Making a DART from Damascus Steel!

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My name is Alec Steele and I am a 24 year old blacksmith. We make videos about making interesting things, learning about craft and appreciating the joy of creativity. Great to have you here following along!
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Alec Steele Blacksmith 2022

[@brendanroos7102]

I am once again suggesting that Alec make a multi tool. It would be detailed, challenging, and one of a kind.

[@georgeschnakenberg7808]

Please get him to make a "fine Damascus cutlery set" for cutting turkey with his family.

[@andrewhayes9373]

@@georgeschnakenberg7808 Traditionally us brits have Beef and not Turkey.

[@georgeschnakenberg7808]

@@andrewhayes9373 oooohhh

[@georgeschnakenberg7808]

@@andrewhayes9373 never turkey?

[@1337fraggzb00N]

@@georgeschnakenberg7808 beef is the turkey of the Empire.

[@travisolander4749]

Watching a phone charge port being microscopically cleaned while Alec has a tungsten crisis was oddly entertaining.

[@TheBobdelicous]

oddly... I was thinking the same thing

[@tcp3059]

Ah yes, the old "One calm person ignoring the chaos in the background" schtick 😂

[@iansellers1251]

What screen save was that

[@ThirstysURL]

Pretending he can maintain the crown 🎉

[@joshrepik]

He needs to use a toothpick and not bend the contacts lol

[@alanmcbride5866]

Barrels are tungsten points are steel. And the real challenge would be to make 3 near identical weighted darts.

[@-joe-davidson]

Exactly.. I was about to post a similar comment.

[@crow2967]

Wouldn’t be that hard. Use the same billet and machine them the same diameters like you would do with anything your making multiple of

[@alanmcbride5866]

Given that a accepted match weight dart set is 0.2grams + or -. I think it would be more of a challenge than just the one dart. And would the damascus steel cause issues with the weight also.

[@crow2967]

@@alanmcbride5866 0.2 grams is nothing when you’re talking about machining. Maybe with Alec’s machining it would be difficult lol. But no, machinists make identical things all the time. the Damascus I would presume if he was to use different steels in his Damascus billets it would weigh different as depending on the steel. Probably not enough weight to notice certainly no where near 0.2 grams

[@stick004]

Where I work, we make aeronautics parts. We have a fighter jet bulkhead that has 2 holes that are over 20’ apart and the distance between those holes must be held within 0.005” inches. Making identical darts would be nothing…

[@bishipc117]

If I’m not mistaken, I thought it was the body that was made from tungsten to give it weight and then it was a steel tip to sharpen

[@markknapton6713]

You are correct lol

[@TheUnknownRS2]

@@markknapton6713 Yup

[@feelthepayne88]

This is correct. If I'm not mistaken, brass is heavier than steel by volume so brass would be a better medium performance wise. But Damascus definitely looks cool.

[@volatile100]

​@feelthepayne88 it is heavier, but barely. In something as small as a dart it wouldn't make a signifigant difference.

[@MaNNeRz91]

I was going to say I sharpen my darts with that little cup shaped grit stone and he's talking about heating it to 400°c 😂😂😂

[@johnoconnor4941]

Check this out. Darts were actually taken to court as it was claimed to be a game of chance, which was at the time (1800ish) illegal. A dart player asked the judge which numbers he would like and preceded to hit every request. Da dah.. It was then deigned a game of skill,.legal. True story.

[@Nite-owl]

You learn something new every day 😊Though it was 1908. "Historical records show that in the year 1908 a pub owner in the town of Leeds was taken to court for allowing his customers to play darts in his establishment. The argument was that darts is a game of chance, which was illegal at the time."

[@manny4148]

the same was done for pinball, almost bar for bar. outlawed for a game a chance, then the world pinball champion (yes really) hit essentially a perfect shot into the max point hole.

[@timm1139]

...and today we have games of chance & betting available 24-7 on a device we carry in our pockets. Even more strangely, some call this progress.

[@BlackHoleForge]

Alec you're supposed to make three darts, they always come in a set😂

[@booshmcfadden7638]

How can he call himself English!?

