Help With Damascus Knife Bought On Ebay

Jack Black

Jack Black

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Hello fellers,

I’m looking for some help with a damascus-bladed knife I bought on Ebay for @ $50. It’s the first knife of its type I’ve owned and I have no experience with Damascus steel.




I’m told it was made by hand in the US, but there’s no maker’s mark on the knife, and I’ve been unable as yet to find out who made it. Any ideas?

The finish of the knife is actually quite poor, with a number of flaws, and while it’s certainly handmade, it looks to me like it was rushed, so maybe someone turning them out at a piece-work rate? Or maybe a ‘second’ or reject? And maybe it was made outside the US?

There are some surface scratches on one side of the blade, which spoil the look of the Damascus. Any suggestions to get rid of those?



When the rosewood handle has been ground to fit the tang it’s been done very clumsily, with the finger cut-out being angular rather than round. Not much I can easily do about that I guess. It’s also left the steel polished and shiny, not just along the spine and underneath the handle, but on the exposed butt. Any suggestions for fixing this?





Lastly, any suggestions for a sheath? That’s if this knife is worth the effort (opinions?)

Thanks guys.

Jack
 
You never know about these types of knives on ebay. The absence of a maker's mark doesn't mean that the knife wasn't handmade. Alot of new or lesser known makers do not have a mark to etch into their blades.

This also could have been a "kit" knife but I am not sure about that.

The good thing is that damascus can be refurbished somewhat. Someone can re-etch the pattern for you.

As far as the sheath goes---- kydex will scratch it worse than what it is in most cases.

You have to decide for yourself if the knife is worth spending much money on. Also, if you use the knife it will just get scratched up all over again.

If it is functional then I say just put a good sharp edge on it and use it. Unless it happens to be some early made knife from a well-known maker than by the time you sink more money into it you could have taken that money and put it towards buying something better.
 
It's a knife made by someone who bought one of the damascus blade blanks (probably off ebay). Looks like it was his first try.
 
I think I would agree with Wildewinds. I really just dropped in to say that "hand made" is not an indication of quality. Neither is "machine made." A good product or a poor one can come from either source.

As to the knife itself, try to get an idea of the steel hardness. If this is machine made damascus from either Pakistan or Alabama, it might be pretty soft. That means it might be nice to look at but not so practical to use. As you might guess, there are some wonderful damascus steels available and some not so wonderful.

Also, it wouldn't be much of an issue to sand down the handle and refinish it. I tend to like the finishes used by wood turners. You can apply them and then buff them in with a buffer. The buffer will also polish the rivets. You could sand down the blade also if you like and re-etch it carefully.
 
Thanks a lot for your help guys.

I think it almost certainly is a handmade knife, or at least finished by hand (rather badly!)

I also wondered if it was a kit knife. Even the blade has some flaws though, for example the false edge is not central.

The info on e-bay was given as follows (how accurate the Rockwell rating is I don't know):

The blade is genuine wave pattern damascus steel knife. Made by skilled blacksmith, craftsmen with several generations of expertise, stretching back to the 19th Century and beyond, and handed down from Father to Son. The Blade is produced entirely by Hand using A mixture of low carbon steel and high carbon steel welded together several times to obtain at least 200 layers and pattern. Its hardness is 58 HRC on rockwell scale.
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So far I've not done anything at all with the knife except photograph it. It arrived reasonably sharp, so I guess the next thing to do is see if I can get a better edge on it. I'm in the UK, and I'm not sure how many knifemakers here deal with Damascus, but I'll ask around.

It was sold by a proxy company on ebay, who sell a number of damascus bladed knives, supposedly produced by the same US maker. Be interested to hear from anyone who's seen anything similiar to my knife floating around.

Unfortunately I've been stung a couple of times on ebay, even buying new branded knives from dealers, so I think I'm going to try to resist buying more.
 
