Originally Posted by
cannonfodder
Interesting. I can neither confirm or deny your claim, I am not a blacksmith but picked that tidbit up somewhere.
Pattern steel has become popular for kitchen knives the past few years but it is not Damascus. My grandfathers Genco is also marked Damascus but is really patterned steel. My pocket knife is Damascus, around 30 layers if I remember correctly, Kershaw. Cuts anything I ask it to. Livi still forges his own Damascus but uses a solid core and sandwiches the Damascus to it, which is what I have. I believe the above statement came from him, but could be mistaken. At any rate, the reason I got a Damascus razor was because I like the look of Damascus. I won’t say it shaves any better or worse than any other custom I have but it sure does stand out in the display case.