Knife Blog

I researched Damascus steel whose knives are recently popular especially among foreign people.
 
“Damascus” steel used for Japanese knives now is different from original Damascus steel.
 
Original Damascus steel is named because its steel is used for sword in Damascus area in Syria. And steel used for sword in Damascus area in Syria is high carbon steel, Wootz steel made in India. Wootz means “hard.” If that helps, the other opinion says that Wootz steel is Damascus steel and that the names are just different.
 
Pattern of original Damascus steel appears in the process of its forging. It is said that Wootz steel was extremely sharp. It is very surprising that Woots steel did not get rusted despite of its sharpness. If that helps, original Damascus steel cannot be made now although many scientists tried to make it many times.
 
Damascus knives are made with Damascus steel that is made by folding back steel many times. The number of wavy lines on knives is the number of layers. In most cases, the numbers are 16, 32, and 64. Steel should be originally folded back again in the process of forging, but if smithy does so, it costs a lot, so steel itself has already many layers in most cases now.
 
The sharpness of Damascus knives is almost the same as that of normal knives. It is not that Damascus knives are specially sharp. Its look and feed is beautiful, so the price of Damascus knives is set high.