Koenig x Sharknivco Mini Goblin
rcwilly, you are killing me. Such great looking knives. I fall in love with the pictures of them then, I make the mistake of looking at the price.
I’m buying a bunch of Powerball tickets this week. 
/\ . Me too!! … :person_facepalming: … 
Sorry guys… I’m a bad influence. 
Even with the $100 off on this one I don’t think I’ll end up keeping it…but that milling sure is pretty!
Spyderco Drunken
What is it? It sure is a beauty….
Thanks!! Sorry, I must have overlooked your previous post, my bad.
I had to get away from knives for a few years because I was spending too much. :person_facepalming:
So I have not kept up with most of the newer ones from Spyderco, Benchmade (my personal favorites) or anyone else really. But it appears, by some of the pics you post; that Spyderco has really upped their game over the last few years. The ones you have posted are nice!!
Oh yeah… I replaced “Knives” with “Lights” those few years ago. That really helped a lot…. :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming: . :money_mouth_face:
@teacher I should be getting away from knives and back into lights but as you point out some of these new Spyderco knives have been really nice and every time I say last one to myself, they announce something new and pull me back in. lol
Trust me my friend, I completely understand…
The struggle is real…… :money_mouth_face: :money_mouth_face:
Hey, I see your location is “The Beach”…. are you on the East Coast, West Coast, or Gulf Coast?? If your in the USA of course. lol
Unfortunately I was not lucky.
It was so bad that there was a “spot” where the Damascus pattern was obviously missing and breaking the pattern.
As they say “you get what you pay for,” most of the time. Of course the auction photos showed a nice natural pattern of a “model” knife. The wooden handle is nice. The knife is a bit heavy… can’t say whether or not the steel is good quality. The edge came a little dull. I honed it and that helped. But my Calphalon Santoku feels better.
Dragged the Ganzo FH31 out of hiding today. I was actually looking for something else and found this still in the box at the bottom of a drawer. No clue as to why I put it there. Nice little knife. Not as nice a rcwilly’s EDC knives but it will have to do.
!
!
Xevious.
And that (unfortunately) is the way we all get experience.
Hopefully you won’t get caught again.
Just remember. TOP line knives. Damascus or otherwise.
Will start around $850 and up to multiple thousands.
Good. Mid range from a top name. $450 to $700.
Tojiro. Iseya and others that YOU have read up on and talked about.
“YOU Have, Haven’t you.
Will start at around $65/80 and go up through different models
to around $350 ISH.
You will NOT Get cheap. Chinese cooks knives like you do Folders.
(Size alone precludes that…) THAT ARE ANY GOOD EDGE WISE.
Hundreds of yrs of Blade Quality skills don’t come cheap.
Accept that ONE good “speshul” knife will cost you $350 to 600.
At your skill, experience levels.
Just hold and drool on every now and then.
No2 White Powder Carbon Steel will give you a good blade
for a half sensible price.
And get the Tojiro, Iseya. etc From the Upper end of the lower/Mid range blades around $65/230. for your daily use.
They WILL do a great job. And the likes of our blade skills.
WE will NEVER know the difference.
The Iseya are 1\2 a level UP on Tojiro. But NEED more care in handling.
But a LOT of pro Kitchens all over the world
Use and are happy with results from Tojiro DP Blades. and the models above.
Tojiro DP Petty Around $65 OR…
Iseya I ser, 33 layer Hammered $85ish.
Tojiro DP 7in Santoku $?? OR……
Iseya 33, Damascus Santoku $???
With Any comfortable feeling $20 Paring for now.
Look on net for Wusthof 8in Chef (Narrow blade) on special.
But any decent Euro blade form will do for that. I like the Brazilian one. (Mundial) but it is soft steel. Wears quick. Feels good.
Look in Hocho for prices PLUS freight added.
And…. I think a local Meatworks supplier would be best for a 10/11in Butchers knife for any heavy work.
Good blade, cheap price for minimal usage.
I’m a few yrs out of touch with pricing nowadays
hence the Look??.
$200ish will get you a basic. usable couple with parer,
with another $40/50 for meatworks blade.
THEN… Start saving for the Drool item/s.
A lot depends on your income.
Working I was on $2.500ish a week plus tonnage,
Nowadays, OLD age Pension.
