Sorry, what I meant was there is a whole other collection of forums on a different website that specifically deals with kitchen knives. It has all the information you want and then some. Most forums frown upon links to other not associated sites though. The kitchen knife forum section here is pretty weak.
As you most likely know damascus is basically there for looks and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it comes with a few issues. Most of the damascus knives are not fully damascus, they are clad with core steel being something else, but the issues apply to both. Kitchen knives get used a lot, best kitchen knives also have hard, acute and thin edges and because of this they get sharpened a lot. Unless the whole blade of your knife is very thin as you sharpen a kitchen knife you are changing its geometry, so in an essence you are continually changing the performance of your knife. At some point your knife starts performing badly because it becomes very thick behind the edge. At this time you need to thin the knife to bring geometry back to what it used to be. This can either be done a little at every sharpening or be a project after some time, but in any case you need to sharpen the blade above the edge and you hit damascus at that point. Damascus looks the way it does because it was etched, as you sharpen it stops looking good unless you re-polish and re-etch it. Not impossible to do, but a pain. You also can't effectively thin a knife on sharpmaker or edge pro and need bench stones and skill at free hand sharpening. Thinning is not really talked about around here because few people ever need it in folders or even outdoor knives, but for good performance in kitchen knives sooner or later you will need it.
Your goal of learning as much as possible before buying is great, but I would caution you against being afraid to make a mistake. You can read as much as you can and buy your knife, but until you actually try it and use it a little you won't know if it really works for you. It is ok to buy something use it for a little and then buy something else. This is also the reason why I don't think a custom is a good idea unless you really know what you want. Now, once you tried many, many knives and have everything sorted out then you can custom order. Just my opinion ofcourse.
japaneseknifeimports
japanesenaturalstones
knivesandstones
epicedge
carbonknifecompany
cleancut
homebutcher
are some of the places that specialize in kitchen knives and Jon at japaneseknifeimports is one of the most knowledgable people in the field, his sharpening youtube videos are some of the best. If you call him and explain to him what you want he will recommend something for you and not necessarily from his store. Ofcourse it is more fun to do your own research first, but talking to him is still worth it, just a great guy all around. Also, if you have a good kitchen knife store near you, you might want to go and handle a few that look good to you, it will at least tell you what feels good to you.
