What's the deal with all these inexpensive damascus knives showing up lately?

misque

misque

Joined
Jul 9, 1999
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Don't know if I'm late to the dance or what, but, I'm noticing an awful lot of very low priced damascus recently.:eek::confused: Anyone have the scoop on the why's and how's of the situation? Are they any good?:confused:
 
China and Pakistan. And First World knife consumers like pretty patterns on blades. Supply meets demand.
 
Indeed, China and Pakistan. They can be reasonably good. The patterns are rarely as nice as the ones from western manufacturers though.
One thing to be aware of: these cheap damascus blades are not stainless, so if you're going to use them on food they'll quickly develop a patina. Patina is cool on clean blades, but you probably don't like it to obscure the damascus pattern !
 
I'm not aware of damascus being made in China. Most of it is made in Pakistan. There is also some factory damascus being made here and, of course, there is alway the wonderful Damasteel from Europe.

The Pakistani damascus isn't high performance but it looks good and it certainly is cheap.
 
some is definitely made over here but the good news is the stuff i have seen advertised for sale as bars is t10 steel and 1095(or so the seller claimed). t10 is supposedly pretty close to 1095 but with a bit of chrome and some other stuff, so as long as they did a decent heat treat it should make a good blade.
 
Top quality Damascus is usually made in Japan. For kitchen knives.

There are a few (mostly custom) knife makers in the west that make quality Damascus.

There is no such thing as "stainless" Damascus steel, by definition.
 
In the case of chinese knives one might want to take a closer look as some of them may not be true damascus. China is getting pretty good with their laser engravers and are etching damascus patterns on standard blades and therefore it isnt damascus at all but just a surface finish. Here is a pretty good example of what im talking about. You may also notice in the picture they are getting relatively good at counterfeiting designs as well.
fakesebenza.jpg






In the case of U.S. manufactured knives a couple are using this company ( http://www.alabamadamascussteel.com/ ) which doesnt seem to cost nearly as much as custom made damascus like Jerry Rados ,Mike Norris and Devin Thomas.
 
united has samurai swords that are laminated & they are made in china. i didnt think they made laminated blades there but they do.seems like in the last 3 or so years theres a huge flood of damascus blades from pakistan,& many are blanks that people are buying,finishing & selling on ebay.
 
PURPLEDC said:
In the case of chinese knives one might want to take a closer look as some of them may not be true damascus. China is getting pretty good with their laser engravers and are etching damascus patterns on standard blades and therefore it isnt damascus at all but just a surface finish. Here is a pretty good example of what im talking about. You may also notice in the picture they are getting relatively good at counterfeiting designs as well.
fakesebenza.jpg






In the case of U.S. manufactured knives a couple are using this company ( http://www.alabamadamascussteel.com/ ) which doesnt seem to cost nearly as much as custom made damascus like Jerry Rados ,Mike Norris and Devin Thomas.
Click to expand...

Wow, that knife looks amazingly familiar:(
 
Shameless indeed, but it actually looks pretty nice with its ellipsoid abalone inlay - much nicer than the two inlay strips on the original
 
Yeah but that hunk of crap still costs more than a hundred bucks. The site it is from sells mostly counterfeit knives. They do however tell you that they are not made by the brand name on the box and are "Imitation knives". Still i dont like when china actually puts someone elses trademarked logo on a knife. If it was an imitation they could get by without stealing logos.
 
misque said:
Don't know if I'm late to the dance or what, but, I'm noticing an awful lot of very low priced damascus recently.:eek::confused: Anyone have the scoop on the why's and how's of the situation? Are they any good?:confused:
Click to expand...

Damascus is "in fashion" right now in the knife world. Knives like any product are subject to the whims of the marketers and consumers.

Over the last 5 years or so, Damascus has exploded onto both the kitchen cutlery and pocket knife worlds.

Funny thing is Damascus steel doesn't exist as it is a catch-all phrase for layered steel. Most often it is purely for appearance and doesn't add to the steel properties of the blade.
 
misque said:
Don't know if I'm late to the dance or what, but, I'm noticing an awful lot of very low priced damascus recently.:eek::confused: Anyone have the scoop on the why's and how's of the situation? Are they any good?:confused:
Click to expand...

Damascus is "in fashion" right now in the knife world. Knives like any product are subject to the whims of the marketers and consumers.

Over the last 5 years or so, Damascus has exploded onto both the kitchen cutlery and pocket knife worlds.

Funny thing is Damascus steel doesn't exist as it is a catch-all phrase for layered steel. Most often it is purely for appearance and doesn't add to the steel properties of the blade.

Damascene Steel is really the correct term for steel manufactured with visible layers, as "authentic" Damascus steel only existed in antiquity.
 
I recently ordered a very large "damascus kitchen knife blade blank" off "la-bay" from India just to see what it looked like "in person". It cost me $19.95 "buy it now" plus shipping. I'm not terribly impressed with it so far, but haven't done much with it except look at it. The steel looks nice... but I have no idea how it's going to work.
 
PURPLEDC said:
Yeah but that hunk of crap still costs more than a hundred bucks. The site it is from sells mostly counterfeit knives. They do however tell you that they are not made by the brand name on the box and are "Imitation knives". Still i dont like when china actually puts someone elses trademarked logo on a knife. If it was an imitation they could get by without stealing logos.
Click to expand...

Did I do the conversion wrong?

￥888.00 = $10 USD
 
I actually have one of these inexpensive damascus blade knives. A Rough Rider tiny (2 1/4" closed) lockback. It was about $10., IIRC. This is close to how it looked new (the edge bevel had been thinned):

a2x2dt.jpg

210mxdc.jpg

23tjpcn.jpg


Shortly after these pix were taken, I reprofiled the blade to a zero edge. Of course, this removed the etched pattern, which was restored with a little bit of naval jelly. How it currently looks:

21270yg.jpg


You'll notice that the pattern has changed as the blade was thinned. The knife is stamped "CHINA". I have no idea what the steel is. Whatever it is, it is layered steel, and it does seem to be pretty stainless, both light and dark components. Different types of stainless etch at different rates under naval jelly. After reprofiling, it meets my standards as a user. Whatever the combination, it works.

Boker's China made Magnum line has several modestly priced damascus folders very similar in quality.
 
Lots of Damascus is made in India and knives in Thailand and China, some with Damascus from the USA
 
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