Thought I’d do an update here.
To get everyone up to speed: quite a while ago a hairline crack appeared on my original Devon Thomas blade at the thumb stud. CRK replaced the blade with a Chad Nichols Raindrop blade. The CN blade has a much tighter and more uniform pattern, but the etch is not as deep. CRK re-blasted the slabs when they did the blade swap, so the knife arrived back to me “like new”.
Anyways..........used this knife a LOT over the past couple years. One of my favourite knives to carry. The knife has so many “snail trails” now on the slabs, that they have blended into one another.
I love this knife and have ZERO regrets about putting it in pocket. It’s lightweight, beautiful, sharp, and functional.
Things you might notice are listed below. (NOTE: it is very hard to photograph snail trails and blade scratches and Damascus patterns as you might be aware. A wide angle camera-phone just can’t capture the angles of light your eyes can)
- At a distance, after lots of use, the CN blade mostly appears dull grey. It’s kinda cool, as it matches the colour of the Ti slabs, but it is not as dramatic as it was when the CN blade was new.
- The area around the thumb stud has become shiny, from rubbing with my thumb. This is only apparent at certain angles.
- The pattern still reveals itself, in its full glory, at certain angles. It shows no signs of disappearing entirely.
At a glance it looks like this:
In the right light it looks like this:
Note the “polish” around the thumb stud:
Some other random pics: