San mai

[JJ20198]

lots of people think that cold steels san mai knives are dumb and in some ways they are right. now the lower carbon steel is less brittle. but the real reason for san mai is that you would put high carbon steel in the middle and damascus on the sides that way is has good edge retetion and has the cool pattern of damascus.

 

[johnu2]

I don't know how good Cold Steel's Sanmai is but Fallkniven uses a similar process with their laminated blades with great results.

You're right about the properties of laminated blades. Softer steel on the outside to add toughness and flexibility and a harder steel in the middle to retain the edge holding

 

[nozh2002]

lots of people think that cold steels san mai knives are dumb and in some ways they are right. now the lower carbon steel is less brittle. but the real reason for san mai is that you would put high carbon steel in the middle and damascus on the sides that way is has good edge retetion and has the cool pattern of damascus.

Correct term is Suminogashi - core with good modern steel and sides with "damascus", this relatively new technology - Japanese answer on Damascus demand, which they want to take advantage of but just can not give up performance. This is natural development of their traditional laminated blades - most of the knives in Japan have laminated blades.

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[jacktrades_nbk]

the cold steel san mai has nothing to do with damascus, and they use stainless for the core