Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/14/save-over-75-on-this-5-piece.html
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These are made in waziristan, really close to the region where damascus steel was rumored to have come from. They look nice.
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Without access to Wootz steel from India, it’s not really Damascus. I hope this is pattern welded high-carbon steel, and not stainless that has been etched with a Damascus-like pattern.
The description implies it is not stainless and must be cared for, which is good. I have a few carbon steel knives in my kitchen, mine are plain and a bit ugly looking (dark brown) but they stay sharp a long time and edge doesn’t roll over quite as quickly as my stainless.
If it’s carbon steel, the set will probably last you the rest of your life if you take care of it. Those handles are nice, please don’t put them in the dishwasher. 
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Last time I bought “Damasukasu” knives from the BoingBoing store, the handles weren’t quite as fancy, and there were only 3 knives, and perhaps the text on the main site’s post wasn’t quite as florid in its description of “ancient methods”. When the knives showed up, they each had the same wavy pattern, re-scaled to fit each size of blade, etched onto every surface. It was very disappointing, but yeah, if you’re looking into purchasing super-cut-rate Damascus steel blades and there are no reviews or FAQs to look into, buyer beware! For what it’s worth, they’ve proven plenty sharp, nonetheless, and seem to hold an edge at least as well as our other, less scammily patterned kitchen knives.
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Wootz or “bulat” wasn’t even really “Damascus”… That’s just what western traders called it because a lot of the trade went through Damascus.
I get the pedantry (trust me, as someone who has personally made wootz, modern pattern welded steel, and layered tamahagane, I get it), but people have to accept that the term “Damascus” is in common use as referring to pattern welded steel, not just Wootz.
But yeah, at least these appear to be pattern welded, and not the etched ones that the boingboing store was trying to sell a bit back… Whether or not they’re quality pattern weld we won’t know (especially as there’s a lot of crap/cheap pattern weld coming out of India nowadays).
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Finally, real pattern welded steel of some sort (I couldn’t find any info about it on the maker’s site ), but BBS has chosen to carry the model with the least appropriate handles. I’m not a fan of cylindrical handles for knives in general, but these are made out of wood and leather disks, which seems like an even less appropriate version for kitchen use. I like to feel what direction I’m holding a tool and this and the Apple hockey puck mouse are in the same league of bad design.
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$200, there is more than one knife, they will make daikon slices leap into playful puma attitudes until my plating technique kills it (or not;) but the handles have Apple Design Taint set. [Cue: dirty looks from some chefs who juggle their knives.] Yeah, offhand this is still defs more fun than overpaying for a terabyte of (ECC12-ified) DDR4. Hooray!
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