High-performing steel - purpose made kitchen knives

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Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
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Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Carbon IS totally borderline Paleo.
:)

It is the feeling using knives hand forged by artisans in Nippon.
My family we are a bit nerdy/anal about kitchen knives. Well honed, they are all superb, including the cheap Victorinox pro brand.

Japanese knives have some useful shapes, once you learned how and when to use them.

Carbon steel has one huge negative, cutting acidic fruits can impair some metallic taste
 
Nov 15, 2019
5
1
36
Kent
Thanks all for your suggestions, there has been so many to look through.

As soon as the Falkniven Blue Whale was suggested I had to take a look and I was impressed. It has the VG10 steel, a great distance between cutting edge and where the hand grips so you can bring the full length of the knife edge down without your hand getting in the way. Then I saw the Fallkniven K2 White Wale Santoku 7", and it looked perfect! The tip of the knife is lower down, which is more practical for chopping vegetables, as the knife description also states, with the same great handle.

Basically, the K2 white whale looks like a high-performing blade whilst also being safer to use because the handle is very grippy and the blade tip less stabby (a nice technical word there). I have a vested interest in my husband keeping his fingers on his hands (and tendons!! Goodness, I read about your poor sister, @Janne) !! Perhaps it might be a good idea to send my husband on a kitchen knife skill (safety) course... (suggestions welcome! ;))
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
Never get distracted when doing blade work in the kitchen. Just don't.
The Porsche kitchen utility knife is some sort of stainless and had an impossibly sharp blade tip.
Only once. Just once. I rammed that tip into the gap between bones in a finger joint.

When company want to help me in food prep, they can use any knife in my kitchen.
Last evening, I looked over my cleavers to fine dice peppers and onions.
The cheap carbon steel cleavers get tarnished and stained. Not "dirty" and no effect on the food.
My big Three Rams brand 20 cm cleaver is marked stainless steel with a welded s/s handle.
It's OK but it languishes in the bottom of the drawer.

Maybe it's the size and shape of the 16 cm cleavers that are convenient?
I could shorten the bigger 20 cm cleavers and never miss the material.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Nice to hear I am not the only one inserting a knife tip into a finger joint.
Did that 3 or 4 years ago.
Fishing, needed to cut out a hook from a large cod. Boat moved, cod moved, knife slipped.
Was a Mora, S/s, the model with a serrated edge. Orange handle.

Not a nice feeling seeing the inside of your finger.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Stabbing my finger like that, there are no words in the English language to describe the pain.
I won't even talk to somebody without putting the knife/cleaver on the bench.
Wear a bib-front apron (or a chef's jacket) and closed shoes.
Those high performoing steels can bite you.

For high-performing steels, I think that I'd take ease of sharpening over hardness and edge keeping.
Wonderful excuse to have several edge to use, one after another then sharpen them all.
Mostly I base that opinion on 20 years of wood carving tools with all sorts of metals and hardnesses.
 

demographic

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 15, 2005
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I base that opinion on 20 years of wood carving tools with all sorts of metals and hardnesses.

Funny but I kind of go the other way on that one, its fine sharpening little and very frequently when in a workshop or close to my van but many sites I'm on I have to park a considerable distance away and cart tools in and out.
Unless I have my sharpening gear with me (extra weight) its a faff to have to get it.

Depends how much gear your already carting about but I'll take the posh steels that I don't have to sharpen as often anyday, the extra few seconds sharpening is almost always less than just getting the gear out the van to do it with.
Especially with stuff like plane blades that don't commonly get used on timber with nails in.

If I was a bench joiner instead of a site carpenter it could well be different.

For knives designed just for slicing I'd go as far as to say that is an ideal use for the so called super steels, for chopping and if they cut against bone, not so much.
 
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Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
The problem with steels with a high hardness is that the vast majority of owners can not sharpen them. The vast majority of people can not even sharpen 'normal' steel.

So people buy nice, expensive kitchen knives, and use them blunt.

Which reminds me I myself need to work on ours!
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
I don't need to pack up and move my tools and supplies more than a few steps.
I can understand the marathon if I had to carry everything to and from a job site.

Hall brand (Canada) farrier's crooked hoof knives are the hardest steel in my work shop.
The first step to revising a used knife for wood carving is to change the bevel from 25* to maybe 15* at the most.
That costs me a chainsaw file for every two 2 farrier's knives that I do up. But, I only have to do it once and
the chainsaw files are sold in boxes of a dozen for a reasonable price when compared with that in a hardware store.
What can you do with chainsaw files that don't cut any more? Beyond mandrels for sandpapers?
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
The Oregon brand chainsaw files are Swiss-made if I recall.

There are a couple of blacksmiths in the district. One is the local farrier and the other is a big hobbyist.
Another is an art-welder who builds magnificent birds and dragons from iron junk.
I'll hang onto the crap until I have a truck load to gift somebody.
 

demographic

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 15, 2005
4,691
710
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Hall brand (Canada) farrier's crooked hoof knives are the hardest steel in my work shop.

Over the years I've used various steels for plane blades from whatever bog standard steel Stanley uses, Stanley Sweetheart laminated, O1, A2, through to Samurai Brand laminated, Mujingfang High Speed Steel, and Veritas powder metal PMV-11.
Ive even ground a two inch deep by 24 inch Agusta mechanical hacksaw blade to make a plane blade, can't say I'll be doing that again as it was fully hard and a bear to grind.

The Samurai Brand laminated is brilliant, as is the Veritas PMV-11. Holds a great edge and easy enough to sharpen with diamond hone.

Jury is still out on the Mujingfang HSS and the Agusta HSS blade because they only fit my No3 handplane which doesn't get much use and much of the jobs I've been on recently have been softwood and MDF type work.
When I get on a decent site that uses a lot of hardwood I'll be able to test them better.
I reckon the Agusta may well chip as its fully hard, the Mujingfang will perform well cos although its HSS its not as stupidly hard as that. Also there's a bloke who has tested the Mujungfang blades and has good numbers to back it up.
The Samurai and Veritas powder metal blades are a huge improvement over standard and O1. I prefer A2 to O1 but its not as clear cut as the difference is less.
You might note that all of these are carbon steels (a term I've never really liked as I don't feel it fully shows what other alloying elements in there) but thats just whats avalible for planes as almost all the time they get used on dry timber. Corrosion isn't so much of an issue apart from during long term storage.

Planes are a very good test bed for blade steels because they offer repeatable strokes, all held at exactly the same angle.
Do a load of strokes with one, same amount with another on the same block of wood then (if its not already obvious by the shavings) inspect the blade with a microscope.
Now I don't have a microscope so can't do that part but fortunately someone else has done that and put his results up on the internet. Yay.

Knife testing? Jeez, have you seen some of the stuff on Youtube? Using different length blades against each other, different angles, hacking all manner of stuff, lets cut a brick? Much of its a bit Wally Factor nine for me.

I'm afraid I've moved sideways from the general topic but thats conversations for yer.
 

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