Hi
Are Dasmascus blades primarily for decoration ?
Do blades with steels like White # 2, VG10 etc perform better ?
So is it fair to say that you do not lose anything by going damsacus ?
except money ?
I've read that for true damascus, the different steels wear at different rates, giving a toothier edge...this may be desirable, but I don't know
Actually, most makers now try to use two very similar steels when making carbon damascus, like 1080 or 1084 and 15N20, which is basically EN75 or C75 (Eurospeak for 1075) with 2% nickel added. I do not make nor have I every used stainless damascus, but I would think that in the typical mix of say AEB-L and 300 series, you would have to be REALLY careful about how much 300 you add because it is not martensitic steel and will not harden on its own short of using some kind of crazy "superquench" like lye like one or two guys have done when making an ABS JS test knife from 1018. I may be wrong, but I would think that at best, it will be "stealing" carbon from your martensitic steel, and from what I see in the specs, AEB-L doesn't have a whole lot to steal. With modern high carbon damascus, if done properly, you are almost getting a funky looking mono-steel that etches up pretty because the nickle doesn't migrate along with the carbon. My understanding is that with steel like cable damascus, you are seeing the boundaries of the individual wires where you have decarburized them down to a certain depth during the forge welding process..It's important to make the distinction between damascus clad and solid damascus.
With a damascus clad knife, you are still cutting with an edge from the mono-steel (not damascus) core.
I have head from some makers that there is some structural benefit form damascus cladding over regular monosteel cladding. I've read a comment from Tokifusa of Shigefusa that his kitaeji (damascus / folded steel) cladding is stronger than the "plain" cladding which allows for thinner cladding or, in the case of a long, narrow, single bevel, blade like a yanagi, less tendency to warp / bend over time.
With a solid damascus blade, you are actually cutting with an edge made up of more then 1 (usually 2) steels. The only theoretical advantage that I've read about is that the 2 different steels have different properties and will wear at different rates creating a blade that is a very aggressiveness slicer. Devin Thomas wrote a bit about this on his site. I have also noticed that the 2 sold damascus blades that I have are also 2 of my best, most aggressive slicing knives. However, it is really impossible to prove that this is because of the damascus without having 2 more knives identical in dimensions to the damascus one that are each made out of one of the composite steels.
Basically, there are a lot of factors that impact a blade's performance more than the steel and if its damascus or not.
Manufactured "damascus clad" blades really don't excite me, but the extra skill and art that goes into forging a beautiful, handmade damascus blade is something that's very appealing to me and adds to my enjoyment of the knife. So whether or not there is actually a performance boost is not as important to me.
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