Acceptable or no?

Thomas Linton · Oct 2, 2003

I leave it to you gents. I purchased a damascus knife for over $330 off Ebay. It was said to be made from "a billet" of damascus. When it arrived, I saw that it was made of two pieces of damascus, forged together along the midline of the blade. There were pin hole voids along about one inch of the boundary line on one side and along a half inch of the boundry line on the other side of the blade. When, confessing ignorance about damascus, I asked the maker about the voids, he said the blade was fine and that perhaps the voids were the result of etching the blade. I offered to pay more for another knife without the voids. That offer and follow-up e-mail have been ignored for about a month. The credit card bill has arrived. Am I "full of it"? Is this knife up to the standards of the art? The maker has a good rep to date.

beluga · Oct 2, 2003

Is the knife okay ? Should be okay if the maker knows what he's doing

Is it acceptable ? Definitely not. You paid for "a billet" of damascus, not for a 'two-piece' of damascus.

However, are you sure about the 2-piece of damascus thing ? It's not uncommon to combine steels when making damascus, the inproper use of the steel would cause it to look like 2 pieces of damascus.

I would not rely so much on the maker's rep. I once bought a hand made custom knife from a knifemaker who had outstanding rep. He once built a reproduction of a famous bowie (not the Jim Bowie's, perhaps Blacks' bowie) for a museum - featured in one of the biggest knife magazine. But the knife that I recieved had gaps between the bolster and the tang, and he did not tell me about it. It would not affect the knife's performance, but I considered it as an unacceptable flaw. Even a beginner knife maker would not make such mistake. The flaws decrease much its appeal. But what the heck, it was supposed to be my beater knife anyway, so I did not pursue this matter any further.

Keith Montgomery · Oct 2, 2003

Do you have pictures of this knife. If so, could you please email yhem to me. I would like to get a look at this blade as I am having a hard time envisioning the blade from your description. If you would like I will post the pictures here so that others can get a better idea of what you got.

Thomas Linton · Oct 2, 2003

If you look at the blade in profile from the side, the top half is one piece of damascus and the bottom half is another. The maker did not dispute this. The grain from the different layers of steel does not match up. It's along the line where the two pieces were forged together (line of joinder visable when you have the knife in-hand but not apparent in EBay pics) that the pitting appears.

My son is the "techie." I'll try to post a picture.

Sid Post · Oct 2, 2003

If you will email me the pictures, I would be glad to take a look and provide more specific comments.

primos · Oct 2, 2003

Having the two differing pieces together like that is a composite damascus. Nothing wrong with that. Multi-bar composites are done all the time. They are visually exciting. It's actually more work than doing a single pattern weld. I can't comment on the voids you mentioned. There are a few things that could be going on there.

Jonathan Loose is currently doing a composite job if you want to take a look it. It will be a Migration era Viking sword. It consists of two billets in an interrupted twist pattern forge welded together, with a third straight laminated billet welded on for the edge. So it's three billets altogether. The top two billets have reversed twists. That is one is twisted clockwise and the other counter clockwise.

Jon is posting photo's of the project as it progresses. Here's a link:

http://www.ckdforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16995

Plain ol Bill · Oct 3, 2003

Just my opinion for what it is worth. If the original billet was drawn out, cut and rewelded one or ten times and no other steel was used it is still "a billet of damascus". A lot of my knives are six bar composites but all are still part of the "original billet".

Plain ol Bill · Oct 3, 2003

Don't know how to edit my previous post so will add this one. If "I" were the maker I would want a satisfied customer and would bend over backwards to ensure he was satisfied.

Keith Montgomery · Oct 3, 2003

Originally posted by Plain ol Bill
Don't know how to edit my previous post...

Bill, all you have to do to edit your previous post is click on the edit button in the lower right hand corner of your post. It is located beside the quote button.

Mr.BadExample · Oct 4, 2003

I have 3 knives by this maker of cable, and pool and eye pattern damascus. His customer service was great then, but if he's ignored you, things have changed. Even if this doesn't affect the performance of the knife, it certainly affects your enjoyment of it, and he should make it right. He sells enough knives on ebay that this could be re-sold as-is. Ignoring a dissatisfied customer is not good for business. I would try to contact him one last time, and then resort to negative feedback. Remember that once you leave feedback it can't be changed, and he is unlikely to want to make things right once it has been left, and his pristine feedback has been smudged. Feedback does matter on ebay, so I would definitely mention it in your final email request for a response.
If you have already left feedback, you can leave a "comment" on your feedback.
I've noticed that his knives, on ebay at least, do not have a high resale value, probably because he has 7 or so for sale at any given time. I like the ones I have, but I don't like his new mosaic, zebra, and other damascus patterns. And judging from your experience, he hasn't mastered them yet.