White circles/stains on new damascus blade. What is that?

[Blecki]

Hey

I just got my new Böker Scout Stag Damascus (Spearpoint) and after I got it out of the box I realized that is has some white circles/stains on the blade. Those stains/circles are not the regular pattern of the damascus blade and I just don't know what they are. I can't rub them off and they seem a little bit "burned" into the blade. Now my questions are: Where do those circles come from and how can I get rid of them. Is there a cleaning agent to clean it off with? I thought maybe I could gently polish them but I don't know if polishing could work and I don't want do something wrong in case I have to return it and that's why I decided to write here in the forum.

Thanks a lot, Bye

 

[annr]

I would notify seller and send back. I would not attempt to “fix” it as this may rule out a refund or exchange.

 

[fishface5]

I'm pretty sure what happened here is that drops of something got on the blade and dried before the acid was applied to create the patina, so the acid was blocked leading to unstained rings. The fix would be to polish the whole blade and then redo the patina process, which is dicey, so I'd return it.