What makes these knives special and what exactly are we looking at here?   In order to best describe what’s going on here I’ll let Mr. Kramer’s website explain why he works with Damascus (Direct link):

Damascus, or pattern welded steel, is the process of combining at least two different types of steel to achieve mechanical properties or to achieve a desired aesthetic. In my Damascus, I use three different types of steel all of which harden and temper in the same temperature range.

To begin creating Damascus I make a sandwich of different types of steel, usually starting with 20 layers, at room temperature. This sandwich is tack-welded together and put into a forge running at 2350 degrees Fahrenheit.

At this temperature, the steel becomes “plastic” and “sticky”. The steel sandwich is then placed into a hydraulic press or mechanical hammer where these different steels are fused together.

Molecules actually move back and forth across this interface between the different steels bonding the materials together. This process is also called diffusion bonding. The resulting billet is then stretched and manipulated to create desired patterns or folded a number of times to achieve a desired layer count, sometimes going up to 10,000 layers.

This process is very labor and material intensive. In some cases up to 70% of the material is lost along the way to achieve a desired pattern. This is why Damascus knives are much more expensive than the straight carbon steel knives.

Often I am asked if Damascus is better than Straight Carbon Steel. I’d say that it isn’t better, only different. I see my Damascus knives as a bigger chunk of my soul. The making of Damascus requires more time, and a higher level of concentration. When I developed the steel recipe for my Straight Carbon Steel, the goal was to design the highest performance kitchen blade my experience and skills could muster. The Damascus blades are several steps down the road, as I am able to embellish an already high performance tool with patterns and processes that inspire me and engage me fully while I’m making them.

If you are wondering which steel cuts better I’d say that they cut different. The Straight Carbon Steel blades have the keenest, sharpest edges that I know of. The Damascus blades are made of different types of steel whose many layers extend to the cutting edge. These layers wear at a slightly different rate, causing a very fine micro-serration, which can be very helpful in staying sharp longer. Both sharpen exactly the same way and both get equally sharp, so it’s in the way that they wear which is different.

Therefore, in deciding which type of steel you prefer, perhaps you might think of the Damascus as an art piece, as well as a functional tool. 

So as you can see the process is pretty labor intensive.  While we were in his shop for about an hour he showed us through the process, very quickly, of how to complete a knife about 20% of the way.   Even at this point there can still be flaws and Mr. Kramer explained to us how he made one knife three separate times in order to ensure his customer was receiving an optimal product.  He takes pictures of all of his knives and reviews them constantly and if he feels that something is off then he will change his work to be perfect.

He told us it was much like cooking.  Find the right ingredients, cook them to the right temperature, and expect perfection along the way or at least shoot for perfection (he used to be a chef before he got into the knife business 20 years ago).

There were so many different knives he showed us throughout the shop that were in different stages of production. It was really amazing to see.  Each one was different in its own way which is another reason each knife Mr. Kramer makes are so coveted.

On to post number three.  So much bandwidth so little time………

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