Carbon Or Stainless I Just Don't Know

pootsythesamurai

pootsythesamurai

Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
501
Does anybody know how you can tell the difference between a carbon steel knife and a stainless steel one as I just bought a huge sheffield Bowie and they tell em that it's carbon steel but i've seen the same knife advertised as Stainless and just wonder if there is anyway I can prove or disprove that it is "pure" carbon steel??????/

Many thanks,
Pootsy
 
Cut up some apples and see if the blade develops a patina.That should tell you.
 
It won't take long. Cut up some food with it, and even with cleaning you will quickly see that a carbon blade will discolor almost right away.
 
thanks but what's a patina? I went out and cut some brances and she's scratching already, I hate high polished baldes lol.
 
Carbon steel will turn all sorts of bluey-yellow-brown colours if you chop up some onions/apples/oranges/lemons etc. with it.

Stainless steel is called stainless because it doesn't turn colours (it doesn't stain).
 
Yea i think it is carbon then u get that sort of effect as when u put something like oil, 3 in1 on it then? She's a whoper anyway, jus hate the high polish cos it's gonna be my user bowie lol with a 10.5 inch blade, 1/4 inch thick but hollow ground which i think is the only bad thing but she took a two inch branch of a cherry tree in two blows and it was at an awkward angle the cut too so i'm pretty pleased with it, just really didn't want it to be stainless cos sheffield's stainless now is supposed to be compareable to 420J and for me to pay $300 for that I couldn't warrant despite the retail being $400. I don't know if their carbon steel is any better but at least it should be somewhat better lolI know they go for about $500 the big carbon steel recent Bowies of sheffield.

Thanks very much again, any more info much appreciated lol.
 
If you don't care about the looks just dip it in some lemon juice. If the steel darkens, it's carbon.
 
lemon will darken it within a couple of minutes.

I don't know if you can polish out the stain. I have some old silver handled carbon steel bladed table knives from my grandfather. I just leave the blades dark. They still look good enough for company.
 
It may stay dark, so don't do it unless you don't care about making the knife darker. :) Some people on here dip their whole blads in lemon juice, or whatever, to darken the whole blade because they like the look of it.
 
Carbon steel is very magnetic, stainless varies from weak to not at all. Take a strong magnet to it. If it grabs right on, it's probably carbon steel, if only weakly attracted it's probably stainless.
 
OK - Here it is. You don't have to stain the blade, cut fruit, or otherwise mar the blade. You can do it in a store without carrying lemonade: Rub an area on the spine or tang to wipe off surface oil. Dab a small spot of Birchwood Casey cold GUN BLUE (the stuff in a tube) on an inconspicuous part of the spine or tang (my favorite, the small flat of the ricasso). If it discolors within about 10 seconds it is carbon steel and if unaffected it's "stainless". A 1/16" to 1/8" inch dia. spot will do nicely, and can be rubbed out easily even on carbon steel so you have to look under strong light to see it. Rember a small spot
There. My only secret and I blew it.
 
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