Mnandi with Damascus Blade Questions

hodo615

hodo615

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Oct 18, 2008
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Hi, I have had many Mnandi knives, but not with a damascus blade. I want to get a Mnandi with a damascus blade. My questions are:

1) How does the cutting edge hold up?

2) Does the blade get scratched very easy? (I would only be doing light chores, boxes, tape, envelopes, etc.)

3) I prefer the old style nail nick, but I am not sure if all the damascus blades have the same style nail nick - that being old or new style?

Thank you!
 
I've not had a Mnandi, but I do have a Basketweave Damascus Large 21, so I can answer the first two.

1. The edge holding is up there with the S35VN. It is a blend of AEB-L, from what I've read, and hold a finer edge, whereas S35VN holds a working edge longer. It is also very easy to touch up, in my experience thus far. There are a few threads in the CRK forum comparing the steels - a couple of pages back at most.

2. The acid-etch finish is very durable. My uses are exactly what you've described, with a bit of cardboard slicing, and I cannot see a spot of wear or scratch in the entire pattern, and I am very particular. It was mentioned in a thread just a bit back that it took some seriously corrosive substance to effect the finish on the blade, and even that wasn't all that much apparent.

If I have an opportunity later, I'll try to link up the threads to which I've referred.

I wholeheartedly recommend the Damascus CRK uses.
 
I am new, but I have no problem using mine after watching a video I found and reading a few threads on damascus sebs. Edit: http://youtu.be/scWap84ym8Q

My understanding is that with long usage it will need to be re-etched and that CRK will do that in the spa treatment. I do not believe it is free though, but I could be wrong.

I will say that I prefer not to use mine, or any knife on tape. I just cant stand the blade getting tape stuck on it. I usually just use my keys or a SAK on tape.

Mine is a newer one, but I can open it easily one handed. Let us know if you get one.

Just took a pic of it. Sorry it's in black & white.

 
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The damascus blades hold up quite well and I would not be concerned using one as an EDC. I carried a bark mammoth with damascus Mnandi for about 2 years or so and it held up extremely well. The contrast will slightly fade over time with use, as mentioned above, re-etching will take care of that.
Both the S35V and damascus blades had the nail nicks and detent holes revised. I will say the new style doesn't bother me as much on damascus blades. I personally would still look for the older style though.
 
The above posts summed it up well, my experience is the same:thumbup: Make sure you post your new buy when it come in!
 
I have and use a Damascus Mnandi. I treat it like any other steel and it performs super well. It may look dainty, but it isn't at all. Can't say enough nice things about it.
 
I will have my new knife on Friday and will post pics. Thank you to all that have helped me!!
 
I've used a few Damascus crk's and the only two things that I've seen wear the etch were cardboard, which left a nice deep shiny scratch from edge to spine and when I used it to cut/check some smoking hot chicken that was marinated in Italian dressing which was still on the fire( it lightened up the color significantly!

I've cut tons of cardboard with a different Spirograph blade than the basketweave that scratched and have not had a single problem. I assume that the offending cardboard must've had some serious adhesive or an inclusion in the paper that caused the issue that one time.
I'm not sure what that super heated marinated chicken had going on but I'm not going to repeat that test to see if it happens again.

As much as I like the blades pristine I find it a bit relaxing when they get their first blemish( well a day or two later, after I'm done kicking myself ) because after that you stop worrying and just enjoy using it more.

They hold an edge even better than S35VN in my opinion and take a sharper edge.

Have fun and enjoy it.
 
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I have used this Damascus blade fairly extensively for the past few years. It's performed well and holds an edge in a similar fashion to S30V, in my experience.

It does show some wear and scratches from use though. I tried to capture the wear marks in the photo.
 
I personally am glad to to see that damascus can build character with use. Would getting it re-etched cover those up? Or, would it actually make them stand out more?
 
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