The description you posted from the Ebay ad suggests to me that the knife was assembled from one of many "damascus" blades coming over from Pakistan or India. The steel is mystery steel, in most cases. You can get them off ebay for under $30 US. The "maker" likely bought the blade, tossed on a handle, then turned around to make a few bucks--er, quid, in your case--profit. It looks like the handle around the finger groove was shaped with a flat file. If you compare to the finger groove under the ricasso, you can see where they took off more material than they intended.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few people on ebay selling kit knives as their own, and some are getting good money too.
 
NStricker said:
The description you posted from the Ebay ad suggests to me that the knife was assembled from one of many "damascus" blades coming over from Pakistan or India. The steel is mystery steel, in most cases. You can get them off ebay for under $30 US. The "maker" likely bought the blade, tossed on a handle, then turned around to make a few bucks--er, quid, in your case--profit. It looks like the handle around the finger groove was shaped with a flat file. If you compare to the finger groove under the ricasso, you can see where they took off more material than they intended.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few people on ebay selling kit knives as their own, and some are getting good money too.
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Appreciate the post and the info. I think this is probably the case, whoever put the handle on they certainly didn't take much care over it, and it's very basic at best.
 
Take a decent file to the edge, like you're sharpening it, that is. If it's really 58, the file should hardly remove any steel, and it will seriously dull the file teeth. If the file bites into the steel & you can easily get filings/dust off the blade, it's soft, or at least softer than 58. The only ones like this I have experience with were probably in the upper 40s Rc, and you still can get a lot of use out of them, but it's not what I'd prefer.
 
Jack,
Have you ever built a kit knife? Wanna' find out how? This would be a perfect candidate for a new set of scales. If you do or will hang out in the Knifemaker's section, you can pick up a lot of valuable do-it-yourself information. I think it has nice lines and that it's got some potential, as long as the metal checks out usable. I'd jump on it in a second if you were stateside. You can do a kydex and leather sheath that would be functional and protect the finish. There's a tutorial floating around somewhere on one of those.
 
mauserdude67 said:
Jack,
Have you ever built a kit knife? Wanna' find out how? This would be a perfect candidate for a new set of scales. If you do or will hang out in the Knifemaker's section, you can pick up a lot of valuable do-it-yourself information. I think it has nice lines and that it's got some potential, as long as the metal checks out usable. I'd jump on it in a second if you were stateside. You can do a kydex and leather sheath that would be functional and protect the finish. There's a tutorial floating around somewhere on one of those.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the tips Mauserdude (and to The Possum!), greatly appreciated. When I originally saw the knife for sale, I did think about replacing the scales. I've put together a couple of knives in the past. I'll check out the knifemakers section, if the steel is OK and I can do something about the finish maybe my cash hasn't been entirely wasted
 
I love Damascus, and I'm afraid your sample is quite poor UNLESS you want to use it as a rustic piece. Still, that's no excuse for excessive tool marks. Depending on how deep the scratches are, you may be able to polish them out with some abrasive material.

The Damascus I have is made in Alabama and I find it quite usable, though it's likely softer than other steels. I just like its looks. The bottom line is that Damascus is too much of a question mark in today's world to buy it on faith. Smoky Mountain Knife Works sells a lot of pretty Damascus at cheap prices. Just don't ask them any questions about it, because they can't tell you how hard or soft it is, how many layers it has or anything else. This no doubt will change over time. (I noticed in their last catalog, they didn't even feature any Damascus knives. This makes me wonder if they're sitting on the shelf.)

P.S. -- Can you list the place you bought this from? I'd like to check out other items this person has.
 
Confederate said:
I love Damascus, and I'm afraid your sample is quite poor UNLESS you want to use it as a rustic piece. Still, that's no excuse for excessive tool marks. Depending on how deep the scratches are, you may be able to polish them out with some abrasive material.

The Damascus I have is made in Alabama and I find it quite usable, though it's likely softer than other steels. I just like its looks. The bottom line is that Damascus is too much of a question mark in today's world to buy it on faith. Smoky Mountain Knife Works sells a lot of pretty Damascus at cheap prices. Just don't ask them any questions about it, because they can't tell you how hard or soft it is, how many layers it has or anything else. This no doubt will change over time. (I noticed in their last catalog, they didn't even feature any Damascus knives. This makes me wonder if they're sitting on the shelf.)

