Opinions on damascus steel knives

No experience with them personally, but the last time I was at a show a company named Kubey had some Damascus knives I considered buying. I took their card and looked them up online and they sell them on Amazon as well for half the price they were at the gun show. Same range $70-120 at the show or $28-60 on Amazon.

 

Well done Damascus steel is a true joy, takes and holds an edge better than most any other format. Poorly done Damascus steel is a nightmare and constant irritation. Ones in the price range you mention would be ones I'd suspect and likely avoid.

A James Luman:


A Little Hen Camp Knife:


A Joe Pardue:


A Gedraitis Persian:


A Weiland:
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Like any other steel Damascus runs the gamut between superb to utter crap hammered from a car fender.
Those cheap knives often seen at gun shows are junk.
Do not FO.
The blades are made from shit steel in China/Pakistan and acid etched to resemble damascus. I wouldn’t doubt the crap is made from radioactive shielding left over from Chernobyl.
Real quality made damascus does not come cheap.
Typically well known makers pocket knife sizes start around $100. Large fixed blades are north of that.
Case, Bear, Boker, etc make decent quality knives for the price point.
Semi-custom to full on custom damascus will be $200+ easy. Full on customs will go $1000+.
Cruise around the InnerWebZ a bit and scope out some custom makers to get an idea of what is out there as well as costs. There are always a bunch of common makers on Flea-bay as well.
True damascus is fantastic. It’ll get so sharp its scary.

 

Not being a big knife guy and not knowing much about Damascus knives, I do have one a friend gave me and will tell you that it's the sharpest knife every owned.

 

Damascus or not, it all depends on the steel they use to make the blade. there are tons and tons of different steels used to make knives and to make damascus steel. if you're looking for a nice hard steel that will keep an edge for a long time the knife will probably run you 3 or 4 franklins. I don't mind honing my knives often so I get mid level knives just because I can be rough on my knives and I dont wanna buy a nice $400 knife and ruin it by hacking thru a tree or cutting open cardboard boxes. lol. VG-10 is a nice steel. here's an article with different types of steel and lists their pros and cons. good luck http://everydaycarry.com/posts/21773/the-beginners-guide-to-edc-knife-blade-steels

 

A well made true Damascus steel knife is a work of art, I used to have several. The price usually reflects the amount of material and time spent in making it, and in that it can be quite expensive. Damascus steel knives are like fingerprints, they may be shaped the same, but no two knives look exactly the same.

 

This is what I keep on the hip.
https://www.knivesranch.com/

 

Fire,

Which one of the very many displayed on the website?