My Dark Cu Mai has a core of 1095 carbon steel clad on each side with up to 20 layers of 1095 steel and pure copper. Once ground, heat treated and etched you will have a striking black blade with beautiful wavy Copper lines on each side above a pure black core.

Being a laminate Dark Cu Mai is supplied with a rough ground finish and a nominal thickness. It will be up to 1mm thicker than the nominal thickness so you have the best opportunity to center the core in your grind. It comes with full, illustrated instructions for a grinding method that will reveal the core in a manner that will show an even amount of cladding on each side of the knife. As grinding progresses, you will be able to adjust the final thickness within the range of 2.5 - 3mm. It takes a little skill to centre the core in your grind so this material is not recommended for knife making newbies. Please wait till you're confident with your grinds.

It is strongly recommended that you DO NOT attempt to re-forgr this product. My Dark Cu Mai is forged welded with the aid of a very aggressive GAS FLUX and extremely tight temperature control. Copper melts at a lower temperature than the normal forge welding temperatures used for steel Damascus. If the copper melts it will diffuse into the grain boundaries of the steel, weakening the structure. Therefore, it is essential that the copper MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO MELT. Sealing  the edges of the billet by welding before forging, as advocated by some YouTubers, to prevent copper escaping simply DOES NOT WORK. The molten copper contained therein will affect and damage all the steel layers it comes into contact with!!!

Also, remember, Clarke Knives offers a professional heat treatment service. Please read all the FAQ's to see how the service operates. Once heat treated and finished the blade will need to be etched. See how I do it here