Steel combined with manganese forges easily, but it is brittle when cold; it displays however the damascus appearance very strongly.
A mixture of 100 parts of soft iron, and 2 of lamp black, melts as readily as ordinary steel. Several of the best blades which M. Bréant presented to the Société d’Encouragement are the product of this combination. This is an easy way of making cast-steel without previous cementation of the iron. 100 parts of filings of very gray cast-iron, and 100 parts of like filings previously oxidized, produced, by their fusion together, a beautiful damascene steel, fit for forging into white arms, sabres, swords, &c. This compound is remarkable for its elasticity, an essential quality, not possessed by the old Indian steel. The greater the proportion of the oxidized cast iron, the tougher is the steel. Care should be taken to stir the materials during their fusion, before it is allowed to cool; otherwise they will not afford a homogeneous damasc. If the steel contains much carbon it is difficult to forge, and cannot be drawn out except within a narrow range of temperature. When heated to a red-white it crumbles under the hammer; at a cherry-red it becomes hard and brittle; and as it progressively cools it becomes still more unmalleable. It resembles completely Indian steel, which European blacksmiths cannot forge, because they are ignorant of the suitable temperature for working it. M. Bréant, by studying this point, succeeded in forging fine blades.
Experience has proved that the orbicular veins, called by the workmen knots or thorns (ronces), which are seen upon the finest Eastern scymitars, are the result of the manner of forging them, as well as the method of twisting the Damascus bars. If these be drawn in length, the veins will be longitudinal; if they be spread equally in all directions, the stuff will have a crystalline aspect; if they be made wavy in the two directions, undulated veins will be produced like those in the oriental damascus.
DAMASK is a variegated textile fabric, richly ornamented with figures of flowers, fruits, landscapes, animals, &c., woven in the loom, and is by far the most rich, elegant, and expensive species of ornamental weaving, tapestry alone excepted. The name is said to be derived from Damascus, where it was anciently made.
Damask belongs to that species of texture which is distinguished by practical men by the name of tweeling, of which it is the richest pattern. The tweel of damask is usually half that of full [satin], and consequently consists of eight leaves moved either in regular succession or by regular intervals, eight leaves being the smallest number which will admit of alternate tweeling at equal intervals.
In the article [Carpet], two representations have been given of the damask draw-loom.
The generic difference of tweeling, when compared with common cloth, consists in the intersections, although uniform and equidistant, being at determinate intervals, and not between the alternate threads. Hence we have specimens of tweeled cloth, where the intersections take place at the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, or sixteenth interval only. The threads thus deflecting only from a straight line at intervals, preserve more of their original direction, and a much greater quantity of materials can be combined in an equal space, than in the alternate intersection, where the tortuous deflection, at every interval, keeps them more asunder. On this principle tweeled cloths of three and four leaves are woven for facility of combination alone. The coarser species of ornamented cloths, known by the names of dornock and diaper, usually intersect at the fifth, or half satin interval. The sixth and seventh are rarely used, and the intersection at the eighth is distinguished by the name of satin in common, and of damask in ornamental tweeling. It will further be very obvious, that where the warp and woof cross only at every eighth interval, the two sides of the cloth will present a diversity of appearance; for on one side the longitudinal or warp threads will run parallel from one end of a web to the other, and, on the other, the threads of woof will run also parallel, but in a transverse direction across the cloth, or at right angles to the former. The points of intersection being only at every eighth interval, appear only like points; and in regular tweeling these form the appearance of diagonal lines, inclined at an angle of 45° (or nearly so) to each of the former.
The appearance, therefore, of a piece of common tweeled cloth is very similar to that of two thin boards glued together, with the grain of the upper piece at right angles to that of the under one. That of an ornamental piece of damask may, in the same manner, be very properly assimilated to a piece of veneering, where all the wood is of the same substance and colour, and where the figures assume a diversity of appearance from the ground, merely by the grain of the one being disposed perpendicularly to that of the other. See [Textile Fabric].
From this statement of the principle, it results that the most unlimited variety of figures will be produced, by constructing a loom by which every individual thread of warp may be placed either above or below the woof at every intersection; and to effect this, in boundless variety, is the object of the [Jacquard] mounting; which see.
The chief seat of this manufacture is probably the town and neighbourhood of Dunfermline, in Fifeshire, and Lisburn and Ardoyne, near Belfast, where it is considered as the staple, having proved a very profitable branch of traffic to the manufacturer, and given employment to many industrious people.