Slows you down a bit once you spent it all hey.
Yeah, I hear you. Sad thing is, this seller has 100% positive feedback and over 20,000 transactions. There must be a lot of naive buyers out there. This was his response: “we are really sorry about the inconvenience you had as these minor scratches should not be there, as far as those spots are concerned which are called ball spots are due to forging, Damascus steel is alloy or carbon and steel which forged into layers and some of the time it happens, this is true Damascus and not etched, we have been selling for over ten years and have more than 20000 feedback.”
But there’s no sign of Damascus pattern on the bald spots, in addition to no smooth transition there—it’s a sharp cut off. Plus, the back side of the exposed blade shows no pattern either (I looked up close with a 30x magnifier).
The seller (damascus007) listed the auction as no returns, but is offering me a 40% discount or a return. I’m going to return it. When there’s a return, there’s no feedback. So maybe that’s how he escapes the criticism (since if he refused, there would be negative feedback due to the deception).
I’d be curious to know if you’re able to look directly at his auctions and see for yourself if it’s possible to ascertain that his claims are true, or he’s peddling a massive scam.
Anyway, I appreciate all the details you provide, though overwhelming. I do realize that you have to pay many hundreds to get really good quality Damascus steel blades. My hope was to get a mediocre example that is at least the simulated Damascus steel by process, not by faux surface etching. But in the end… I think I’ll let go of this. The “white powder carbon steel” sounds more interesting and within a more practical budget. Where do you suggest looking on-line?
UPDATE: Interesting that the seller issued me a refund and stated “please cut the blade part right from the centre and see it’s genuine or not, we are not the trader it’s our family business for the last 40 years and we never sell anything fake and offer money back guarantee on our products.”
So I made another pass at examining the knife up close. I did find a consistency of pattern from one side of the blade, across the top, and to the other side. No “flawed” match of pattern. On the back end of the knife, what seemed devoid of pattern with the naked eye revealed that there is a pattern there. It’s just most of it was covered up from the grinding. But it was uneven, so I could see the layered steel pattern within it.
Thus… it looks like this may actually be some primitive, rough form of Damascus styled steel. And that bald spot was just an unlucky happenstance of unfolded steel in the mix. That’s what I can perceive from the examination. This seller must not have a very good command of the language, as he could have tried to explain things better.
UPDATE #2: Rather than wiping out everything here, I just wanted to point out that the seller gave me a full refund and told me to keep the knife (“too expensive to mail back”). With the cosmetic fault, he’d probably not be able to resell it anyway, so it wouldn’t make sense to send back as it is. I wonder if there’s something I could do to the back end of the knife to help get the rest of the Damascus lines to come through?
@ Macka17 & Xevious
Devin Thomas / Among the best in the world (and there ain't many), absolutely top notch.
Brad Vice / Very, very good.
What is “No2 White Powder Carbon Steel”? I cannot find any information about it by that name.
Is the “White 2” I have listed below what you are referring to Macka17?
Thanks in advance…. :+1:
White 2 Steel / Composition And Reference Data
Composition
- C: 0.95-1.05;
- Cr: 0.20-0.50;
- Mn: 0.00-0.50;
- Ni: 0.70-1.30;
- P: 0.00-0.03;
- S: 0.00-0.03;
- Si: 0.00-0.35;
Maker: Takefu - Japan (JP)
Notes:
White 2 - Takefu steel.
According to them, Shiro2 is their most popular cutting steel. Shiro2 is not Shirogami 2 steel, even though sometimes Shirogami 2 is referred as Shiro2. Whenever you see the abbreviation, it is most likely referring to Hitachi Shirogami 2 steel, not Takefu Shiro2.
Cross-References:
- none
Known Aliases:
- Shiro2
Good to know, although price points are probably beyond my budget. Devin Thomas doesn’t have any current products listed for sale on his site. But wow, the gallery! I had no idea such Damascus steel patterns were possible. And that’s all from folding steel in specialized ways?
Shirogami = white steel, aogami = blue steel also called white paper steel and blue paper steel based on the color of the paper they are (or were traditionally) wrapped in if i’m not wrong.
I have a small Spyderco Caly 3 super blue (aogami) and it’s a nice carbon steel (not stainless).