Steel, wood and leather
Damascus, high-carbon and stainless compared — and the woods, horn and leather that finish them.
4 min read
Three steels, several woods, one leather. Knowing which is which is most of the buying decision, and none of it is complicated.
The three steels
Two or more steels forge-welded, folded, drawn and etched so the layers surface. The pattern follows how that billet moved under the hammer.
- Edge
- Good
- Corrosion
- Will rust
- Cost
- Highest
- Best for
- Collecting, gifts, display
A single steel, heat-treated for performance rather than appearance. Plainer to look at, and in most respects the better working material.
- Edge
- Excellent
- Corrosion
- Will rust
- Cost
- Middle
- Best for
- Field, camp, kitchen
Chromium in the alloy resists corrosion. Easier to live with in humid or coastal air, at some cost to edge retention.
- Edge
- Fair
- Corrosion
- Resistant
- Cost
- Lowest
- Best for
- Display in humid rooms
Hardness, and why higher is not better
Hardness is measured on the Rockwell C scale. A blade at 62 HRC holds an edge a long time and chips when abused. The same blade at 54 HRC dents instead of chipping but dulls faster. The useful band sits in between — and that is where ours sit.
Our blades: 56–60 HRC
Handle woods
Horn, bone and leather
Horn and bone
Stag horn, buffalo horn and camel bone appear on many knife handles. All natural, so colour and figure vary between pieces — the photograph shows a representative example, not an exact twin. Stable indoors, unhappy soaked.
Leather
Vegetable-tanned, cut, wet-formed to the blade and stitched. Slower than chrome tanning, and it produces leather that stiffens to shape and develops a patina rather than staying uniform.