Under the oriental term Damas lies a thousand-year technique for forging which was first known around the Celtic area. In the west it reached its picked during the Merovingian period.
Without wanting to trace back in time, just let us remember that the technique lay dormant for some centuries before re-emerging in XVIIIth and XIXth century especially in the art of Damas on canons. In XXth century it conquered the world cutlery field in the USA, Germany and France where it has been developing for the past twenty years once more.

The main principal of Damas is the mixture of iron or steel with a low content in carbon (white) to a very high carbon steel content (black). This mixture is carried in different ways.
The basic technique is the multilayers on which the forge smith piles and solders at the forge alternative bars "soft" and "hard" which are then folded by so many times to make up a bar of x layers. This bar can then be auged and reforged (twists). Several twsits can also be soldered together and made into a multibar.
In the same way as with a puzzle the forge smith can also assemble between different bars so that they can obtain an image on the section of the bar block.
This image can then be made more complex thanks to the setting up of the present day techniques for cutting by spark erosion, by wire erosion or water jet erosion. This latter technique is called "Mosaic". One of the advanced shapes is the figured Damas.
Each of these techniques corresponds to a different visual result, but also different mechanical qualities. The combinaison are never ending and have limites only for the blacksmith's imagination and the mastering of his art.

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