Can Someone Please Explain Damascus?

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marcusthemonkey

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Oct 30, 2009
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I love the look of Damascus knives, but I know very little about it. It has a beautiful look to it, but all cosmetics aside, is it a relevant steel for heavy use in todays knife market? I realize there are probably many types of damascus, but I'm hoping to get some general info.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Damascus? How does it compare to other steels like S30V, D2, VG10, 1095, etc? Are there certain types to look for over others?

Any information would be appreciated. I would love to pick up the odd damascus blade, but I don't buy knives just to look at them. I keep them for urban EDC and others for outdoor use.
 
Yeah, I was going to qualify that I didn't know anything other than was on wikipedia, but clearly forgot. I was hoping for more of a knife enthusiast focus than what wikipedia provides.
 
marcusthemonkey said:
It has a beautiful look to it, but all cosmetics aside, is it a relevant steel for heavy use in todays knife market?
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IMO, in today's knife industry using damascus is purely a cosmetic choice. When metalurgy was more primative, damascus was one way to impart the properties of multiple types of metal into one object. These days, the various steel alloys available meet the needs of the knife maker and user without going through the time consuming and costly process of damascus making.

Hopefully some of the steel gurus on the forum can provide you with more specific details.
 
I bought a Small Boker Magnum Damascus lady folder (about 5.2 total length) for work (work at a school district) and it handles well in cutting, anything heavyer than simple cutting I have a kabar mule in the truck or my leatherman skeletool.

I like it and it holds a blade well.
 
What is commonly called damascus steel today is actually pattern welded steel. Two or more different alloys are welded, then folded and manipulated to produce the pattern you see. Same as any other blade steel, if you use quality material and give it a quality heat treat you end up with a quality blade. Stick with known makers and you should have a very serviceable knife.
 
Metallurgy has two "L"s !! Yes damascus today is decorative.They can be very servicable if you pick the right alloys and HT properly.
 
Is there any reason to go for a damascus blade over S30V, 1095, d2, etc? It seems the early consensus is for cosmetic value.
 
marcusthemonkey said:
Is there any reason to go for a damascus blade over S30V, 1095, d2, etc? It seems the early consensus is for cosmetic value.
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Exactly.

As already stated, you can get quality damascus that will be a great knife, so there isn't really any reason to steer clear, but it really is a design choice.

Kevin
 
It looks great, and that's about it.
I don't think there's any practical reason behind the use of Damascus nowadays.
 
I could be wrong but I believe you can make Damascus (pattern welded) steel out of just about any steel. Or you can also find Damascus laminated over a specific core steel, IIRC Macusta makes a laminated Damascus blade with a VG-10 core.
 
black mamba said:
What is commonly called damascus steel today is actually pattern welded steel. Two or more different alloys are welded, then folded and manipulated to produce the pattern you see.
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True words. The real damascus has been lost into history. Nobody knows how real damascus steel was done. Its really shame.

But current damasti-steels are good for user knives, depending how you plan to use them, though damascus blades are more used theses for decoration knives or gentleman folder use
 
uncouth said:
I could be wrong but I believe you can make Damascus (pattern welded) steel out of just about any steel. Or you can also find Damascus laminated over a specific core steel, IIRC Macusta makes a laminated Damascus blade with a VG-10 core.
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I could certainly go for a sweet looking blade with a VG-10 core. It seems the laminated versions are often priced within reason. I am often flabbergasted at how expensive Damascus knives can be. I suppose they are tapping into the collector market, but for a few hundred bucks, I would want super steel.
 
When I didin't know much I thought that Damascus was the strongest steel ever made
cause that's what true Japanese Katanas were made of. I thought they could cut through steel. Then I learned a bit more and found out it's a pretty steel, but not as
strong as some of the modern day steels we see today.
 
marcusthemonkey said:
I could certainly go for a sweet looking blade with a VG-10 core. It seems the laminated versions are often priced within reason. I am often flabbergasted at how expensive Damascus knives can be. I suppose they are tapping into the collector market, but for a few hundred bucks, I would want super steel.
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I agree. After all knives ultimate purpose is for use. I rather have a plain looking blade than one that might fail on me.
 
Being old school and being an old gun guy.....
Damascus scares me a bit.
Any gun collector will tell you to never shoot an old damascus shotgun with modern shotgun ammo as it is not safe...the steel is weak.

I understand that was old technology and today's damascus used as in knives, is a whole another animal....but still in the back of my mind.....it worries me. Just a mental thing, I suppose.
 
thejamppa said:
The real damascus has been lost into history. Nobody knows how real damascus steel was done. Its really shame.
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Maybe not. Do a search on Russian bulat wootz. It seems they may have recreated the original Damascus.
 
having purchased a large i.x.l. type bowie from don hastings in 1978 & reading lots about this stuff maybe ti can help. 1st off the finest patteren welded blade is not going to outperform our super knifemakers with their multiple tempers & tweaking they do with new & even older alloys. i beleive ed fowler busse,burke & eric ferhman would do damascus if it could outperform the blades they make. i've heard of damacus maybe cutting sisal rope 250 times but super tweaked blades may cut 4or 500 times on sisal. my opinion is damascus is for beauty 1st fucntion second. i'm not saying it does'nt take great skill & dedication to make damascus simply that performance has'nt at this time ever equaled the best bnlades made from homogenous alloys.
 
knifezoid said:
When I didin't know much I thought that Damascus was the strongest steel ever made
cause that's what true Japanese Katanas were made of. I thought they could cut through steel. Then I learned a bit more and found out it's a pretty steel, but not as
strong as some of the modern day steels we see today.
Click to expand...

do you still think that? because that is not true. you arent clear about it, but japanese swords are not damascus.

they used carbon steel, what they were able to do was seperate high carbon bits of steel from lower carbon bits of steel, and then combine them together. there's obviously the folding bit, and then the swords were then differentially hardened.

real damascus has/had vanadium in it
 
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