During the last decades a great variety of methods have been proposed for damage detection by using the dynamic structure characteristics, however, most of them require modal data of a structure for the healthy state as a reference. In this paper the applicability of the mode shape curvature squares determined from only the damaged state of the structure for damage detection in a beam structure is studied. To establish the method, two aluminium beams containing different-size mill-cut damage at different locations are tested by using the experimentally measured modal data. The experimental modal frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes are obtained by using a scanning laser vibrometer with a PZT actuator. From the mode shapes, mode shape curvatures are obtained by using a central difference approximation. With the example of the beams with free-free and clamped boundary conditions, it is shown that the mode shape curvature squares can be used to detect damage in the structures. Further, the extent of a mill-cut damage is identified via modal frequencies by using a mixed numerical-experimental technique. The method is based on the minimization of the discrepancy between the numerically calculated and experimentally measured frequencies.