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The visual/marketing focus on so-called "Damascus" steel is almost ridiculous: I own a "Damascus" knife. Like many well-designed modern knives, it uses a core
by xenocyon 6y ago
The visual/marketing focus on so-called "Damascus" steel is almost ridiculous:
I own a "Damascus" knife. Like many well-designed modern knives, it uses a core of hard steel in the middle (VG-10 in my case) clad between two layers of soft steel. This is a very good design, enabling one to always have a hard steel for the cutting edge while also having the durability of soft steel from the bulk of the knife matter.
Now a moment's thought shows that the "Damascus" part - which is on the outer cladding layers - has absolutely nothing to do with the cutting edge, and is therefore entirely superfluous from a functionality standpoint :)
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoOdd. My son's steel ends up with 100-200 layers of alternating steel. Not 3?
- woah 6y agoAFAICT the Damascus steel in this example is the decorative soft steel on the outside with a thin piece of brittle hardened steel on the inside to keep the edge sharp
- Anon4Now 6y agoHaving attended University of Forged in Fire for many years, I am now an overconfident internet authority on knife making. What you are referring to is call "san mai", not Damascus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_mai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_mai
- blacksmith_tb 6y agoI think you're both right - yes, the harder-steel-in-the-middle is what gets called 'san mai' (though smiths all over the world have forge-welded harder steel to softer iron for tools and in knives for a long time), and the parent was describing a knife with decorative 'damascus' patterns on the outer layers of a harder steel center. I have a similar Shun [1] I got from Williams-Sonoma years ago, which slices onions as usual, but looks good doing it. 1: https://shun.kaiusa.com/ https://shun.kaiusa.com/