D.P.S. 15 Damascus

For many of their Damascus releases, Spyderco utilized a VG-10 core with Damascus outer layer:

Spyderco’s Damascus is a laminated fifteen-layer steel with a Suminagashi pattern. The Damascus 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.

Known as D.P.S. 15, the blade material is produced by Takefu Special Steel Company, Ltd. in Japan. It consists of a VG-10 stainless steel core sandwiched between two outer layers of Damascus steel. Each of the Damascus layers is composed of 15 layers of forge-welded steel, beautifully patterned and etched to reveal the detail of the structure.