The Delica damascus edge is not damascus?

[Drumlooper]

If I understand correctly, the blade of the damascus Delica (and any other Spyderco damascus knife for that matter) is a sandwich of a (non damascus) VG-10 core and two outer layers of damascus VG-10. The blade is flat ground to the core and therefore the edge itself consists of the non damascus core. If this is correct, the damascus has a pure esthetic purpose. Or am I wrong?

[blueblur]

You are correct, although I believe they have used true Damascus steel before, most of the time when you see it, it’s as you described.

[Mushroom]

Yes, the Damascus used on the Titanium Delica is a "sandwich" or steel laminate consisting of a VG10 core sandwiched between two layers of Damascus steel. In this case the Damascus steel is purely aesthetic and the core steel that makes up the edge of the knife is VG10.

Not all Spyderco Damascus knives use a Damascus/VG10 steel laminate though. Spyderco will sometimes use steel from the company "Damasteel." That is a solid Damascus steel, including the edge.

[Mage7]

Well if this is the Delica 4 in Damascus and Ti? It's using something called "D.P.S. 15" from Takefu which is apparently mostly designed for aesthetic benefit.

Spyderco's Damascus Mule Team is a laminated fifteen-layer steel with a Suminagashi pattern. The Damascus Mule's steel is composed of layers of erosive and non-erosive material over a VG-10 core center. The erosive layers are hard martensite stainless steel and the non-erosive layers are anti-corrosion nonferrous metal. These layers block carbon particles in the core from spreading to the outer layers. After layering the blade is forged to intentionally distort the layer-lines making a complicated, artistically beautiful pattern called Suminagashi. Suminagashi is the traditional Japanese art form of creating ripples of Chinese ink on the surface of water. This steel mimics the art form with interesting results on a knife blade. Once the layers are distorted, the blade is bathed in acid etching the pattern to vivid relief.

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So yeah, the cladding for this seems primarily aesthetic. However, I wouldn't necessarily think of this as a bad thing, and certainly wouldn't let the mythos of Damascus steel influence how I think about this. Gotta remember that most Damascus was historically just trying to use one steel to make-up for the other, and so if you already have a well-balanced mono-steel there may not really be performance gains. In other words, you get all the beauty of Damascus, without any of the potential pitfalls.

[knivesandbooks]

I think the technique of using a vg-10 core with Damascus cladding is pretty common in Japanese cutlery. I’ve seen it on Japanese kitchen knives, at least. I’ve got an older Delica with Damascus and OD green frn. Looks nice, performs like vg-10.

[Synov]

All modern Damascus is aesthetic. There may be a minor benefit achieved with softer steels wearing away to form micro-serrations, but it never really gets better than the steels it's made of.

[Mushroom]

All modern Damascus is aesthetic. There may be a minor benefit achieved with softer steels wearing away to form micro-serrations, but it never really gets better than the steels it's made of.

This is an obfuscation of the point. There is a distinction between solid Damascus and Damascus clad laminate.

Damascus clad laminate is called "aesthetic" because it pairs cosmetic layers of Damascus steel with the reliable performance characteristics of a VG10 core.

Solid Damascus would not be considered "aesthetic only" in this case because it is solid Damascus through to the actual cutting edge. It's the actual Damascus steel that is being used on the sharpened edge. Therefore, solid Damascus can be considered functional

All modern Damascus is not all Damascus clad laminate.

[Synov]

This is an obfuscation of the point. There is a distinction between solid Damascus and Damascus clad laminate.

Damascus clad laminate is called "aesthetic" because it pairs cosmetic layers of Damascus steel with the reliable performance characteristics of a VG10 core.

Solid Damascus would not be considered "aesthetic only" in this case because it is solid Damascus through to the actual cutting edge. It's the actual Damascus steel that is being used on the sharpened edge. Therefore, solid Damascus can be considered functional

All modern Damascus is not all Damascus clad laminate.

It seems like you took my post to mean a blade made entirely of Damascus doesn't serve the function of cutting. That's obviously not what I said. Rather I'm referring to the choice to use Damascus instead of monosteel being a purely aesthetic choice.

[Mushroom]

This is an obfuscation of the point. There is a distinction between solid Damascus and Damascus clad laminate.

Damascus clad laminate is called "aesthetic" because it pairs cosmetic layers of Damascus steel with the reliable performance characteristics of a VG10 core.

Solid Damascus would not be considered "aesthetic only" in this case because it is solid Damascus through to the actual cutting edge. It's the actual Damascus steel that is being used on the sharpened edge. Therefore, solid Damascus can be considered functional

All modern Damascus is not all Damascus clad laminate.

It seems like you took my post to mean a blade made entirely of Damascus doesn't serve the function of cutting. That's obviously not what I said. Rather I'm referring to the choice to use Damascus instead of monosteel being a purely aesthetic choice.

I agree, that's obviously not what you said - I did not take it that way. I understood what you meant and I'm not disagreeing with you. What you said holds truth but it's getting away from the original question and potentially complicating the information the OP is looking for. The question was specifically about the edge of Damascus steel vs Damascus clad laminate.