Carbon in the kitchen

No help on the carbon "off taste" thing, but I have heard, right or wrong, that a sharp carbon blade will not impart this taste. The dull carbon edges being the guilty culprits, but I can't verify, cause there is NEVER a dull knife in my house!
 
I think that when you drill down to that last perceived 1/2 of 1% of performance, the impression that some have may be that 52100, W2 and the Hitachi white steels and AEB-L/13C26 will produce that ultimate super fine stable edge whereas the O1, Hitachi blue steels, 115W8 (and say CPM154 or CTS-XHP will still take a rather fine edge, if not quite so fine but offer more abrasion resistance.
Willie71 said:
It's interesting, O1 (from the OP) performs pretty much the same as the "preferred" steels, but doesn't sell as well. All of my mother's knives are O1, and she loves them with the patina.
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I recall hearing someone say that higher sulphur content in the steel may be one of the culprits when it comes to that "stinky" reactivity. I may be wrong.
samuraistuart said:
No help on the carbon "off taste" thing, but I have heard, right or wrong, that a sharp carbon blade will not impart this taste. The dull carbon edges being the guilty culprits, but I can't verify, cause there is NEVER a dull knife in my house!
Click to expand...
 
Carbon knives can discolor food and impart a taste until the patina develops, and it depends a lot on what foods you're cutting.
This is particularly a problem with damascus, since stabilizing it is an extra step that isn't always done.
Again, once you have a patina, it takes a lot of cutting acid foods for any unpleasantness to show up.
 
I think(leave myself room for back pedaling)...

Exposing Iron and manganese are most likely reason for ppl experiencing metallic/off taste & smell. Patina layer reduce external low/hi Ph chemicals from interact with Fe & Mn. Cr passivation acts similar as patina, when Cr content at least 12% (mass or volume since Cr & Fe have similar atomic weight), this layer effectively shield Fe & Mn & etc from most common mild low/hi Ph and low concentration reagents.
 
Hi Stezann, Just an FYI if you are worried about taste transfer or fruits,vegetable or green's tasting off or turning brown once cut. Try ceramic blade knive's I recommend Kyocera the white blade is Zirconium oxide and the black is the same but carbide in the same things used on the nose and underneath of the space shuttle. No rust on their stuff and no browning of the items you cut. Also my absolute favorite is their vegetable peeler which is the white ceramic and i have had it for almost 20 years and wouldnt use anything else! I hope this helped............Drew
 
Thank you Drew, up today fortunately i have never experienced similar issues with my carbon blades, but i was asking because it is a common prejudice against carbon steels.
I have used some ceramic knives, but they come with large sharpening angles. I have never tryied sharpening one of those.
 
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