P.S. -- Can you list the place you bought this from? I'd like to check out other items this person has.
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I'm hoping I may be able to polish out the blade scratches. Unfortunately, other parts of the knife have already been over polished, ruining the damascus effect, and I'm not sure what I can do about that.

Here's a link Confederate: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=140197601841&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=004
 
Supposedly, the only think you can do to bring out the damascus effect is to re-etch it. You do that by dipping the blade in acid. There's a specific acid, usually used to etch circuit boards.... and I can't remember the name. You buy it at electronics supply shops.

The problem will be protecting the handle from the acid. It may be possible, but I've never tried it. Usually the dipping in acid part is done before there's a handle on there.
 
The blade is genuine wave pattern damascus steel knife. Made by skilled blacksmith, craftsmen with several generations of expertise, stretching back to the 19th Century and beyond, and handed down from Father to Son. The Blade is produced entirely by Hand using A mixture of low carbon steel and high carbon steel welded together several times to obtain at least 200 layers and pattern. Its hardness is 58 HRC on rockwell scale.
Click to expand...
I found this exact wording at one other auction, in eBay Korea from the same seller. Different blade shape, but same damascus and build quality. I suspect someone is making these in their garage from imported blade blanks, then distributing them on consignment through "We-Bay-4-u."

Or it could be that someone in the USA did assemble the kits, and two of the knives ended up in the UK and ended up being auctioned by We-Bay-4-U.

Either way, I doubt the actual eBay seller knows anything first-hand with regards to the knives' origins.
 
Wildewinds said:
Supposedly, the only think you can do to bring out the damascus effect is to re-etch it. You do that by dipping the blade in acid. There's a specific acid, usually used to etch circuit boards.... and I can't remember the name. You buy it at electronics supply shops.

The problem will be protecting the handle from the acid. It may be possible, but I've never tried it. Usually the dipping in acid part is done before there's a handle on there.
Click to expand...

(Sorry fellers, been offline for a couple of days.) Thanks Wildewinds. I'm not too worried about losing the handle on this knife. Anyone know the name of this acid, any other advice?
 
Bob W said:
I found this exact wording at one other auction, in eBay Korea from the same seller. Different blade shape, but same damascus and build quality. I suspect someone is making these in their garage from imported blade blanks, then distributing them on consignment through "We-Bay-4-u."

Or it could be that someone in the USA did assemble the kits, and two of the knives ended up in the UK and ended up being auctioned by We-Bay-4-U.

Either way, I doubt the actual eBay seller knows anything first-hand with regards to the knives' origins.
Click to expand...

Sounds like I got stung :( I'm new to Ebay and had a bit of mad knife-buying weekend. Apart from this knife, I bought a cheapie which turned out to be just a piece of junk, one of those Tom Anderson designed 'razor' knives, which I still haven't received, and a couple of Cold Steel knives - These have turned out to be the biggest rip-off of all. I got the knives cheap, but got hammered for postage, and they still haven't come. Worse, for some reason UK Customs are wanting to charge me an additional $30 to import them! Think I'm going to keep away from Ebay in future!
 
I get hammered by customs too. Assuming the knife is of agriculture or kitchen use intended, it is then taxed 30%!! Since I don't go for cheap stuff then I really feel the bite!

Since i'm a scrooge and I want tactical (clearly a no no by asian laws) stuff I get them labelled as TOOLS. That has a higher chance of crossing the customs without qualifying for the customs chomp! As of current I got almost 20 knives (within 6 months) witout a cent in tax or confiscation... And I intend to keep collecting!

Hope this helps, it may only work for my country but who knows?
 
Hey Cotherion, where've you been, haven't seen any of your posts in ages?! The 2 Cold Steel knives finally arrived yesterday - they were a Valentine's gift for my girlfriend! (What a romantic huh?!) Because the dealer included the rip-off shipping charge in the value of the knives I ended up paying @ $30 in customs fees! And the idiots mailed one of the knives with the tip of the blade exposed (see the thread I posted about it!!)
 
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