Damascus knives

Damascus steel is a forge-welded steel recognizable by the mottling or wavy patterns formed by contrasting steel layers. Damascus knives, apart from the aesthetics, also feature great service properties.

Many layers of various types of steel are welded, folded multiple times, like a sandwich, and forged together into a complicated structure with layers forming sophisticated wavy patterns.

Knives made from Damascus steel boast great service properties, such as durability, elasticity and high edge retention of the blade. They make for excellent hunting knives and chef knives, as Damascus blade is superbly tough and the junction of many steel layers creates minute serrations on the edge providing superior sharpness of the blade.

Many modern superior alloys will outperform any pattern-welded steel including Damascus. Still, today’s Damascus steel does outstrip many metals with its renowned plasticity and strength.

The technique of pattern-welded Damascus, with many layers of steel forged together, results in a specific structure of the blade that has excellent toughness, durability and edge retention (the blade tends to stay sharper for longer).

In terms of manufacturing process, there is cast Damascus steel (also called Wootz) and pattern-welded Damascus steel (the most common method utilized to create Damascus nowadays).

The easiest way to determine the authenticity of a Damascus steel blade is to simply examine the consistency of blade patterns: a real Damascus will show uniform folds and patterns across the blade, cutting edge, spine, knife bolster and tang. However, by scrutinizing a fake Damascus knife you’ll notice unnatural designs, mostly not folded, general watery or feather patterns.

All forms of high carbon steels (like Damascus) are prone to rust, if not correctly taken care of. Proper care is required, in the same way as for a carbon steel blade – water and moisture are to be avoided.

Custom Damascus knives are more expensive than mass-produced knives, as Noblie`s Damascus offers a way higher quality level: only quality steels are used and the production process is thoroughly controlled. The outstanding craftsmanship ensures excellent service properties of custom Damascus blades.

Noblie, Damasteel, Kyle Royer and other makers and companies are known to be manufacturers of quality Damascus knives.

You can buy quality Damascus knives at the Noblie Store – a reliable dealer of custom knives since 2015.