Daryl Meier lays the hammer down when it comes to forging dazzling Damascus billets for blades
by John Lewis Jensen

Daryl Meier made the first billet of pattern-welded steel, or Damascus, I ever used, and I continue to integrate his steel into the majority of my knife blades. I have worked closely with Daryl since 1995. He was at the forefront of the Damascus re-insurgence in the early 1970s, and has gone on to influence and teach many of today's prominent Damascus makers.

Damascus is a layered composite of steels and, sometimes, pure nickel, with a visible pattern that is continuous throughout the entire structure of the material. It is not just a surface pattern applied to metal. It embodies an age-old process that is commonly achieved through stacking different grades of steel in alternating layers and forge-welding them together.

There are endless possibilities on how to further manipulate the knife-blade material to produce various patterns. Some Damascus patterns will change as you cut blade shapes from the initial bars or billets, and the changes will become more dramatic as you get closer to the core of the pattern-welded steel. Certain patterns will become tighter and more intricate, while others will appear looser.

Mosaic patterns will change little, if any, when roughing out a blade shape. "Random" pattern, for example, will produce concentric lines that mimic whatever shape you cut into it. A "twist" pattern can result in star-like shapes, depending on how you section it. The "ladder" and "raindrop" patterns, when cut into, will become softer or looser, yet otherwise look the same as they do uncut.

The "Turkish twist" pattern reveals rows of intricate stars and swirls, with variations of the shapes depending on how many layers the initial billet had. Low layers will produce loose, bold patterns, while high layers will produce tight patterns. These are the basic building blocks of Damascus. From there, virtually anything can be achieved.

I became interested in building knives while pursuing a degree in jewelry making and metal smithing at the Rhode Island School of Design. As I was introduced to pattern-welded steel, I became incredibly fascinated with it.

I had to work with Damascus! I researched the material, and my pursuit and investigation led me to one man - Daryl Meier.

Daryl's passion for pattern-welded steel further fueled mine. Of course, there were many people selling Damascus to knifemakers, and there have been many who have achieved prominence and recognition for their Damascus since. Still, Daryl was one of the few who strictly provided the steel for others on a full-time basis, and he was the first to do this within the knifemaking community. This, along with his reputation, impressed me.

My philosophy has always been, "If someone else can do it better, then let them." Daryl has a similar philosophy: "I'll do for you what I do best, so you can do what you do best!" This is why I use Meier steel for my knives he can make it better than I could probably ever aspire to manipulate the blade material.

My main concerns when I formally investigated pattern-welded steel had to do with its cost and the rumors of weld flaws. The thought of spending a significant amount money, and investing all the time it takes to profile and grind one of my blades, and then possibly discover a crack or weld flaw deep within it made me nervous. Everyone I talked to about these concerns reassured me in regards to Meier's Damascus.

Daryl was born on a farm, in 1940, in Randolph County, Ill. From an early age, he was interested in making things and developed a need to create. His first real hands-on experience was in repairing muzzle-loading guns. There were no parts available, so he had to make them himself.

The Hoover Forge?

"I did try to make a gun part by blacksmithing in the backyard when I was around 13 years old, he says. I dug a hole with a trench running off to one side in the yard, borrowed my mom's vacuum cleaner, put a tube of some sort into the trench, then hooked the vacuum cleaner to the other end. I made a fire in the hole, used the vacuum as a blower, heated some steel and probably used a regular claw hammer to try and forge it. Of course, it didn't work, but I tried."

Daryl's family eventually moved from the farm into town. In those days, there were still practicing blacksmiths in the area. Daryl visited them in his early years and, as he explains, "I was interested in what they were doing, though I did not pursue it as a vocation until way into my adulthood."

After high school, Daryl went on to college where he received a bachelors degree in mathematics with a minor in zoology. Meier embarked on blacksmithing as a hobby, went back to school to undertake a master's degree in education and became a vocational instructor in the field of blacksmithing. "I eventually got involved in pattern-welded steel and specialized in it," he remarks.

When I first contacted Daryl about Damascus, I picked his brain for hours. He explained his beginnings in the field, saying, "It was at a gathering of blacksmiths in Lumpkin, Georgia, in 1973, that I first observed a demonstration by Ivan Bailey on the basics of making pattern-welded steel. That marked the start of my fascination with the making of this mystic material."

It was also in 1973 that knifemaker Bill Moran first exhibited handmade Damascus knives at The Knifemakers' Guild Show in Kansas City, Mo.

I soon discovered that Daryl is one of the few who has the equipment necessary and the ability to properly heat and weld large and wide billets. This turned out to be an important consideration in my work. My knife designs are different from the norm and often require the use of wider billets.

