Delaminated Damascus Deba: How concerned should I be?

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YolDovahkiin said:
@adam92 I fully understand the sentiment. Trust me, I am certainly bothered by the issue even still. However, I do not really have an alternative, and I cannot spend days/weeks or longer being upset about it. The knife may fail with time, but I am hoping that it does not and must do what I can to prevent it.

I did not pay with paypal, and I am not really the type to be spiteful on reviews or in any other manner, so really I can’t do too much since I already contacted them.
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That’s a great attitude and I’m happy you can move on. For my part, I will never be purchasing anything from Japanny based on your experience, so thank you for sharing.

If a vendor’s not willing to stand behind their product, I’m not willing to stand behind them.
 
@Delat Fully understandable on your part. I wish that they would have been more forgiving with their return policy myself, but at least now people may be able to choose for themselves who to buy from with a bit more insight into the shortcomings of certain retailers.
 
Don't beat yourself up over missing it. It may well be a stress fracture that developed only after first use due to the cladding not being properly heat treated.
 
DHunter86 said:
Don't beat yourself up over missing it. It may well be a stress fracture that developed only after first use due to the cladding not being properly heat treated.
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I appreciate this. Honestly, I hope you are wrong just because of the fact that logically the integrity of the knife as a whole would be in question in that circumstance. If it is something I missed from a partial delam, then maybe there is hope that the rest of the forge weld is not compromised.
 
Ask them to honor their return policy as written at the time of your purchase.

If you paid by credit card you can look into a chargeback. And in that case if they want the knife back ask them to send you a prepaid shipping label.

It's one thing to buy "scratch and dent" type discount merchandise as is - in that case you assume the risk up front (although straight up lying about the condition from the vendor still falls into unacceptable IMO), but a vendor selling defective (even unknowingly) and then telling the customer to suck it up, no matter how nicely they phrase it, is BS.

Name them in the Reddit threads you started, too. You don't have to think of it as spiteful, either; more like giving fair warning to other potential customers. There are surely others, like myself, that wouldn't want to do business with companies that won't even honor their own stated policies.
 
I commented on your reddit thread, but I would also tell them you are going to chargeback your credit card. Every single reputable retailer should take this item back regardless of a use or two and should be embarrassed that they let this through, probably don't even QC their products. This should never have left the store without some sort of discount. You are being sold an imperfect product at regular price.

They should bring this up with hideo kitaoka, its not on you to take the loss when there were multiple failures along the way to you. I thought a different retailer with bad QC sold this to you, but japanny is also a retailer I don't like due to their continual 'sales'.
 
I certainly would if I could @TurboScooter, but in all honesty I did not notice the damage until well after 7 days had expired (stored for Christmas) so even then, they have the upper hand.

I fully get where you are coming from. Certainly, the knife should not have this defect, and of course it is not ideal. I will eventually name them in threads just to help others.

@slickmamba, good to see you here, that is unexpected. I cannot do cash back on my card due to using debit, so that is out of the question. However, I do agree that they should not be selling the knife at this price (even with the minor amount back if I accepted a 10% refund). I think in the end, I am going to pester them to take the knife back purely because I do not want to be concerned about a sudden failure with age.

Their reaction is odd for sure, as they seem relatively well run (excluding those annoying deals). I think they at least need to learn to check the knives.
 
Ah, my fault, I missed the part where you said it had been longer than 7 days.

Maybe there are some exceptional retailers that would go above and beyond since it's a defect and make an exception to the stated 7 day policy, but at this point they are meeting their stated policy so, as Max Holloway so often says, it is what it is.

Ideally the knife shouldn't have been sold like that, yes, but that's not really realistic, IMO. I don't know how much sales volume they do, but I don't think most retailers do anything beyond a cursory inspection, if any is done at all. Plus everyone has different standards of what is acceptable, so even a "strict" inspection might land an end user with a knife with a perceived defect anyway.

I mean, do I think they should replace a defective knife even if it's past the 7 day period? Yes. Assuming you're not a repeat offender, for lack of a better term, a one time (or case by case, depending on the circumstances) exception would probably buy a lot of good will and ensure return business. It probably even buys some free word of mouth advertising to family, friends, and even crazy people on the internet who already have too many knives but keep buying them.

But do I expect most businesses will go above and beyond a stated policy? No. Don't want to go out of business via death by 1000 papercuts (too many policy exceptions), or by people who will straight up abuse goodwill exceptions (give someone an inch and they'll take a mile, we all know the type).

They actually are going above and beyond their policy by offering you a partial refund. It's not that much money and it doesn't fix the root issue so it feels sh*tty and unsatisfying but maybe you should have taken the partial refund.

Sorry, your situation kinda just sucks all around and I'm just rambling all over the place at this point...
 
bruce8088 said:
Crack looks pretty superficial here from the pics so it should be fine in use imo but its a bad feeling not being able to return it though. I would be more concern if there was some odd things that go along the length of the whole knife like that kemadi suji on bst just now where when you look from the spine that core steel and cladding lamination is all wavy looking when it should be near straight in most cases, even tfs look more or less straight given their wabi-sabi-ness, probably no impact on use though like this deba.
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Tanks lycky for your always positive comments, tanks to that it makes me understand that you never seen a forged knife in your live since you have almost just tf ,that are notoriously prelaminate knife with some marks on them .

Since I do have more experience than you in what a good knife is or not (pro cook here ,and not a dustpatina lover ) I am confident in telling you that you should try a kemadi again instead to acting like a little child that cannot get his lollipop back .

No hard feelings here ,so I hope you will start to be a human being again instead to keep be a slimy piece of **** 🤣🤣💞
 
Matteo he didn't critique the knife he did state he believes no impact on use. I interpreted it like he thinks the steel looks weird. They and xerxes are probably forged out with a forging press to my eye. Wether one likes the look is to taste. Nothing wrong.. Many "hon sanmai" look very even most of the time, like shigs/kato.
 
