Henkels Twin Signature vs Artifex

[Noctis3880]

Not really, white steel is the purest of carbon steels and by design made to take extreme levels of sharpness. But geometry plays a big role too, a GB will never get as sharp as a yanagi in any steel. White steel is also tougher so its less likely to chip unlike blue steel.

As for carbide content, I've never noticed it being a factor.

Well, 90% of most cutting in a typical kitchen involves fruits, vegetables, and boneless meats. So I never really put much regard for toughness in a kitchen knife unless we're picking one specifically for chopping through bone.

And if anything, my Miyabi 7000MC uses ZDP-189 at Rc 66, which hasn't given me any trouble with chipping after slicing up a few pineapples on a cheap plastic cutting board, so I wouldn't expect much trouble from a softer carbon steel with a lower carbide volume.

Carbide content typically affects toughness and the ability to take and hold a razor edge. Though it evidently seems as though the razor edge issue is less of a problem for 2nd and 3rd generation PM steels, which I suspect ZDP is one of given that I never found it to develop a "toothy" edge after use.

 

[Jason B.]

Vanadium carbides and Chromium carbides are a bit different, ZDP contains Chromium carbides which you can often relate to high degrees of sharpness and the ability to hold that sharpness. They are not as hard as vanadium carbides so you can still use most of the standard methods of sharpening.

Steels like aogami super don't have enough vanadium to create large amounts of carbides but rather to be a grain refiner.

 

[Noctis3880]

Vanadium carbides and Chromium carbides are a bit different, ZDP contains Chromium carbides which you can often relate to high degrees of sharpness and the ability to hold that sharpness. They are not as hard as vanadium carbides so you can still use most of the standard methods of sharpening.

Steels like aogami super don't have enough vanadium to create large amounts of carbides but rather to be a grain refiner.

From Carter Cutlery:

White steel, my personal favorite, is an amazingly pure steel and therefore the carbides in the steel allow for the keenest edge possible. So, when a surgically clean cut is required, such as in some type of food preparation (sushi, etc.), or in woodcarving, White steel reigns as king.

Blue Super steel is basically White steel with chromium, tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium added. This results in oddly-shaped carbides in the steel, so keenness is sacrificed somewhat. However, the new carbides enable this steel to retain its edge longer than any other grade of cutlery steel. Therefore, Blue Super steel is the king of edge retention.

Aogami Super might not have enough vanadium for carbides, but I believe there's a good 2% tungsten in there. Not enough for a significant carbide volume, but not plain carbon steel either.

White steel sounds like it should be a favorite for me, but I don't like that metallic smell and taste it leaves on my fruit, so I'll have to settle for AEB-L instead.

 

[Jason B.]

You referenced PM steels speaking of "carbides" and toothy edges, you then threw ZDP-189 in the mix without realizing there is a difference in carbides and that different alloy elements mean different types of carbides. What I'm trying to say is you just can't say carbides will make a steel perform in one way or the other without knowing the type of carbides present.

CPM-154 is something like 15% carbide by volume yet it retains a high level of sharpness and doesn't act anything like say S30V and that's all because of the type of carbides.