From copper-infused patterns to stainless steel sheets, discover the innovations driving the red-hot market for production damascus.

Are we seeing a bit of “global warming” in the knife industry, where red-hot damascus steel is getting even hotter? BLADE® spoke with some industry leaders, and 2025 and beyond looks good to them when it comes to production damascus in both carbon and stainless steels.

There are many individual makers who make high-quality damascus in simple and complex patterns in their home shops, backyards or shared maker spaces. This article focuses instead on production damascus forged by specialized outfits such as Baker Forge & Tool, Damasteel, Chad Nichols Damascus and Vegas Forge. At a level beyond “regular” damascus makers, these companies make steel for the masses, for production companies, and specialize in innovative new materials that are sure to delight the industry.

BLADE readers will be familiar with Baker Forge & Tool, a prolific producer of innovative damascus patterns that include copper, such as CopperMai, TigerMai, GoMai and others.

“We make carbon steel damascus patterns with copper, and they’ve been hot. We expect them to stay hot through 2025,” Coy Baker said. When it comes to steel selection, the company most often sticks with the gold standard combination of 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels.

Baker also has been experimenting with Apex Ultra as a core steel for its copper san-mai. For those unfamiliar, Apex Ultra is a tungsten steel alloy, kind of a super-52100 carbon steel. It’s made in small batches and is hard to get in the USA, but Baker has found that the material makes a great damascus core.

“Demand for our Apex core billets far outpaces supply,” Coy noted.

Baker has also been experimenting with stainless and copper damascus and san-mai, using 154CM and AEB-L stainless steels. This writer also makes knives and that combo sounds quite challenging to forge. Baker confirmed that it was very challenging and wouldn’t reveal any secrets, other than the 154CM etches light and the AEB-L etches darker.

Growth In The ‘Sip

Down in beautiful Bush Springs, Mississippi, Chad Nichols makes traditional carbon steel damascus at a production level.

“I stick mostly to carbon steel 1075 or 1095 plus 15N20 with occasionally a little bit of 3V,” Nichols explained. “I’ve got my process down and these steels go together well.” He makes a variety of mosaic patterns, most of which go to a single manufacturer. “The carbon steels are so much more organic,” Nichols said. “You can do so much more with them in a cost-effective way.”

Nichols’ goal for 2025 is to increase his production of mosaic patterns.

“There just aren’t many people doing production mosaics,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for growth.”

Another area he’d like to see grow in 2025 is the use of exotic and historical materials. He’s made a run of steel for Boker with steel from a German Tiger tank, and has a run coming for William Henry with some leaf springs sourced by WH.

Collab Designs

Damascus isn’t just a U.S. product. Damasteel produces high-quality stainless steel damascus in Sweden.

“Our DS93X steel is our standard mix, combining good performance with good looks,” Damasteel’s Per Jarbelius remarked. “For us it’s more about expanding the patterns than about trying new steel combos.”

DS93X is described as a “patented powder metallurgy product” that includes “two different hardenable steel grades.” “We use only stainless steel,” Jarbelius explained, ‘because it doesn’t rust and has the same or better performance.”

Damasteel historically produces a new pattern each year. For 2025 it also has begun a special project to collaboratively design patterns. Benchmade collaborated with Damasteel to make a steel pattern called “Monarch” exclusively for the Benchmade Gold Class Necron balisong. Jarbelius is excited for the potential to expand the collaborative effort with other companies who want proprietary patterns.

In another innovation, Damasteel has developed the capability to produce stainless damascus in sheets, not just bars. This will come in handy for small-batch and mid-tech production. The sheet steel pattern is called “Drakkar,” which is the old Norse word for the dragon-shaped Viking longboats.

Copper In The Pattern

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but that’s not the slogan for Vegas Forge, whose damascus is well known worldwide. It is a consistent producer of high-quality carbon and stainless damascus in complex patterns.

“One of our most popular patterns is ‘Reptilian,’ which has three alloys included: O1, 1075 and nickel,” observed the company’s Jesse Harber.

Vegas Forge has always been innovative and 2025 will be no exception.

“We’ve figured out how to do copper in with the damascus pattern manipulation, not just as a line between san-mai,” Jesse noted. “We can take our Reptilian pattern with copper in it, and then clad that billet over an O1 or 1095 core.”

As far as stainless goes, Vegas Forge continues to push the complexity of its patterns. Its most popular pattern, “Virus,” begins with a single stack of 1200 pieces! The company uses 154CM cores for most of its stainless san-mai, along with CTS XHP when available.

Ultimate Hotness

What kind of knives do the manufacturers predict for ultimate hotness in 2025?

Both Baker and Jarbelius indicated culinary knives will stay hot, especially in stainless. Baker pointed out that stainless steel handles kitchen abuse better, and this writer agrees. Per said Damasteel’s Damacore and DC18N nitrogen steels are top of the line, and the company has a culinary knife coming in partnership with BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Ken Onion and CRKT. Both Damasteel officials and Chad Nichols agree that complex patterns are expected to do well for the pocketknife and one-off makers.

Jarbelius “expects growth in the complex pattern market” even as Damasteel’s basic traditional rose, ladder and twist damascus patterns remain best sellers. Nichols states that the mosaic niche he addresses will continue to grow.

All four steel makers expect growth in the production side of the market. Even in a slower economy, the big knife manufacturing companies are still producing limited runs of high-quality damascus knives. Baker looks for growth in his damascus-core san-mai steels.

“They’re easier to get a consistent etch on than the mono-steel cores,” he explained.

Manufacturing is all about consistency and efficient processes. Damasteel achieves consistency by using the same steel combo for all its patterns. Nichols gets there by batch building for specific manufacturers so that each run is internally consistent. Harber mentioned that he was approached at BLADE Show West* by multiple production companies looking to order steel for 100-to-200-piece runs. He indicated he expects the mid-range sub-$800 production folders to stay hot.

Gonna Be Intersting

The new year is going to be an interesting one for the economy and politics, both of which are inextricably entwined. Fortunately, thanks to the work of those in the damascus industry, it’ll also be an interesting year in the world of knives. If nothing else, knife enthusiasts will have plenty of beautiful damascus production knives coming off the assembly lines to keep them entertained.

More On Steel:

• Best Steel For Knives: How To Choose
• Knife Steel Trends: What To Look Forward To In 2025
• Knife Steel Alloys: A Down-And-Dirty Guide
• Damascus Steels: What To Use And When