[@nathankarwic4521]

As an old viewer I really liked how the damascus making was filmed and edited. It keeps all the steps there, but leaves the bulk of the video for the new content. Keep it up!

[@Alpha_Dubs]

Now that we know you’re taking suggestions, you should make a Damascus silverware set where you try to make multiple forks knives and spoons that are all identical in shape, but are all also different due to the nature of Damascus.

[@zakhenry]

cutlery would need to be made from stainless steel, which would be a very cool damascus to see. not sure if there are sufficiently contrasting stainless steels though?

[@tobiastackitt2399]

That would be amazing to see

[@Phil_Cleaver]

The forks should have tungsten tines.

[@ForteanEnquirer]

Or you could make them from mokume-gani based on silver

[@Tyius420]

@@ForteanEnquirer would rust unless stainless

[@martinscott6881]

Isn't the barrel normally tungsten, and the tip is steel?

[@-joe-davidson]

yes!

[@pirukiddingme1908]

Mostly yes. Never heard of tungsten points myself

[@xIDSxGenocide]

Dude you've become so comfortable and efficient in front of the camera. It's been awesome to watch from your first workshop with the dirt floor 😊😊

[@notandrewbayer]

Excited to see the damascus steel car build when it comes out

[@Seelenschmiede]

Damascus Delorian?

[@timm1139]

@@Seelenschmiede you'd need 1.21 gigawatts of power to run it.

[@scaredmalplays6446]

9:55 is my favorite Alec Steele moment of history.

[@nathantripp9134]

It's awesome that Jamie got to do some work at the Blast Paris Major, I bet he got some really good footage too! I continue to love the "Build everything" series, it's really enjoyable to watch and learn what all goes into everyday items and tools. Keep it up, cheers!

[@allenpeachy3987]

Hey Alec, how about a Damascus Shoehorn? A peice with nice size area to display the Damascus and very useful as well. Great dart.

[@HeisenbergFam]

This man showing off only 0.1% of his power is amazing

[@telski33]

You should definitely try making a damascus putter

[@Killer14798]

He has already done that

[@telski33]

@@Killer14798 cool can you let me have a link

[@dennishillman6205]

The only thing that would make this better is seeing Alec in action in a pub.

[@luckycobble935]

Do you think you will retry making a Katar Dagger?

[@nodeio]

High quality darts are usually made from a tungsten/titanium alloy... That provides both the necessary weight in a small volume, as well as pretty much absolute rigidity... The idea is to make the dart as slim as possible without sacrificing weight, steel isn't really a material used for darts... [edit] I still think making a dart could be interesting, but imho, it's more of a question of getting the right alloy, and then it's more of a lathe/machining exercise... Get the shape right, get the weight right, give it some knurling, recessed bands or whatever for grip, while still ending up at an exact weight at the end. There are interesting technical aspects to a project like this, because making a set of darts requires some very exact machining... so there is a lot of meat here to be explored... Just seems to me that using Damascus is an added difficulty, since it's a mix of steel types, so wouldn't there be an issue getting identical weights if you make a set of darts, since inherently Damascus steel isn't all that uniform? ... That said, I'm somewhat speculating here...

[@bmw61j60]

Since you seem to be into precision machining lately, you should definitely make a Seiko 5 watch case. Would definitely be a challenge, but I bet you're up to it!

[@hayestweed7143]

You are not a dartist, but you are an artist. Thank you for sharing.

[@ericmorrison278]

Okay, so hear me out... Salt and Pepper Demascus Grinders. I have always loved cooking and have started getting back into the kitchen as of late. One of the things I really want most are some extremely well built grinders. So, then it clicked! Alec should make some!! What would a Blacksmith's grinders look like? And no, not the bealt grinders! lol

[@LeCroynotLacroix]

Im only 4 min in, but the tip of the dart looks dang similar to a tig electrode. I’ve sharpened tig tips with the flat face of a grinder disc… just some thoughts I know it’s a lot more awesome to make your own and that’s kinda the point of the video, but whatever lol

[@berringervids]

Tungsten means "Heavy stone", the mineral is furthermore called Volfram in Sweden today. There are many different Tungsten minerals out there. One is Scheelite. The amount of Volfram in the mineral determines if it is Tungsten or not. Very interesting geology!

