Pakistani Blades and "Damascus" Blades

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campandtravel

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I saw on these knife websites that you can get very inexpensive blades from Pakistan. I actually have a couple of pakistani blades that I've picked up at knife shows over the years, and they are some of my most handy and reliable knives, mostly because I don't give a crap about them, and those are always the ones you use most right? In drawers and tool boxes and stuff.

Anyway I was thinking of buying a still-cheap but more expensive "Damascus" pakistani blade with micarta handles. It's only $40 but I don't like to waste money, and I was thinking of using this as a belt knife camping. NOT as my field knife, just a camping knife, so my life won't depend on it but I do want it to be reliable and fun to use.

Here's what I'd like to know:

- what kind of steel do you think a Pakistani blade labeled "Damascus" uses (the listing just says "Damascus," nothing more), assuming a $40 knife and micarta handle - which is much more than some of the blades.

- how good do you think the Heat Treat would be? I'm thinking decent, because Pakistan and India make all of the stainless steel kitchenware in every restaurant in america. But I don't know which is why I'm asking

- qnything else I should consider?

Oh, and, Pro Tip: responding with any variation on "why not buy it and find out" is something that only people with erectile dysfunction say.
 
chalby said:
If you are going to troll, why not try to be more subtle?

Then again you will probably get 16 pages of replies, so don't answer that.
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I don't know what you mean but if I ever decide to troll, I'll be subtle about it just to make you happy IF you agree not to reply to posts when you don't have an answer to the question that was asked. Do we have a deal?
 
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campandtravel said:
- what kind of steel do you think a Pakistani blade labeled "Damascus" uses (the listing just says "Damascus," nothing more), assuming a $40 knife and micarta handle
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It is a combination of Jello, infused with particles of pot-metal, and alloyed with industrial-grade marshmallow.

campandtravel said:
anything else I should consider?
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Leaving this forum?
 
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Danke42 said:
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My feet are actually about that long...

C campandtravel most collectors frown on such knives, they are generally made from low quality metal and overpriced. They may look nice, but in addition to low quality "pot metal" they lack a proper heat treatment and therefore have very low edge retention. Knives like that further confuse people in a market that is saturated with counterfeit, fake, and low quality overpriced knives. It's bad enough when even well known name brands pull shenanigans as such (CRKT for example) but at least it will be usable, even if you are being egregiously ripped off.

My friend brought a damascus straight razor while overseas ( I believe it was in Thailand) and it was dull half way through his first shave. He never could get it shaving sharp again. Lesson learned.

In my opinion, buying cheap overseas knives exacerbates the problem. Not everyone can afford the knives we collect but it's better to spend $40-$50 on a rat2 than $5 on a jarbenza.

Everyone has to justify what they spend their money on, and what is "worth" it to them. It bothers me though when people complain about the price of one thing but then spend money on something else less useful/important. I don't need 28 folding knives, but I'm also not sacrificing more important things to fund my hobby, or complaining that the important things are too expensive for me to continue my hobbies. Sacrifices have to be made, but quality can(usually) be found at a reasonable price if you take the time to look.

In the end, these are "luxury" items. It's my opinion that you should buy stuff that lasts, at a minimum. Spend money wisely. Though I will not live long enough to wear out a single one of my knives (and I'm only 44) I plan to hand them down to my nephews, and hope they hand them down as well.
 
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I think Pakistani knives are the flea market gateway drug into this hobby. As a 14 or 15 year old with a 20 in your pocket, there are all kinds of cool and interesting designs to be found. Uniformly, these will be bottom tier wall-hangers at best, but they whet the appetite. Me at 12 would have never guessed that me at 42 would willfully drop $700 on a knife when I was still stomping around the rural woods with a $5 boot knife my grandma bought me from a "junk" store.

That said, it is important to be honest with the fact that they are garbage. No getting around it. They are soft, poor to no heat treat, and generally only made for a market of uneducated consumers. I have a drawerful of them given to me by well meaning family members as gifts. They are special because they showed that someone that does not have my level of knowledge tried to get me something I would like. But the knives are pot metal garbage.

Now, there are a couple of OK knives out there. I tried out a Tracker homage called a Big Cat or something like that. It was made of D2 and seemed to be solid for the $60 I spent. I played around with it for about 2 days and gave it to my brother. He uses it bust apart pallets and do gardening work. It was a cool enough looking knife that I bought another for my brother in law. He's a pop up camper, and I think he was floored by how large and solid it felt even if it was a bit of a thick at the edge and rather silly unless you fancy yourself to be Tom Brown. For him, it's the nicest large knife he has, so it was a good gift.

Even still, once you gain knowledge, willful ignorance isn't an excuse to to try and put lipstick on a pig. There isn't anything a $50 Ontario USMC knife won't do better than any etched "Damascus" from Pakistan. Buy one of those, beat the tar out of it, and upgrade in a few years.
 
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