Is a damascus steel blade always heat treated.?
damascus is just a fancy term for pattern welded steel meaning steel that has been folded in one way or another from several types of steel to make one solid bar today most places claiming to sell damascus( due to it’s legendary qualities) sell something that was folded a few times poorly in order to create fancy layers that you can see damascus steel was the way ancient smiths tried to make a homogeneous bar of steel for making things( most famously swords) out of however this technique was abandoned after European steelmakers found better ways to make it cheaper and easier and with a final product that was honestly the same in nearly every practical way so to answer your question yes and no yes it had to be treated by heat to make it however when a maker says heat treated they refer to tempering and hardening after the product is already shaped and that is not a prerequisite of Damascus( it is just really useful for a good finished product)
