Talk:William F. Moran (knifemaker)

A fact from William F. Moran (knifemaker) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 17 March 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that William F. Moran was the knife maker who revived the "lost art" of Damascus steel in 1973?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/March.

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Rewrite

I rewrote this piece here: Talk:William_F._Moran/Temp because some parts of it looked too close to 2 parts in another piece which I used as a source.--Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 05:52, 10 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Damascus Steel

While Moran did market his pattern welded blades as Damascus Steel, as is discussed in the WP articles Damascus Steel, Wootz steel and Pattern welding there is a great deal of evidence that pattern welding and Damascus Steel, while appearing similar, actually are different.DavisGL (talk) 09:18, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sure he did. The thing is, he called it "damascus" and so did everyone that followed since. I think the thing to do would be to establish that in both the pattern welding and damascus articles and then clarify in this one and in ABS.--Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 14:04, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like an excellent idea to me - I look forward to learning more about these techniques and the blades they can produce (BTW, I have also seen blades made from bridge cable sold as "damascus.")DavisGL (talk) 11:54, 19 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That would be what they call "wire damascus" or "cable damascus", I have even seen "chainsaw damascus" where the steel is forged from a chainsaw blade. Some people scoff at it, but in escence it is what this is all about, the forging of different alloys with different properties. If you want to really see some interesting stuff, google "mosaic damascus" like this one--Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 17:56, 19 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Mike - that is pretty cool. Interesting point that the different alloys make a superior blade - thanks for sharing the insights! I come at this from a historical angle and would only classify myself as "science literate," but love to learn more.DavisGL (talk) 11:10, 20 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]