Damascus blades: Pretty boys or working men?

> The designs are very pretty and all, but I am assuming that the steel is pretty soft.

Well, consider the Boker Leo Damast, made from the barrel of the (now old) german Leopard tank. They quote a hardness of 67Rc. That's very, very hard. I do not know if they chip or break easily however - these are relatively rare knives and I can't remember having read comments from an owner...
 
Swedge said:
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.
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My friend purchased a popular set of kitchen knives. The damascus looked really pretty when new, but now looks like crap. It seemed to be easily scratched and marred with average usage / wiped with something abrasive like a green Scotch-Brite cleaning pad. They function fine, but look beat up. Personally, I don't have a need or desire for bling or anything else that doesn't do something to improve performance.
 
looker said:
My friend purchased a popular set of kitchen knives. The damascus looked really pretty when new, but now looks like crap. It seemed to be easily scratched and marred with average usage / wiped with something abrasive like a green Scotch-Brite cleaning pad. They function fine, but look beat up. Personally, I don't have a need or desire for bling or anything else that doesn't do something to improve performance.
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:eek:

Well, there's your problem!
 
Modern damascus is probably just as good as any monosteel, especially if it comes from a reputable forge like Devin Thomas, Mike Norris, Alabama Damascus, etc. Of course, Damascus steel is called "Damascus" because it shares a similar look (but not a similar composition) to the original steel that was created by the master dark age metallurgists in Damascus, Syria - blades which were superior to any monosteel available at the time. I believe that the original steel was something called wootz (I think its spelled differently) and I think that no one today knows the true manner of construction of this legendary steel. If I remember correctly - I saw some show somewhere on this - even modern damascus steels are just attempts at mimicking the original wootz-type of steel because the original techniques and composition have been lost in time! So, I think modern damascus should contain the best properties of the steels involved, if created with skill.
 
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