Damascus blades: Pretty boys or working men?

S

Swedge

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Dec 23, 2008
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My question is about the fancy damascus blades on high-end folding knives like those of William Henry Studio. The designs are very pretty and all, but I am assuming that the steel is pretty soft.

If you used a knife with a damascus blade, would the damascus portion get scratched up so that you really wouldn't want to use the blade for cutting things like dirty cardboard that might have a lot of grit in it?
 
I always kinda thought of them as white collar more than pretty boys. Pretty boys don't work at all.
 
Not all damascus is equal. Some will be good as users, some only good for looking at, same as monosteels. It all depends on the maker's choice of steels and heat treat.

All blades will get scratched through use, damascus or otherwise. Don't let that stop you. If you find a quality knife you want go get it.
 
Scratch or no scratch, pretty looks or not, damascus has never been my thing. Not sure why, but it just doesn't work for me and I don't even consider it when thinking about a purchase. Although some is very artistic.
 
kamagong said:
Not all damascus is equal. Some will be good as users, some only good for looking at, same as monosteels. It all depends on the maker's choice of steels and heat treat.

All blades will get scratched through use, damascus or otherwise. Don't let that stop you. If you find a quality knife you want go get it.
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That said, personally I don't own a "working" damascus blade. Mine are all collection pieces, so I guess I view aesthetics as the deciding factor for me.

Someday I may choose a working knife that just happens to be damascus.

Kevin
 
i only have one damascus knife.

caswell edc folder, heat treated by bos to 62rc, iirc.

looks of damacus, usability of zdp.
 
Most modern day damascus is mostly show, and less go. Back in "the day", before metallurgy reached the level it's at now, damascus presented practical advantages over plain steel. This is no longer the case, IMO. Unless you're talking about laminated steel like Fallkniven uses. Maybe the fancy stuff being made in the custom world is great working steel (I kinda doubt it), but I don't know much about custom-forged steels, and you rarely see any testing.

Most damascus being used today by production companies is probably just fine for everyday use. But I would venture to say that it's inferior to the standard steels used by the same makers as a "user steel". Case in point- Chris Reeve. I've never heard it argued that his damascus blades outperform his standard steels. If damascus was really a superior performer, you would see it in dedicated hard-use knives, which you do not.
 
Well you specifically asked about the William Henry damascus. and for a few years now William Henry's damascus has had a core of zdp-189 and a hardness of 67. So its not going to be a soft steel by any means. Im sure they will make great little slicers and are well equipped to being used in any way that any other william henry can be used.

As for other damascus it all depends on the maker, and what steels maked up the blade. Some will be stainless and others will not be. Most good companies will tell you what steels go into their damascus blades and most damascus will hold the good and bad qualities of the steels that make it up.
 
Some Indonesian pamor blades consisted of a hardened core steel used for the edge wrapped in softer "damascus" steel for strength. Like Riffraff said, it's all about the steel that composes the stuff.

The pattern is brought out by a surface etch, adn like any etch, it can eventually be polished away through heavy use, but most likely restored if one knows the right etchant to use.
 
I have one William Henry with San Mai, zdp-189 core, Damascus. Although it doesn't get used very hard it has held a scary sharp edge for a few years now. A few others I have are Mike Norris ss Damascus and they also wear well.

What I've experienced is; I'm less likely to notice scratches and dings on a Damascus blade because the pattern tends to hide them. I have a few Damascus fixed blades that do get used pretty often and they look no worse for the wear.
 
damascus as talked about in this thread is not a steel, it is a mixture of steels perfomed to produce a pattern. The performance will depend on the separate steels used, and the heat treat. There isn't an advantage in use from the maker spending many hours forge welding the billet, folding, twisting, cutting, etc to making the pattern, then after shaping the blade, polishing and etching to bring out the pattern.

you should be able to use a damascus blade, and a good maker will make it perform just as well as a similar monosteel, but he doesn't do the extra work, and you don't spend the extra money, to get the same performance. It is an aesthetic thing, and a demonstration of forging ability. Washing out the pattern with scratches, corrosion, whatever, sort of negates the effort to bringing it out to begin with. A dip in ferric chloride doesn't make your knife work any better.
 
Kevin Cashen's O-1/L6 damascus works very well at everything I've thrown at it.

He did a competition chopper out of damascus (called General Sherman) specifically to address this issue.
 
I believe Damascus forging was used to incorporate the properties of different steel into a single blade. For the most part, has been replaced by modern forging techniques.

Many modern brands are doing what I think the Japanese call "suminagashi” or faux Damascus. They’re cladding a outer jacket on top of the inner core, creating a Damascus appearance of multiple layers / ink patterns. The cladding may serve some function purpose with some cores, but I believe it’s mostly done for cosmetic, ornamental reasons.
 
The cladding may serve some function purpose with some cores, but I believe it’s mostly done for cosmetic, ornamental reasons.
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That's my understanding too. The question I have is whether using a knife with a damascus blade will result in the damascus portion being scratched up and rendered "ugly" so that one would not want to use such a blade for anything other than light cutting.
 
Both.

Keep in mind that Damascus blades have won cutting competitions. It depends upon the composition of steels in the specific damascus and the skill of the smith forging and welding it.

Not all Damascus is created equally.
 
Ive got a small user Case trapper, from the late 80ies I believe, and when sharpened it seems to get a grittier,micro-serrated type edge. You cant seem to strop and smooth/polish that edge off like I can with my other carbon steel slippies. I cant tell that much difference in the cutting abilities abilities and sharpen too often to notice whether one holds an edge longer than the other. It does scratch up with use and some of the pattern seems to fade but comes back when I oil it--KV
 
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