Damascus knives

I am seeing a lot of Damascus blade custom knives at gun shows now. Many are spectacular. I would like to get one(or two), but I really don't know much about them. I want an American product for sure. Many seem very reasonably priced. What do you guys know? Ya got pics?

What you are seeing at gun shows is production knives. There are also custom knives, hand made knives and Knives made by Master Smiths.

Obviously the prices range from reasonable to amazingly expensive.

Inexpensive, mass produced, commercially available Damascus came onto the scene around 1980 and opened up a now world for folks that would never spend the money for hand made Damascus.

How dense the Damascus is varies the price greatly. 24 layer steel is much cheaper to make than 1400 layers of steel.

A Master Smith might take 3 weeks to make the billet of tightly folded Damascus for his project.





What are the scales, liners and rest of the knife constructed of? That also alters price dramatically.

I can not help on the low end stuff, but if you are ever interested in some of the top shelf knives drop me a note.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/318729-2013-blade-pictures-added-not-56k-friendly.html

My For Sale site is BladeBuzz.Com I am adding to it as fast as I can, right now it has less than 10% of the inventory on it.

colt_saa said:

What you are seeing at gun shows is production knives. There are also custom knives, hand made knives and Knives made by Master Smiths.

Obviously the prices range from reasonable to amazingly expensive.

Inexpensive, mass produced, commercially available Damascus came onto the scene around 1980 and opened up a now world for folks that would never spend the money for hand made Damascus.

How dense the Damascus is varies the price greatly. 24 layer steel is much cheaper to make than 1400 layers of steel.

A Master Smith might take 3 weeks to make the billet of tightly folded Damascus for his project.

What are the scales, liners and rest of the knife constructed of? That also alters price dramatically.

I can not help on the low end stuff, but if you are ever interested in some of the top shelf knives drop me a note.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/318729-2013-blade-pictures-added-not-56k-friendly.html

My For Sale site is BladeBuzz.Com I am adding to it as fast as I can, right now it has less than 10% of the inventory on it.

Click to expand...

Do you take cars as trade ins?

Nice inventory

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Wow, colt SAA, you sure covered the top end of the spectrum. If knives were cars, those would be Ferraris and Lambos, masterpieces. OK guys, I would like to see some of the more every day quality Damascus. The ones you would even use to cut things with. I would like to know about the qualities of it, compared to the mundane stainless we see now.

I bought a blank at a gun show several years ago. I wanted a new knife for deer hunting. I made the scales from para cord.Very comfortable to use. So far the knife has been used to guy and butcher 2 deer. I haven't had to sharpen it yet. I love it!

The above knife was made by master blacksmith and long-time Knifemakers Guild member Durrell Carmon Johnson. This knife was made from various steels hand forged by Durrell. The knife has over 3000 layers of steel and took longer to make than any of Durrell's other knifes except for the one pictured below.
Durrell showed me his pictures of the below knife being made in each phase of his work. He explained to me that the longer the length of the Damascus blade, the more likely something could go wrong with the high number of folds required to make the blade. When he was done, he put the knife in a vise and bent it to an angle that would break most other blades. After releasing pressure on the knife, the blade returned to its original straightness.
You could buy 20 to 30 production Damascus knifes for the price of what either of these knives cost.


Mark

You see a lot of reproduction knives/blades at Living history events. Usually, the blades were in the $15-$30 range. I've bought a few and made my own handles and sheaths for them.

wbraswell said:

Many seem very reasonably priced. What do you guys know? Ya got pics?

Click to expand...

I have seen a lot of inexpensive Damascus knives at the shows as well, most of them are very low grade from Pakistan, China, and other such places. The steel is poorly done with a lot of inclusions in the layers, I won't even get into the fit and finish on those things. As with all things you get what you pay for, a good quality USA made blade in a 4 inch basic sheath knife without any bolsters or other embellishments will start at around $100. One option is to buy the blade and put in you own handle, I bought a skinner blade from a local smith many years ago for about $80 then put it in my own handle.

I have one that is stamped "Howell" and he is/was located in Smiths Station, Alabama, which is near Columbus GA. Does anyone have any info on the maker?

Never mine, I found his new website.

colt_saa said:

What you are seeing at gun shows is production knives. There are also custom knives, hand made knives and Knives made by Master Smiths.

Obviously the prices range from reasonable to amazingly expensive.

Inexpensive, mass produced, commercially available Damascus came onto the scene around 1980 and opened up a now world for folks that would never spend the money for hand made Damascus.

How dense the Damascus is varies the price greatly. 24 layer steel is much cheaper to make than 1400 layers of steel.

A Master Smith might take 3 weeks to make the billet of tightly folded Damascus for his project.

What are the scales, liners and rest of the knife constructed of? That also alters price dramatically.

I can not help on the low end stuff, but if you are ever interested in some of the top shelf knives drop me a note.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/318729-2013-blade-pictures-added-not-56k-friendly.html

My For Sale site is BladeBuzz.Com I am adding to it as fast as I can, right now it has less than 10% of the inventory on it.

Click to expand...

Wow.....number 2 there an auto?

A10 said:

Wow.....number 2 there an auto?

Click to expand...

Good eye. That one was made by Don Hanson

Autos are quite popular among the Art Knife crowd

Here is one from Donald Vogt


Here is one from Alan Elishiwitz
[imghttp://mlck.mlck.netdna-cdn.com/shop/img/p/1/2/4/124-thickbox_default.jpg][/img]

This is from the team of Shaun and Sharla Hansen


This is a massive auto from Todd Fisher


Here is one from George Dailey. That is 24k gold and diamonds


This Persian auto from Jerry Rados has extremely tight damascus


This Jerry Minnick auto has tiny gold pins set into the carved tortoise scales


ZAZA fron Russia makes this auto


If you want to look there are about 175 on BladeBuzz.com. We have 2000+ in inventory so I still have lots to add to the site

These are the only two Damascus knives that I own.
Both were made for me by a couple of budding smiths friends of mine.

wbraswell said:

Wow, colt SAA, you sure covered the top end of the spectrum. If knives were cars, those would be Ferraris and Lambos, masterpieces. OK guys, I would like to see some of the more every day quality Damascus. The ones you would even use to cut things with. I would like to know about the qualities of it, compared to the mundane stainless we see now.

Click to expand...

Here's one of my EDC knives in Alabama Damascus from Kershaw it's the skyline series.


I bought it from BladeHQ.com for $30-40. It's lite and sharp. The G10 scales could be better but they keep it with a thin profile and provide a good grip. It is just a flipper with no spring assist which sometimes I wish it had. Hope this helps you find what you are looking for.


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