SharpEdge Bunka Black Damascus Knife Discussions | Drop

Jul 5, 2020

SDanteFrom the company page on Drop " sharpedge 183 SharpEdge MAR 6, 2020 Thanks for your question. Bunka Black Damascus is made of the actual Damascus steel, so the outer layers of softer steel were actually folded to make such pattern, while the core steel is made of VG-10 steel. The blade is then etched into a base liquid to get the patterns out. It is not engraved or etched by a laser."

Jul 5, 2020

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Jul 5, 2020

JaegerDNever said anything about engraving or laser etching, just that it isn't actual Damascus. If they say it is on their site then they are lying. If it were proper Damascus then you wouldn't need to etch it with a base, the pattern would show well naturally. You need wootz to make Damascus, and nobody knows how to make wootz. They may as well say the blade is made of unobtainium.

Jul 5, 2020

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Jul 5, 2020

SDanteIt's almost like the modern use for Damascus has changed from using that obscure and expensive metal. Weird how things change

Jul 5, 2020

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Jul 5, 2020

JaegerDIt's just another popular americanism. The wootz isn't expensive or obscure, there is a guy who knows how to make it, but nobody does because actual Damascus is an inferior product.

Jul 5, 2020

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Jul 5, 2020

SDanteYeah, it's always fun watching a word get redefined. Any links to a comparable kitchen knife made from that wootz?

Jul 5, 2020

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Jul 5, 2020

JaegerDAnything made from wootz is a museum piece now. A lot of people is the US started misusing the word, but Damascus still means the same thing. Pattern welded looks like Damascus but it isn't, that's what you get today. Nobody uses bloomeries anymore.

Jul 5, 2020

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Jul 5, 2020

SDanteSo, knives for it are obscure and expensive?

Jul 5, 2020

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Jul 6, 2020

JaegerDNo, they're well known and not any more expensive than any other comparable antique piece. A Damascus long sword might be slightly more expensive, but nothing to write home about.

Jul 6, 2020

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Jul 6, 2020

SDanteLuckily I wasn't drawing comparisons to museum artifacts or collection pieces, but rather a commoners kitchen knife, where you picked to flaunt your Damascus prowess. Again, since the Americanism for Damascus is the clad kind (Merriam-Webster lists Damascus Steel as the following "hard elastic steel ornamented with wavy patterns and used especially for sword blades") and $100 being expensive to the average American, obscure and expensive easily fits the Damascus blades you are looking for. Since you are a Subject Matter Expert on the thing and having money to spare if you would draw it up as expensive, I can see why you might not see it as such. You clearly knew going in that it wasn't going to be the Damascus that you read from your dictionary, given price and the lack of your Damascus blades being made.

Jul 6, 2020

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Jul 6, 2020

JaegerDMerriam Webster was an OCD mentally disabled man, it shows in the peculiarities of the dictionary he created. Damascus steel, true Damascus steel, it called such because of the patterns resembling textiles from Damascus. The patterns emerge naturally because, like any Iron from a bloomery, you hammer and fold it to reduce impurities and make the blade more consistent. Damascus is never a cladding unless the knife is a fraud. That is just basic historical knowledge. Merriam made up a lot of weird things because of his odd personality, and Americans ate it right up, but he never said pattern welded is the same as Damascus. $100 is not a lot, even $1000 is not a lot. A country is looking towards a depression when $100 starts sounding like a lot of money. That said, price has nothing to do with obscurity, there are plenty of examples of real Damascus and plenty of info about it, there isn't much obscure about it. It is old technology that was good for it's time but bad by today's standards.

Jul 6, 2020

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Jul 6, 2020

SDanteI know the process for your classic Damascus. I also know that if I click on a knife claiming to have Damascus that it is going to be some clad-core knife. You might want to start approaching Damascus knives online with the same mentality. Since they (knife makers, general populous, dictionarys) are not going to revert to your old definition. Again, for the average American a hundred bucks is a lot for a single kitchen knife, let alone a thousand. I'm just pointing out how the definition of your Damascus has changed. If you have any links to current definitions for Damascus that specify wootz, I'm sure whoever comes in to read this would eat that up. But I'm done here, you're clearly too much a SME in knives, dictionarys, and American household economics for me to keep up.

Jul 6, 2020

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Jul 6, 2020

JaegerDWell, Wikipedia references books that state the wootz definition. Oed does but you need a subscription to use their site, Webster says nothing about cladding, it just gives a very vague definition. The definition of Damascus never changed, a few Americans just started using it improperly as a buzz word.

Jul 6, 2020

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ManiacMaintz

Jul 10, 2020

SDanteThe patterns are *due* to impurities though. You have plenty of Wootz steel creations with no patterns or colouration at all. It was also commonplace for Wootz steel to be acid-etched like modern "damascus" to enhance patterns. But yeah, bud, you really have to learn about the concept of language. It's not a solid, hard construct. It's fluid & it changes. The important term here is wootz (which itself was a mistranslation of Wook iirc) - Not damascus. Damascus has for the better part of several centuries referred to a knife with patterned metal, most often achieved by folded metals of comparatively superior grade to Wootz, hence the need for etching to REALLY bring out the patterns (due to the lack of impurities & uncombined carbon) Semantics are well and fun but this is bordering on the absurd.

Jul 10, 2020