Cheap DAMASCUS KITCHEN KNIVES from china (aliexpress) - REVIEW

I couldn't find many reviews of such knives so i tried making one myself. You can see more information and pictures in the links below.

Here are the LINKS of where i've ordered them, if youre interested:

XITUO:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/High-...

iTamae / Vista:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Damas...

Sunlong:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-...

The knife that has arrived two weeks after the review: (Haoye)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/HAOYE...
- Has a longer handle, is relatively thin and light, sticks a lot to big potatoes as well. I actually find it the most comfortable out of the four. (Balance, grip, grind and rounding of edges)
- It came with a micro chipped blade though (so small, people would not notice) and was as sharp as the other knives, not the sharpest

You can probably google "Metro forged proffesional" for the big knife and its smaller versions.

Try googling "crap knife" for the other two?

AFTER SHARPENING and stropping:
(These results are purely subjective and might vary due to my sharpening not being always the same,. I have used cheap water stones and then stropped on leather with diamond paste of various gritts until i had a clean mirror finish)
XITUO knife:
Is noticably the hardest/most abbrassion resistant, takes an excellent edge. I made this one the sharpest of them all. It cuts through paper with no resistence and shaves mid-air cutting some hairs lengthwise.

Vista: Shaves hair just fine but is no crazy sharpness. It cuts smoothly through paper with its own weight (which is not bad being the thinnest knife in the race). Not as sharp as the Xituo though.

The fourth knife (Haoye): Comparable with Vista, shaves better but offers more resistence when cutting through paper (Not sure why but it does feel sharper nevertheless)

Sunlong: Noticably softest of those four.
As i tried to sharpen all four knives in a hurry, i might have not created a burr and failed to sharpen it. I will retry and edit this.
EDIT: This time i paid attention while sharpening and succeeded in creating a very, very sharp edge easily equal to the Xituo. That means its just a matter of sharpening skill with all of the knives.
I noticed that i couldnt get as a good polish as i have hoped for on this knife and when i looked closely, i could see why.
One can see the harder steel at the very edge (a thin layer in the middle) became shiny, while the softer outer steel is matt. That might or might not be the reason this knife feels softer during sharpening. As the "hamon" of this knife is not completely straight and is very close to the edge i had a feeling that i sharpened it wrong at some places, but its only an optical illusion.

One problem i did find with this knife though, the handle really doesnt like water and in just the few rinsing cycles ive made trying to clean it from sharpening and vegetables, the wood seems to have somehow dried and the metal pomel and hilt edges are very pronounced now, impossible to ignore.
I do recommend getting synthetic handles, or at least to treat your wooden handles prior to use, even if they look treated (oiling it might be a big help)