Damascus leeks arrived; I am underwhelmed

jonesjp@surry.net

jonesjp@surry.net

Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
421
Oh, the knives are certainly up to Kershaw standards, but the patterns on the two are nearly identical, and just not my cup of tea. I think that this is one of those de gustibus areas. I'm sure I'll be able to get my money out of them on ebay, but the sun didn't come out when I opened the box, and no celestial choir hummed in the background. Oh well.
 
really...sun and celestial chior for 70 bucks.....dude it's not like we are talking Devin Thomas patterned Damascus here. We are talking a nice reasonably priced, damascus for the masses kind of knife.
 
Absolutely. Though I still experience a bit of a frission with the rainbow. Looking at the two side by, I am drawn to the rainbow. As I said, degustibus non disputandum est

And it is a good, solid Kershaw, magnificently sharp, QC is spot on, nothing -wrong- with it. It just didn't float my boat.....

I'm still tempted to copy one frankenknife I saw here, and mount a damascus blade in a tungsten black handle.

I think the major problem is that the Damascus were a blind buy; I could not see the blades before I purchased. I doubt I would have if I'd seen the pattern first.
 
I may be showing my ignorance here, but, I had no idea what the meaning of that phrase was. I looked it up (thank you to The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002) and thought I'd share with the rest of you guys who may not know.

De gustibus non est disputandum


(day GOOS-ti-boos nohn est dis-poo-TAHN-dem) Latin for “There’s no disputing about taste.” Another version of this saying is “There’s no accounting for taste.”


Apparently my good ole WV edumacashun failed me again. Rats!!!
 
You should post some pics of the damascus blades so we can see what sort of patterns you ended up with.

Here are pics of mine from the first run.
damascusleek.jpg

damascusleek2.jpg


There are a few more pics from others in this thread.
 
Oooh, I like that pattern. I like the patterns and looks on thes blades more than some of the SS Damascus I have seen as they feel more, for lack of a better term, "old school". Like the real damascus from Damascus. Some of the new SS Damasc appear a bit too contrived for my tastes. I know this is just taste and I do appreciate the time and craftsmanship it takes to make a nice controlled damascus pattern, it's just not for me.

Anywho, here's mine which currently rides in some gloss G-10 scales

leek-damascus-01.jpg

leek-damascus-02.jpg


compared to the sorts faux-clad damascus that the Mcusta and Shun knives have.
leek-damascus-mcusta-01.jpg


edit: I meant "Craftsmanship" not "Craftman sh*t" sorry for the mistake.
 
Hmmm. They look a lot better today. It is either the gun oil or my medication, but there was a bit of fog on the blades yesterday. I can't wait to see how they look on black scales.

I'm tempted to try some tung oil on them. I'll try that out on another blade first to see how it works.

I've been meaning to go check out cameras. I know nothing about those; will the webcams work ok for this? Not only do I see great knives here, but I also see excellent pictures.
 
I've not tried this on damascus blades, but it works on the others and worked well on my composite bladed Tyrade. Just use some polishing paste, or polishing compound, I read where someone mentioned a product called, "mothers mag and something polish" Anyway I used it and it does do a great job. So, polish it and wipe all polish off, at this point I would think that the light colored metals will really stand out. Last step is simple, wax it for the final shine. I use Rennassaince Wax, but have used Johnsons Wax, a hard brownish wax available a lot of places. Just a thought as to how and make the damascus pop a bit more.:)
 
I would not polish damascus as part of what makes the pattern is the etching of the different types of metal. I could be wrong.
 
No, you may be right as I've never donr anything like I posted to damascus, so I may be wrong in endorsing it.
 
rebeltf said:
Tung oil on damascus steel ???


Steel is not wood.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that wood was often added to damascus in order to increase the carbon content. The folks trying to make wootz seem to think so, anyway. One maker I talked with likes to use dandelions, but there's no accounting for taste.... but you're probably correct that tung oil won't work well on steel. Any problem with using gun oil?
 
jonesjp@surry.net said:
My understanding is that wood was often added to damascus in order to increase the carbon content. The folks trying to make wootz seem to think so, anyway. One maker I talked with likes to use dandelions, but there's no accounting for taste.... but you're probably correct that tung oil won't work well on steel. Any problem with using gun oil?
Click to expand...


I wasn't trying to ride you bro but , this makes no sense.

Dandelions ? wood ? used in the making of damascus steel ?

I've googled the heck out of that and find no references to using wood , much less a dandelion in the making of damascus , if I am wrong than show me the light. ( something tells me you are pulling my leg )

That said tung oil will make a sticky mess on steel , any oil will work though.

A word of caution , if you choose to polish the damascus ( with say , Flitz ) you may not be able to see the pattern.
 
I think that he was referring to their use as a carbon source in making the steel, otherwise you are probably right to check your leg. ;)
 
I believe the dandelion 'petals' must be scattered to the east at local solar noon - as the Damascus is being made. Also, just a caution about tongues and a Dam Leek - mine was sharper than I thought, leaving me somewhat speechless about the matter - for a while.

Seriously, is it still Alabama Damascus, as used in Bear MGC's Damascus blades and the first Dam Leek (I like saying that...) run? Reportedly, it is true folded steel - must be nine folds, as they still state 512 layers. My largest such knife was a sale priced $100 Bowie - with definitely real, if somewhat pedestrian, Damascus - a neat Alabama product nonetheless. My most expensive is a teardrop Damascus Buck Custom Shop 110 - quite a looker. My other Bear Damascus is a 597D - pretty uninteresting, too - but a deal - and the stag scales helped, too. My Dam Leek is #2 in the beauty department - but gets lots of Sunday pocket time.

Oh, the Bear Dam Bowie won't cut paper without help - and would probably have to be heated to cut butter - but it does an uncanny job of cutting wood - saw-like. Probably a great, albeit different, macro-scale 'bushcraft' knife - or short stabbing spear, in the Shaka Zulu style. The Dam Leek is quite useful - even for cutting, although my plain-Jane 440A Leeks may be better.

Stainz

PS I tried, before I was enlightened, to 'improve' that Bear Damascus short sword/Bowie by Semichrome polish... oops, blended it! A coat of mineral oil brought back some character - but my first generation Dam Leek is far nicer. I would nix the polish - unless you saw corrosion.
 
rebeltf said:
I wasn't trying to ride you bro but , this makes no sense.

Dandelions ? wood ? used in the making of damascus steel ?

I've googled the heck out of that and find no references to using wood , much less a dandelion in the making of damascus , if I am wrong than show me the light. ( something tells me you are pulling my leg )

That said tung oil will make a sticky mess on steel , any oil will work though.

A word of caution , if you choose to polish the damascus ( with say , Flitz ) you may not be able to see the pattern.
Click to expand...

I didn't think -you- were trying to ride me; putting tung oil on steel that you want to use is not a sound idea, but I was only tugging slightly on your leg.

Last year I got it into my head to have made a Kard from persian wootz. I did a ton of research, and talked to lots of people (maybe ten) who were working on re-creating the recipe. One of these used dandelions and ground glass as a source for carbon in his mix. I'm sorry I don't still have that folder of urls, but I'm neither joking nor fabricating.

Never did get the kard. Oh well.
 
rebeltf said:
A word of caution , if you choose to polish the damascus ( with say , Flitz ) you may not be able to see the pattern.
Click to expand...

Rebeltf is correct. Flitz is a mild abrasive. I use Metal Glow polish which is safe to use on damascus (and all other) blades. It's non-abrasive and works great.
Follow that up with a little Renaissance Wax and you've got all you need.
 
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