Knives with Damascus steel blades

Whenever someone thinks of a high-end kitchen knife, that thought almost always implies that the knife must have a damascus blade. The explanation for such reasoning is simple: a damascus blade is art. Indeed, in terms of beauty and in terms of the expertise required for its making, a damascus knife is truly a masterpiece of cutlery. The technique required for making a damascus blade has been practiced since long before the Middle Ages. At that time, it was mostly reserved for blades of other types of knives, but nowadays, the damascus tecnique is frequently used for the manufacturing of kitchen knives.

The know-how for the creation of a damascus blade is more than 2000 years old. Throughout the years, the expertise has been passed from generation to generation, and it has gone beyond the borders of its birthplace: Asia. In present years, knife manufacturers keep perfectioning the technique involved in the creation process by integrating some of today's innovative techniques. To explain it in a few words, the making of a damascus knife is about assembling alternating layers of soft and hard steel around a robust (usually very hard) steel core. 

Beyond its original and impressive aesthetics, the overlapping steel layers that make up a damascus knife provide the blade an optimal balance of solidity and flexibility. The hard steel layers enable the blade to be quite rigid, and this allows it to remain sharp for long time. On the other hand, the soft steel layers balance out the hardness of the other layers as well as that of the steel core, and this gives the blade enough flexibility to be less fragile as it would be if the blade was excessively rigid. It must be stated that this does not mean that damascus blades are flexible. They are not. The "flexibility" given by the soft steel layers simply means that the blade will be more resistant, because otherwise, without that flexibility, the knife would easily break due to its rigidness.

As long as the blade consists of a hard steel core surrounded by other steel layers, the knife can already be considered to be "damascus." There are damascus knives with 67 steel layers such as the ones from the Wusaki Damas VG10 series, but it is also possible to find other knives out there with up to 128 steel layers! Of course, the most steel layers a damascus blade has, the more wavy lines will be visible on the blade's surface. In fact, after assembling all the steel layers around the core, each blade goes through a an acid bath, and it is this "bath" what makes the patterns be visible on the surface, thus giving the knife a truly fantastic look.

Nowadays, damascus blades are mostly seen in Japanese kitchen knives. This is no surprise if we take into consideration that Japanese blacksmiths are vastly experienced in this domain thanks to their renowned know-how for the making of katana swords. 

When combined with a nice handle, a damascus blade becomes a knife that is an authentic piece of art. The usual rigidity of a damascus blade allows it to have a remarkable cutting performance, but in the end, the most striking characteristic of a damascus knife will always be its astonishing look. All the fans of fine cutlery are delighted to be able to add at least one damascus kitchen knife to their collection. Their beauty is the weakness of several cooks around the world, and here at MyChefKnives, we are proud to propose you a vast selection of damascus knives so that you can also get your own bit of masterpiece cutlery.