Thread: What's the deal with these Damascus blades??

This is a valiant effort Dylan. All of this work when you know that chances are, considering the problems with the grind and the geometry that Randy mentioned, the steel is sub standard in tempering and heat treat, if not in quality. I take my hat off to you. I wouldn't have the patience to have gone this far. You've done a service for us RADdicts that have been following the thread. I'd really be surprised if once honed to shave ready it will hold the edge. The dream of the damascus on the cheap is just that.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

This is a valiant effort Dylan. All of this work when you know that chances are, considering the problems with the grind and the geometry that Randy mentioned, the steel is sub standard in tempering and heat treat, if not in quality. I take my hat off to you. I wouldn't have the patience to have gone this far. You've done a service for us RADdicts that have been following the thread. I'd really be surprised if once honed to shave ready it will hold the edge. The dream of the damascus on the cheap is just that.

X2

However this razor turns out, you have done a service for all of us, by buying and evaluating it. A side bonus for you will be to make you better at correcting gnarly bevel and spine issues, although this job looks way too tedious and tiring for me. I do hope that you end up with a useable razor, after all your hard work! Thank you.

I've seen a lot of comments about the possibility of the steel being too soft and therefore won't hold much of an edge.

I'm wondering if since it's this much of a PITA to hone, that the steel may actually be pretty hard, in which case it will hopefully hold an edge once it has one. ???

Originally Posted by HNSB

I've seen a lot of comments about the possibility of the steel being too soft and therefore won't hold much of an edge.

I'm wondering if since it's this much of a PITA to hone, that the steel may actually be pretty hard, in which case it will hopefully hold an edge once it has one. ???

I would suspect that most of the difficulty is due to the very wide bevels. That is a lot of steel to remove using fine grit razor hones.