These same concerns and more are what led knifemaker Virgil England to work with Meier Steel. As Virgil explains, "Daryl can make anything. It's only a matter of what you're willing to spend. I don't challenge him because I don't have him make any real bizarre patterns for me. I'm doing weird sizes and shapes [rather than odd Damascus patterns].

"When you try making a pattern to fit a certain size or shape," Virgil continues, "sometimes you have to do it a few times. With my outsized or odd-shaped knives, it is not cost effective for me to do fancy patterns. So, I work with random pattern 99 percent of the time. I am more interested in the structural integrity of the material rather than how cool the pattern is.

Virgil also comments on Daryl's working methodology, remarking, "When he goes to build a pattern, he sees the whole picture to begin with, and then he works out how to arrive at that end spot. He can visualize the contours of the finished piece of metal before it is done, so, when it is flattened out, you understand that the high and low spots are exactly where he planned them to be.

Virgil speaks about his early history with Daryl. "I had originally run into Daryl's Damascus around 1977, whenever The Knifemakers' Guild Show first moved to Dallas," Virgil remembers. "He had Damascus for sale, which freaked everyone out. He was making incredible Damascus and was starting to use a wire EDM [Electrical Discharge Machine] to assist in the bizarre patterns. It was revolutionary."

Work Speaks for Itself

"Daryl is an intellectual; he is not a salesman or a self-promoter, Virgil says. He has always shown up expecting the quality of his work to speak for itself. Working with Daryl, for me, has been good because he visualizes well over the phone. He has absolutely no limit on what he will try on a piece of steel. I use Daryl exclusively, and the reason is consistency. His accuracy is so incredible.

Daryl has been making pattern-welded steel, serving the knife and sword industry, for over 25 years. The composition of Meier Steel is a mix of 1095 and A203E for the majority of the steel produced, as well as W-2, 15n20 and pure nickel. Five different patterns are always available. These include random, twist, ladder and the fancier Turkish twist. He also offers the awesome mosaic "Calico Rose," which he developed. Limited editions and special patterns are available "as the need arises and the mood permits," he says.

He also does some custom one-of-a-kind patterns to customer specifications. I have been working with Daryl on clad steel, or San Mai, projects. This steel is similar in organization to a three-layer sandwich, with the core being one steel or pattern, and different steels or patterns for the outside. The process produces a great effect. As you grind into the billet, you end up with a distinct pattern running parallel to the edge, and above that, you have the outside pattern. It is a great option if you have particular requirements for your blade edge, all the while maintaining a beautiful pattern on the rest of the blade, or you can have two contrasting patterns on the same blade!

Daryl states, "My steel can be made into any of a variety of patterns. I work with many bladesmiths and collectors in selecting a pattern, basically helping people create their dream knife or sword."

Daryl further explains, "Meier Steel has been used mostly for knife blades, in which the requirements are not only for performance, but also for beauty, character and mystique. There is no limit on possible uses."

About his repertoire, he adds, "This is what my business is about the artistic beautification of steel. Pattern-welded steel truly brings an added aesthetic dimension that makes a knife or sword even more interesting, setting it apart as a one-of-a-kind work of art.

Daryl explains his love and interest of the material and the process of making it. "What interests me is the creative opportunity with the patterning, which also involves, to a degree, the mechanical properties of putting two different materials together and the resulting advantage the composite would have, he notes. My main interest is in the patterns. I see it as an open field. We've just barely scratched the surface.

"I use a hand hammer and an anvil to do some forge welding on things like the Turkish pattern," he explains. "I use a power hammer for the main billet setup, taking this billet up to as many layers as is necessary for the project. Take the Turkish Twist pattern as an example. I'll start with a billet and weld it in the power hammer, draw it out, stack it and weld it again. Then, using the power hammer, I will take it down to a particular size. After that, I twist it, and then I go to my hand hammer and anvil to do the welding of the bars."

Daryl continues on with pride about his larger equipment, saying, "The power hammer that I have is a 3B Nazel self-contained air hammer. It was built around 1925. It is a 10-horsepower machine, and it's fabulous! It's rated as a 400-pound hammer, which was the predecessor to the self-contained air hammer.

"I also have a homemade hydraulic press that I use to weld some of the mosaic patterns and to do special shaping," Daryl continues. "I own what is called a laboratory rolling mill. It's big for a blacksmith's shop, but it's a toy as far as rolling mills are concerned. It was built originally for Ford Motor Co. in 1953, and it's powered with a 50-horsepower motor.

