Vie Belles Pro Series Knives

Lol that seems to be the way on most of the kitchen knives here. I just don't get it, it takes no more time to set up a decent photo in a light box than it does to cleanly photoshop a product pic.... Hell, less time if you just keep a light box set up on the corner of a desk in one of the offices

That's ok. Personally I find strong patterns to be too much on larger knives. Though if we are to be historically accurate with the metals used, Damascus steel were too brittle for use in larger blades such as this length. Hence it's probably why the strong patterning is more palatable in its smaller form. Thinking about it, if they really had the budget to manufacture such an expensive knife, they should also have the budget for good photographs as well. Everything looks like bad photoshop from what we're given.

While I have no stake in this (not my style, questionable origins, premium prices for the materials and unproven brand, etc), I wanted to comment on some of your points I agree, Damascus shouldn't be paired with a hammered finish, it's too much to have both patterns mixed. ESPECIALLY that Damascus + hammered + those vertical hollows on the Santoku https://media.giphy.com/media/9HkNfhYEJBLtm/giphy.gif Disagree on your opinion of the Damascus in this one though. Many people actually prefer a more subtle look to Damascus, not the ridiculously over-etched, almost black and white appearance of a lot of the other Damascus blades we see here. In my opinion, it should be something you barely see from a distance, but at the right angle the pattern flashes at you, like you see here in pic 4 vs 5 (zoom in) I think that's the one part they actually did right.