it is needed.

Now the result should be good. If you are not satisfied please proceed to step 3.

3. After polishing and carefull cleaning, you can do step 2 one more time, but now perhaps with a shorter dipping time. Look at the piece and stop when pattern is good.

Q- I want a darker (black) etch on the Martensitic steel, I think normal dipping in HCl gives too bright color (grey).

A- You can etch for darker pattern using this method:

1. Mix:
- 2 liters of liquid ferricloride FeCl 3(approx 70%).
- 150 milliliter Citric acid powder (Acidum citricum, E-number E 330)
- 1 liter destilled water
If you use not so high concentrated ferrocloride, use less destilled water in right amount.

2. Heat the solution to approx 30 degrees Celcius.

3. Dip the steelpiece (ex. knifeblade) for 10-20 minutes.

4. Rinse in water.

5. Polish with a "hard wool rotating disc" i´m sure you know what I mean. This is just to brighten the tops of the pattern. In the bottom the black surface should be untouched as much as possible.

Q- I want a darker (black) etch on the Austenitic steel, I think normal dipping in HCl or Aqua Regia gives too bright color (grey).

A- Austenitic Etching with Tempering, a unusual way to get a darker pattern on the Austenitic steel. This requiers a heating furnance.

1. Etch deep in Aqua Regia.

2. Put the piece in at least 600 deg celcius, rather 1000 deg celcius until it is all black.

3. Polish with a "hard wool rotating disc" i´m sure you know what I mean. This is just to brighten the tops of the pattern. In the bottom the black surface should be untouched as much as possible.

Now you have a piece that is not coloured from etching, but from heating.