Crack along spine of Damascus knife

Mind the tip said:
Hello, I purchased a custom Damascus knife from a knife maker on a Sig firearm forum. I’ve owned it for a while now, but it sat unused in the sheath in a safe until just recently due to some health issues with our son when the blade was purchased. When I got it out to put it in the rotation, I discovered the spine has a crack over 2” in length. It can be felt with the fingernail very prominently along the entire length.

I asked the maker about this, and he was very reassuring that this is not an issue. After a few back and forth emails, below is the final message. I don’t have the knowledge to know if indeed this is a cosmetic issue, or if my concerns are warranted.

“I spoke to Peter‘s heat treating today about the issue that you’re having with the knife. They have done all my heat treating over all the years I’ve been doing this, and they agreed if it was an issue with the layering and fractures of the Damascus that it would’ve opened up With heat treat. I know this this may bother you, but I would not have sent it to you if it was not going to be structurally good.”

Now he is a very nice gentleman, and I purchased another knife very shortly after that I have been using, and it is great, albeit with no visible issues on that blade. So I’m just looking for opinions from those here with vastly more knowledge than I possess on this subject.
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Well...it's doing the thing Damascus does. (There's a reason it's not a frontline metal anymore. 😝 )

If 'you know' and it bothers you, I'd send it back with a short, gracious note.
 
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Richard338 said:
My guess is that he's as annoyed as you are right now. People who make their own damascus also do the heat treatment and don't send it to Peters'. He likely bought a billet somewhere to do stock removal with. Even the cheapest options aren't cheap. You should ask him to confirm this, and who made the billet. Perhaps they'll make it right for both of you.
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YES! Damas discards. I don't know how you tell....

Quite a while back, i bought three Damas blanks ($10 or 15 per) and sent them to a knife guy...an experiment. All three 'rejected'. No work started. Not doable. (Don't recall details ) I'm the only one, out of the three parties, that had no clue they were bad, at a look. Clearly, seller and 'knife guy' knew exactly what they were looking at. 😅
 
Hard to get good pics of edge, as I recall maker is in TN, I don’t remember where blank was from, but US, will try to track it down in messages.

I appreciate all of the replies.
 
Richard338 said:
My guess is that he's as annoyed as you are right now. People who make their own damascus also do the heat treatment and don't send it to Peters'. He likely bought a billet somewhere to do stock removal with. Even the cheapest options aren't cheap. You should ask him to confirm this, and who made the billet. Perhaps they'll make it right for both of you.
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So I cannot locate the message, you are correct, it was a blank, at the time he gave me the name of the place, in the US, and I had found them, but cannot remember. I believe him to be honest, so I don’t believe this was from overseas.
 
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