[@Seelenschmiede]

In Germany it is Wolfram

[@generalgreen77]

Oh no you did not only make a single dart!!!! You have done it now, you definitely have to make the matching set of 3

[@charlesflakusj.r6344]

He only made 2/3rds of 1 dart

[@abdullahkhalil9284]

Please update us on your house's completeness.

[@RenoFencingMan]

My wife and I have been watching your videos on our anniversary since the day we got married. 6 years and counting. Thank you for all the amazing videos.

[@sudo_nym]

Flights, shaft, barrel and tip I thank you (a dart player)

[@ItsBugtronic]

Also, Not Alec making a Damascus body just to put flights from what looks like a childs toy on it. 💀

[@laumuseka]

I was literally gonna mention the TIG torch but I wanted to wait and see if you’d do it. Nice work!

[@TAR3N]

I wanna see Alec make an Damascus black powder rifle or black powder shotgun. I have all the information you need for reference and research if you would like before tackling this . Including a two and a half hour video of a master gunsmith and blacksmith making everything from tacks to the barrel.

[@milorichards2511]

I find it so funny that its now a rare occasion that alec is actually forging

[@jowaughtel]

Please make a golf putter. Your choice in design.

[@tahoemike5828]

I think he did one a while back. Try searching the videos page of his channel.

[@AnchorJG]

There's a special kind of excitement when the introduction has the finished product.

[@angelquintero8178]

Me encantan estos videos aunque no entienda la mayor parte, pero intento aprender😎👍

[@DLFerg0369]

I'd like to see a matching set (for two) of forks, knives and spoons. Also, some cool engravings on them. And yes, from Damascus Steel.

[@georgeschnakenberg7808]

Yes please! I'm going through to find all the "cutlery" comments. He could make them really nice and use them with his family forever. Imagine carving your turkey with your family using a $15000 set of Damascus cutlery with gold inlay and jewels.

[@scotts7418]

Fractal vice! Boom technical and would be a great challenge!

[@cwuzii]

Damn, as a viewer that plays darts, I was so excited for this! Shame you did zero research… the barrel is the part that’s tungsten, and not pure tungsten either, usually a percentage, commonly 90%. The point is steel, rarely glued in, usually press fit because the precision is that high it doesn’t need glue. Would’ve liked to see you put more effort into this built, maybe instead of Damascus you could’ve done better grip or some sort of cool knurling, even a razor grip or something even cooler. Also, darts come in threes…

[@josiah228]

I found a really cool dagger while in Tuscany at the residence of a Duke. It had long thin arms that locked into either side of the blade that sprang out to catch an opponent's sword with a simple push of a button. I found it online called A Spring-Loaded Triple-Bladed Parrying Dagger

[@robinsoncrusoe1831]

Great vid as always. A pocket watch could be an awesome project

[@justinbanks2380]

9:03 "that's what he said" 😂😂😂 Poor chap

[@wijibo6772]

You should make an oversized dart. We could call it the... lawn dart.

[@michaelnieman6218]

Many years ago their were lawn darts but were outlawed because to many people were getting stuck by them including my cousin in went thru his shoe and stuck in his foot

[@Duane_Grabert]

Looking forward to the ongoing armor series but a dart? Sure. Btw, first!

[@SchysCraftCo.]

Awesome job. This turned out absolutely awesome. Can't wait to see more videos soon. Can't wait to see what you forge next. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Forge On. Fab On. Weld On. Keep Forge lit. Keep making. God Bless.

[@thatslogan1]

Man this is the first time I checked out your website, it’s so easy to navigate and well made. I never knew you sold so much stuff, Christmas and birthdays are going to be easy now.

