High carbon kitchen knives, let's see them!

[W.M.B.]

It's an old boker. I carve ham or Turkey, etc. With it.

 

[mainaman]

Kato guyto- Unknown carbon, but one of the best I have tried.

Yoshihide suji -modified Swedish Carbon

Yanagaiba -White 2

Itinomon Gyuto -V2

This one not mine, but I had it for a few days to test.
Mizuno Tanrenjo White 2

Shigefusa - modified Swedish carbon

 

[ins0ma]

This is after I sliced up a few oranges and let the knife sit with the juices for a while, as I wrote in my previous post. It's hard to capture with an iPhone but the patina is really interesting when the light hits it just the right way.

 

[Fritz MacKrieg]

While high carbide content stainless steels are great for folders and general purpose knives that are going to see abrasive materials, kitchen knives are going to encounter much different and softer materials. I've cut more vegetables and proteins than I have pretty much anything else. For these type of materials you want a thin, hard, and easy to sharpen edge--which is why carbon steels still dominate higher end kitchen cutlery. Their lack of corrosion resistance, though, can be off putting for some people.

I've gone from using stainless (VG-10) towards more carbon steels in the kitchen. The edges last longer, don't chip as much, and are stable even at very thin geometries.

Here are my most used knives:



I see lots of Konosuke love in this thread. The gyuto above is a funayuki profiled HD2.

I approve of your taste in knives! I have the same nakiri, though I thinned it extensively. The obverse side is nearly stripped of the kuro uchi finish. Some of my carbons:

Also, I went with the Yusuke 210 in Shirogami #2, for my laser.

I went with Konosuke Fujiyama for my honesuki:

 

[CapitalizedLiving]

Hesparus, you make some killer knives! I want one...

Here's mine:





High carbon is the stuff. I got addicted to 1084 and 1095 thanks to Dave Loukides and Joe Calton. The Dave Loukides Western Gyuto has been my personal favorite for about five years now.

 

[HAK1911]

Who Made that Black Handled Brass pinned pair ?
Super looking Chef knife. !

 

[Hesparus]

Thanks, CapitalizedLiving!

 

[CapitalizedLiving]

Sorry for the delay... the black handled pair are from Joe Calton.

 

[300Six]

I recently bought Wusthof's 200th anniversary set, and 8 inch chef's and a parer. The knives are purportedly made "the old way" and are of high carbon steel. I've used the chef's knife (pictured) maybe 6 times, on basic veggies and some proteins, and I've washed and dried it fairly quickly after each use. There's quite a patina already developing, although I can feel the dark spots on the blade when I'm drying the knife, or just running a fingertip over the discolored areas. As soon as I got the knives, before use, I rubbed then down with the supplied Barristol oil, and I really have tried to be careful, much more so than with any other knives I've owned, but the "patina" is happening alarmingly quickly. The worst damage (the darkest marks) seems to have been from cutting a tomato and then leaving the knife sitting for a couple minutes while I finished making a sandwich. If the patina was merely cosmetic I'd pay it no mind, but the fact that the discolored areas cause drag on the blade has me worried. Have I managed to spend $200 on knives so delicate that cutting a tomato might damage them?

You do have to learn to religiously clean and dry these types of knives right away. If some spots feel a bit rough (such as what can happen if you leave onion or tomato juice on for extended periods, or leave the knife to rust in a humid environment for weeks at a time) then invest in some automotive 1000 grit sandpaper and shine-up the blade every now and again. With enough rubbing you can make any old carbon blade look just like new.

 

[Doctor_big]

A quick scrubbing with Barkeeper's Friend will rapidly strip any patina and allow you to start again.

Jason

 

[bobasaurus]

Here is my recent purchase, a Masakage Yuki gyuto. Only the cutting edge is carbon steel (white #2), but I had to share it anyways:

It's a beautiful knife:

It is just barely starting to form a pretty blue patina on the cutting edge, though wiping it with mineral oil after use has kept it to a minimum.