HOW OUR DAMASCUS IS MADE: All our Damascus is real and not just an acid etch. Damascus is a mixture of 1095HC and 15N20 nickel carbon. You heat them up together and then fold the bar over and over to get the desired layers, ours are 396 layers. Then you burn the blade in acid, and it turns the nickel satin color and the high carbon turns blackish gray. This is how the layers are exposed to show the layers of the new steel created coined “Damascus”. All Damascus is acid etched to show the layers.