Damascus steel query

I have recently purchased the Shun Fuji 8 1/2" chefs knife and had to return the first owing to a warp in the metal near the tip of the blade.
My replacement has arrived and it is warp free but the narrow polished portion of the blade, (between the Damascus pattern and the cutting edge) is uneven on either side of the knife.
On one side it is about .5cm all the way down on the other side it is less than half that and towards the tip of the blade the Damascus pattern actually runs onto the cutting edge.
I'm no Damascus expert and just wanted to check if anybody knew if this is a quality issue?

cardey88 said:

I have recently purchased the Shun Fuji 8 1/2" chefs knife and had to return the first owing to a warp in the metal near the tip of the blade.
My replacement has arrived and it is warp free but the narrow polished portion of the blade, (between the Damascus pattern and the cutting edge) is uneven on either side of the knife.
On one side it is about .5cm all the way down on the other side it is less than half that and towards the tip of the blade the Damascus pattern actually runs onto the cutting edge.
I'm no Damascus expert and just wanted to check if anybody knew if this is a quality issue?

Click to expand...

A picture would help. It may just be cosmetic and may not affect the performance. The bottom line is your satisfaction though, if it is not to your liking return it -again.

If the cladding runs all the way to the cutting edge, return it.

It isn't the end of the world, but dealing with cladding is a complication to your sharpening endeavors that you should only have to face once you've owned the knife for some time--not right out of the box.

Thanks guys appreciate the input, I would upload the image for you but it means signing up to a pic hosting site to get the url for this site. Which to be honest I can't be bothered doing right now. But I think you've told me all I need to know, I can see the Damascus pattern actually on the edge at the tip of the blade for a good 1-2cm.
An older shun knife I had bought for a birthday about 6 years ago, just a normal 8inch chefs knife and the polished portion I assume being the exposed core layer is probably half the width of what it was when given to me if that and it been used at a professional level. So it struck me as odd. The new one I've purchased has been folded more times though. Purhaps Shun struggle with that.
I don't know, thanks again for the input anyway though, I think I'll send it back.

You are right to send it back.

The exposed core steel should be fairly well centered in the blade, giving more or less equal exposure on both sides, and the cladding should never go the the actual edge. Except in some rare cases, the "damascus" pattern is soft material and will neither take nor hold an edge.

True Damascus steel has not been made since the secret of making crucible steel leaked out of India around 1200AD, what is called Damascus steel these days is decoration. No one is going to forge impurities out of carbon steel by repeatedly folding and welding it.

As far as the core material slowly vanishing, that means it's time to thin the blade down by grinding -- as the edge it ground away in sharpening, the blade behind the edge inevitably becomes thicker in relation to the actual edge bevels, and eventually the knife will cut poorly. You will have to re-etch the "damascus" if you want to keep the appearance as the surface will have to be ground off to thin the knife.

Peter

I just bought the same knife several months ago, I can take a picture of mine tomorrow to help you.