[@MuhammadRashid123]

this video style was amazing, Keep it up lads

[@travisbrown4187]

I’ve been watching you for years, longtime subscriber I would love to see you make a multi tool like a Leatherman

[@omichromium]

it'd be really interesting to see whether Alec could make vernier calipers

[@alicecarter9672]

I like how you just jumped in with little to no intro :)

[@candyinthefire]

Metal stuff: exists Alec: “I wonder how that would look in Damascus”

[@sethstinson1341]

The metal worker guy trying to cut tungsten is hilarious.

[@ianoosthoek6341]

I would love to see you make a slipjoint folding knife! I think that would be a very cool project to see on the channel

[@codyh5232]

We all know you CAN make many things from Damascus but I wonder if you should?... Since I'm on the topic, why not make a Mid tower ATX computer case? Maybe a Damascus hood of your car? Maybe even a set of door hardware (knob, bolt and hinges)... Seriously though, I love the random non knife stuff you make. Keep it up!

[@White_devil1980]

Great to see you forging Damascus again it would be great to see you to be forging more Damascus stuff

[@mrbreadman]

Jamie filming for the CS:GO major is not the crossover I was expecting.

[@shiprek900]

The phone charging port sections really reminded me of my time working in quality control for a phone trade-in company. Had to use sim tray removers to very, very carefully remove lint from sooo many ports because the phone's came back with complaints of the charging port not working. Scraped out the crud, gently brushed it out with a tooth brush, and what do you know? Charger clicks in and the phone starts charging as good as new. Definitely taught me some tricks for cleaning my own electronics better

[@KageStelhman]

Little tip for machining tungsten: Always Drag your cut, and use plenty of coolant so as not to dull your cutters too quickly. If you're heating it up before hand, it machines a lot like Hardened Steel.

[@BraxxJuventa]

Well done Alec. 👍😁

[@stevedoran3631]

The barrel is made of tungsten Alex, the points are hardened/tempered steel, the tungsten for weight of course, tungsten itself is not very hard, tough yes, but not hard, it's tungsten carbide that's hard and brittle, you can actually squeeze tungsten in a vice quite easily..... You were running your lathe far too fast for tungsten, your tip needs a smaller rad, the bar was trying to 'climb' over the tip, hence the strange noise a chatter finish.

[@valeriiradchenkov5761]

The easiest way to sharpen tungsten is by electrolysis Just make a concentrated solution of caustic soda, take a car battery, connect the +wire to the tungsten and put the -wire into the solution. Then if you dip the tungsten in and out of solution for a few minutes and youll get a nice sharp and shiny tungsten needle. Its a lot easier than achieving the same sharpness and finish on a grinder. Tungsten is very hard and brittle but it has a very wierd tendency to crack along crystal boundaries which is the reason for the splitting

[@mattw940]

use to have dart board on the fence at one end of a field, and throwing from further away each turn, they were soon being thrown base balls and eventually like in grid iron

[@ddervish2]

another fun project but I do miss the multi-part knife/sword builds. Doesn't your dad do a lot of chair making? how about making him a spoon-knife? Draw knife? clog knife? side axe?

[@Belnick6666]

one of the most british things i ever seen hand made dart :o

[@brandonb417]

I was told in machine shop class the harder the material the slower the speed should be, also, we were always told to use lube wherever we could, made the tools last longer.

[@brockmannwells]

Great video, an idea for the 4th of July (for your American viewers), a set of BBQ utensils. Dying to see a damascus spatula 😂

[@Mountain_Man]

Noice! Alec you should make Damascus handcuffs and matching key. You will have to figure out how to make all the lock mechanisms, chain, all of it

[@toddtaillefer4859]

You should make a amazing Damascus belt buckle knife.

[@bsmnt23]

Make a hunga munga; it's an African throwing knife with many interesting designs. Should be a fun make.

[@kevthedev9763]

this is great! would love to see a scratch built Swiss army knife!

[@VinayVarsani]

The dart board being the wrong orientation really bothered me more than i thought it would

[@TimothyHall13]

Oh Yeah!!! Thanks Alec!!!

[@thetrutha2177]

As someone who both plays darts and is a weld as soon as Alec said "tungsten," I asked myself, "Is he going to be clever en6to use tungsten from a tig touch?" It took him a bit to come up with that solution My second thought was "he cant be so stupid that he thought he could snap a piece of tungsten."