RDalman said:
Matteo he didn't critique the knife he did state he believes no impact on use. I interpreted it like he thinks the steel looks weird. They and xerxes are probably forged out with a forging press to my eye. Wether one likes the look is to taste. Nothing wrong.. Many "hon sanmai" look very even most of the time, like shigs/kato.
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tk you robin for the help ,but I know lycky,he want to point out and just criticized ,any occasion is good for him to have fun and been provocative,it s a long story and he is a sick individual.
 
@YolDovahkiin , you have a great attitude about the whole thing. My guess is that the flaw will not cause any problem.

I have a straight razor with a similar flaw. Originally I was going to sell it as a second with a full disclosure and warranty, as I could not imagine the flaw causing any issues. I decided not to let it out of my shop and just use it myself in the end.
 
Exactly @VICTOR J CREAZZI and @RDalman , I am hoping that overall it does not cause an issue.

However, I did decide to contact the seller again, if only to see if they would budge. I am not a repeat offender (I have bought 4 knives from them, with only one other having a minor defect that would be removed after the first sharpening that I notified them about in order to have them check their remaining stock, without replacement). So, essentially this is my last resort to at least return the knife. I told them I do not want a replacement if they are unable, but rather just to get the knife back to them so that I can not have to worry about a failure with age (even if it may be unlikely) and even buy a different knife to replace it with since the current knife is out of stock.

Thank you all for your help. If there are any other tips you can give me for the knife's care if they are unable to accept it, it would be appreciated.
 
RDalman said:
Matteo he didn't critique the knife he did state he believes no impact on use. I interpreted it like he thinks the steel looks weird. They and xerxes are probably forged out with a forging press to my eye. Wether one likes the look is to taste. Nothing wrong.. Many "hon sanmai" look very even most of the time, like shigs/kato.
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Thanks rob!! that basically sums up my original reply. I am really not sure why matteo is attacking me or saying all TFs are prelam but i will take the high road here.
 
I bought 2 knives from Seisuke out of Portland last year one was a left handed Hideo Kitaoka yanagiba with the same sort of Damascus w2. I bought both knives at the same time. The yanagiba that came did not match the picture on the web site, it was supposed to have the crescent cut at the heel but came out squared and very sharp. The tip was over ground and ever so slightly bent. When I confronted them on it the reply was that this maker was notorious for having bent blades sorry they missed this one, interesting response. The other knife that they told me specifically that they put the handle on in house was not sealed which was evident only after washing it the first time. I did keep both knives as in reality it was minor, seisuke sites are definitely over priced the only reason I even bought from them was because of the left handed yanagiba and if your going to pay a little more you should get what you paid for. To be honest I will not be buying anything from them again it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
 
mpier said:
I bought 2 knives from Seisuke out of Portland last year one was a left handed Hideo Kitaoka yanagiba with the same sort of Damascus w2. I bought both knives at the same time. The yanagiba that came did not match the picture on the web site, it was supposed to have the crescent cut at the heel but came out squared and very sharp. The tip was over ground and ever so slightly bent. When I confronted them on it the reply was that this maker was notorious for having bent blades sorry they missed this one, interesting response. The other knife that they told me specifically that they put the handle on in house was not sealed which was evident only after washing it the first time. I did keep both knives as in reality it was minor, seisuke sites are definitely over priced the only reason I even bought from them was because of the left handed yanagiba and if your going to pay a little more you should get what you paid for. To be honest I will not be buying anything from them again it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
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I saw few of hideo kitaoka yanagiba bent from FB group, apparently they're notorious for bent knife, bad F&F, I saw knife from Seisuke before, his knife is way too expensive.

If you going to get left handed knife in the future, get from Koki iwahara, founder of Japanesechefknife.com
I brought quite a few knife & tools thought his website since 2016 until now, brought knife every year, trusted vendor, fair price & cheap shipping worldwide.

Or get the knife from Jon, Japaneseknifeimports.com
I have the Hide Blue one Deba when I visit Sakai, F&F is very nice, rounded choil & spine, easy sharp, only tiny low spot close to heel, best factory honbazuke in my opinion.
 
adam92 said:
I saw few of hideo kitaoka yanagiba bent from FB group, apparently they're notorious for bent knife, bad F&F, I saw knife from Seisuke before, his knife is way too expensive.

If you going to get left handed knife in the future, get from Koki iwahara, founder of Japanesechefknife.com
I brought quite a few knife & tools thought his website since 2016 until now, brought knife every year, trusted vendor, fair price & cheap shipping worldwide.

Or get the knife from Jon, Japaneseknifeimports.com
I have the Hide Blue one Deba when I visit Sakai, F&F is very nice, rounded choil & spine, easy sharp, only tiny low spot close to heel, best factory honbazuke in my opinion.
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Agreed!!
 
adam92 said:
I saw few of hideo kitaoka yanagiba bent from FB group, apparently they're notorious for bent knife, bad F&F, I saw knife from Seisuke before, his knife is way too expensive.
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Interesting. Honestly, for Hideo it seemed to be relatively well priced (not the cheapest, but certainly some price them as more expensive).

Honestly, I have never heard of these issues @mpier, and past that one problem they all seem to be relatively well done. Heel is rounded off and not squared, handles sealed, generally great F&F excluding the one Deba with an issue. Otherwise even with the same knife, pretty much everything else is nearly flawless. However, thank you all for your responses, because it will be helpful when looking at knives in the future.

As an update, I have not gotten any word back from Japanny after emailing to at least return the knife, most likely because they probably think I already have the answer.
 
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