Difference between very expensive and expensive damascus blades.

[iceman123]

Hi
I want to make a Knife with a Swedish damascus steel blade (yes, it has to be swedish )

So I found a site with blades starting at around 380$, made out of damasteel

*Links to non supporting entities removed*

I later found two other sites. The blades from these two sites start at around 100$. So what is the difference?

Of course, you get what you pay for. But I can't imagine why one of those guys should be better than the other, they all look serious.

 

[MT Damascus]

The first link are blades ground of Damasteel , which is RWL 34 and PMC 27, performs very good and expensive. The other links look like quality damascus forged by talented smiths, one of the blades shown in the second link are from the talented Greg Verizhnikov, member here but he is from Russia. For a Swedish knife I would find a local smith to make what you want, with either their own damascus or Damasteel.

 

[iceman123]

So the main difference is that the steel used is probably a little bit better in the first link?

 

[MT Damascus]

I cant't say better, but the process to make Damasteel is very expensive and forges a very clean, powdered stainless damascus with both steels being knife steel that harden similarly. I use Damasteel in a variety of applications and it performs awesome, I also have forged damascus blades from talented smiths here in the US, that perform as well. I would suggest contacting Goran Enochsson out of Oscarshamn, Sweden.

 

[madcap_magician]

So the main difference is that the steel used is probably a little bit better in the first link?

The biggest difference is that Damasteel (This is a brand name) is stainless and the other damascus is carbon steel. That isn't really the factor that drives the price difference so much, except for the fact that stainless damascus is made by a lot fewer people and companies than carbon steel damascus, so there is an availability difference that can drive price differences.

The other difference would be manufacture. Most damascus is made by pattern-welding alternating layers of two or more carbon steel types and then etching resultant blades with acid to reveal the pattern (due to the differential effect of the acid on the different steel types). Damasteel is a proprietary powder metallurgy-formed steel, which is a more advanced manufacturing process that can't be done by just anyone with a forge and a power hammer.

 

[Lorien]

not a bad question, but I'm going to remove the links to entities who are not supporting Bladeforums members

OP: you might want to edit your post now that the links are removed