When making "iron" by the "bloom" method a long time ago, the amount of
carbon that got into the iron was often quite variable.
The process of squeezing the slag out of the bloom (a mixture of iron
particles and slag), to make all those iron particles stick together to
produce usable iron involved folding the metal over and forge welding
the folds together.
They could ascertain that some parts of the bloom contained more
carbon than other parts. By stacking up layers of the low carbon and
high carbon pieces, welding (which thins and lengthens the work)
folding, over and over makes the individual layers thinner and thinner.
As this all occurs, carbon migrates from areas of higher
concentration to areas of lower concentration. I am told that by the
time the individual layers get to about 0.003 inches thick, the carbon
concentration had evened out through the whole piece. Now you have a
homongeneous piece of steel for your sword or axe or whatever.
We see a lot of this folding and welding going on where they leave
the layers thicker on purpose. They use alloys that have differing
color characteristics that show up when the surface is etched. Damascus.
I'm not a knife maker, so please don't flame me.

Pete Stanaitis
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wrote:

i wonder, what actually makes folded steel better?