I primarily use it to do any of the clad steel, the material that is like a sandwich, with a core and two outside pieces", Daryl says. The first of that type of stuff was done under the power hammer, but the rolling mill is so much nicer for that because it is so precise in terms of uniformity of the layers."

Clamp, Crank, Grab and Twist

Daryl finishes up with a brief explanation of one of the other most-often used tools in his shop. "I also use a homemade twisting devise, which is hand powered," he relates. "Essentially, it is a section of I-beam with legs on it. It's got a sliding pipe vise on it, and I take a hot piece of steel, stick it in the vice and clamp it down. I grab the free end of it with a handle made from a vice grip. I then crank the stuff and twist it. I use that to make the single-bar-twist pattern and the stock for Turkish twist. Those are the main machines for hot work.

While Meier Steel is a business that primarily provides custom knifemakers and other artisans with pattern-welded steel, Daryl has used his steel for his own special projects from time to time. One particular noteworthy endeavor was back in 1990, when then governor of Illinois, Jim Thompson, commissioned Daryl to make and present a special knife for former U.S. President George Bush. Daryl says he chose a mid-19th-century bowie knife design for this commission because it is "the American knife."

"I tried to depict a scene in the blade that would remind [the former] President Bush of his view during the inaugural parade," Daryl explains. A pattern was forged into the steel depicting thirteen waving flags along the length of the blade, each representing one of the original thirteen colonies. The flags in the steel all have 50 stars in five rows of six, and four rows of five. All stars have five points. There is a banner running the length of the blade, on both sides, that reads "U.S.A." Remember, this is Damascus, so the pattern runs all the way through the material. This is an incredible feat of forging. The work that Daryl has done is certainly the bedrock of steel manipulation today. Daryl has done an incredible amount of work piecing information together, spending time on the science, metallurgy, and history of Damascus. There was some early information written in obscure journals and, since Daryl does read German, he was able to translate some of that not only into English, but also into modern scientific terms that we would understand. He then put it into a format that was readable and accessible to the general public. It was published in Dona Meilach's book "Decorative and Sculptural Ironwork." Daryl used hardcore science, then translated it into layman's terms that anyone could pick up and understand." The information given in the book on patterned steel was remarkable, and word spread internationally.

"As far as the future of where this material is going, in terms of my own work, I have some ideas", Daryl says. "In terms of the aesthetic stuff, I'm still working on some questions, problems, concepts and ideas that I've been playing with for over 20 years. I'm looking at new ways of pattern manipulation. Using the technique employed in developing ladder pattern, I'm trying to get into imagery that works differently than the mosaic method."

Daryl elaborates, "I'm interested in the optical effect, known as Chatoyancy, which is a phenomenon similar to that of a holographic image. You see something that's really not there. This is seen in a ladder pattern in particular if you etch it sufficiently to create topography, then you re-polish it. In different angles of incident lighting, it appears that the surface undulates. Taking that to the next step, what if you could create an image of an individual's face using that same basic concept? Under certain lighting conditions, you'll have a holographic-like image of a human face that would appear only if you turned the steel in the correct lighting."

That's one direction that he's going, and another direction is toward exotic mixtures of materials, particularly dealing with the mechanical properties that are concerns in the knife world. "I welded some diamond particles in Eutectic steel 10-12 years ago, and I would like to pursue that," Daryl comments. "I think there is some potential there in terms of edge holding, aggressive cutting, that sort of thing."

What has continually struck me over the years about Meier Steel is how easy it is to work and use, from cutting, grinding, carving, heat treating and etching, all steps have been simple and problem free. I always look forward to using it. Etching is the final step to reveal the pattern to its full potential. I don't think anything etches quite as easily as Meier Steel.

Knifemaker Paul Jarvis, who uses Meier Steel almost exclusively, has developed deep etching this material to nearly an art in itself. Paul says, ÓI've been using his stuff 10, maybe 15 years. I use his stuff because I know that I can depend on it. He'll make me anything I want, relatively quickly."

I remember the first time I saw Paul's work and what he had achieved with the Damascus. The etching was so deep that I thought he had hand carved the recesses of the pattern. They were literally 1/16-inch-or-more deep! This also caused the edge of the blade to develop serrations. Even with this style of deep etching, the contrast keeps sharp and dramatic, never muddy or blurry.

Throughout this article, Daryl's humble character is evident. He is extremely gifted and talented, and is always ready and willingly to share what he knows in a wonderfully simple and concise manner. Daryl has not gotten the credit or accolades he deserves. I certainly hope that the information presented here helps to alleviate that.

This article was originally published in "Knives 2003". This article is reprinted with permission by publisher and the book can be purchased from Krause Publications at http://www.krause.com or at 1-800-272-5233.