Is this Damascus knife any good

S

sofasurfer

Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Messages
8
I saw a knife for sale at the local landscape place today. It was a "Damascus camp knife". Blade was 9.5 inches. Handle was plain stained and varnished wood. Blade had all of the lines that you see on a Damascus blade. Touching the blade you could also feel the Damascus lines. Very sharp edge on the blade. They wanted something like $20.
I'm sure you are already saying "Buy, this guy don't know sqaut about knives". Thats right. I am just someone who recently started liking knives.
Does this knife sound any good? Could it look like Damascus and actually be crap? I am surprised to see that the makings on a Damascus blade can be felt...if this is a real one.
What do you think?
 
Hard to say without an actual picture. For $20 it could make a nice wall hanger, or even a very light user in some cases. Damascus steel does not offer any significant advantage over homogenous steel, aside from aesthetic purposes. It is pretty to look at and when done with artistic interpretation in mind can make some of the most beautiful patterns you've seen.
 
I'm just taking a stab without knowing the make/model...

Beyond cosmetic appeal, it is unlikely the knife is good for functional usage. It's also rare to see high-end knives for extremely low prices, especially at those kinds of shops. It may be nice to put in a case, but it will probably fall apart with usage.

At the price point, it is possible that the knife itself may not be "damascus"* as traditionally pictured, but be a mild steel with a forced patina or acid-etching to give the appearance of fold lines traditionally associated with damascus. With certain types of chemicals to force a chemical change that results in a visual change, the texture of physically "feeling" the fold lines can feel different from the rest of the knife.

Even if it actually is damascus, the quality is probably low and when damascus is done poorly, its easy for anything you cut to creep into the fold lines and literally rust the knife from the inside out, which is impossible to stop. Also, chances are the heat treatment sucked and so the steel itself will lack the performance that one looks for in a good knife.

With the current high-performance/low-cost steels on the market, h. steels are much more practical on lower-cost knives IMO. You probably will not see that on a damascus knife, and there are a lot of makers currently making very high-quality cutlery at very low prices. So if you are looking to use it, it's my opinion that it is probably not worth the money




*the terminology of "damascus" itself is kind of an ambiguous term.
 
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