[@kinell188]

Really needed to make 3 matching ones.

[@imherkhan]

Put the tungsten in your hand drill and run it while u run the tip against a grinder disc or belt. Takes seconds, also you literally have tungsten rod the size you need for a dart point with your tig welder. Same sharpening method is the best for tig tungsten

[@MountainGoatSolid]

Should make a Damascus Steel cutlery set now!

[@georgeschnakenberg7808]

I said the exact same thing! I'm blowing up all comments that said the same! He'll use them with his family forever ❤️

[@jasondeansmith79]

Alec I love making knives and I love fishing. I struggle trying to make a fillet knife. Can you do a show making a 10” fillet knife.

[@bobmarley2467]

It’d be pretty cool to see Alec forge a deck of Damascus playing cards.

[@PaulWinstanleyPhysio]

Suggestions from the comments you say... Damascus swiss army knife!!!

[@The_Fluid_Druid]

Surely making three functionally identical darts has to be requisite!

[@stridertwo3744]

Good way to mess with people with OCD. With the 18 on top with that set up on the dart board at the end.

[@ConvincedIdiot]

I would 100% buy a set if they were matched in weight and balance! Also, my two go-to sets of darts are tungsten barreled with steel tips, but i would still pay a pretty penny for damascus steel darts. you would need to harden them, and then press fit some pretty good steel tips

[@timrr7]

Well it wouldn’t be an Alec Steele project if he didn’t have to start again at some point. As everyone is saying the barrel is normally tungsten to increase the weight. Old school darts were made from brass and thicker to give the weight. The thinner tungsten darts make it easier to get all three darts in triple 20.

[@matthewsimmons2246]

I shall now take this as steele-clad life advice, "Some things are better left a mystery, for the romaaance".

[@paulina76161]

tools, toola , toola. I adore tools brother. Thank you. got to throw some darts soon.

[@Woody321]

Make an Olympic weightlifting bar either entirely in Damascus (if possible) or more likely to work, just both ends in Damascus and then give it to me 😉

[@MitchellBrown-bv3zl]

it would be fun to see you make Damascus steel glasses frame

[@Sniperwoods]

Mate you need to get a tumbler for polishing. So much hand work you could just set and forget.

[@AB-Prince]

I'd love to see you make a small 1/4 scale anchor (about 5 inch tall, 4 inch wide)

[@Siporax1]

Next up- a damascus pool cue!

[@SarahGreyWolf]

I appreciate the, Jamie cleans his charging port, footage

[@rjdorman6580]

I’d like to see you make another folding knife the friction folder you made years ago was awesome

[@gr8rpwrs]

How about some damascus sunglasses frames next? Those would be some incredibly challenging small pieces to machine, but they would be some of the coolest sunglasses around!

[@DjDolHaus86]

It's a lot less challenging than you might think, it's basically 3 main pieces for the frame (either cut from plate or made from wire), 2 small screws and 2 bits of bent wire for the bits that rest on your nose. The lenses are the hard bit

[@kirisilvermane]

Just started making longbows one tool I’d love to see you create is a draw knife! I’ll even nip over to the forge and show you how to make a long bow with it lol

[@errolloewenthal4620]

Thanks for making my recommendation

[@roberthigginbotham114]

When are you going to do another live show? That’s one thing I used to always love watching you doing your live videos.

[@tissuepaper9962]

TIG welding electrode was what you wanted for the tip, I think.

[@adambarron4015]

Mildly surprised Alec didn't decide to make lawn darts halfway through.

[@joshrepik]

Jamie be sure to use something non conductive when you clean an iPhone charge port. They can arc and wreck your port. I use a toothpick. Also clean the detente on each side to get the click

[@Unabonger420]

very cool - now texture the barrel and build a shaft! I don't think I've ever seen you work aluminum, I know nothing about it.

[@jellolon8435]

Harden the damascus before etch for right amount of contrast

[@stitchfantommy]

with how much time you spend with your doggos, making some collars would be rad. I have a Kong collar and the buckle is all metal!