Kanetsune Seki Japan knives??

[toxicchill]

Hey guys. Ive been eyeing some nice looking knives from Kanetsune Seki Japan but their blade steel is designed by "color". White steel, blue steel...i dont get it. Anyone have any experience care to shed some light on this?

 

[neki2]

I think its nicknamed from the color of the protective laminate plastic the steel comes in from the hitachi plant. Anyway very high carbon and pretty good stuff from what i here . Handled all there knives at blade show and wish i woulda got a small hunter insted of another chef knife.

The blades were nice most of them perfectly convex good durable distal taper with the swedges not in harm of any tip strength and for the thumb on top of spine grip.

I would only doubt the strength of the larger blades with hidden tang and wood handles. Has any one out there put a 5-7" model through the paces?

 

[nozh2002]

This is bad transation - it is steel marked with white paper label and another steel marked with blue paper label. Should be "White Label" steel and "Blue Label" steel. But in Japanese it is Shirogami - white paper and Aogami - blue peper, paper here should be translated not directly as a "paper", but as a "label".

Shirogami - White label steel:
C=1.3
Mn=0.2
P=0.025
Si=0.1
S=0.04

Aogami - Blue label steel
C=1.3
Mn=0.2
P=0.025
Si=0.1
S=0.04
Cr=0.2-0.5%
W=1-1.5%

Shirogami is most used but custom makers Carbon steel in Japan.

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[Knife Outlet]

In a nutshell, white steel (shiroko) is the standard hard carbon steel used by traditional Japanese knife makers. It is usually treated to about RC64 or so and is fairly brittle. The blue steel (aoko) has some ingredients as mentioned above that that add a little bit of corrosion resistance (not much) and a little toughness. It is also treated to around the same hardness levels but is a little less brittle than the white steel.

My own opinion is that these aren't particularly good choices for sporting knives that will get any kind of hard use. The reason is that they are pretty brittle. I use Japanese knives in the kitchen and I love the way these steels perform as slicers. As chef knives, however, they tend to chip along the edge because of their brittleness. I have a blue steel gyuto that chips pretty readily in the process of chopping onions.

For hard use, there are softer, tougher carbon steels that will hold up better. For edge retention, nothing that I know of will outperform them. Just be prepared for the brittleness.

 

[nozh2002]

For everything, but chopping, including power cut Japanese traditional knives are very good. All of them have convex edge - most suitable for hard use. But for chopping they have Nata.

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[Fort Henry Custom Knives]

I have owned several Kanetsune knives and still have 2 in the Kitchen and one for outdoor use.

I love the Traditional styles and materials, I like the value they represent for the high quality item that you receive.

Their appearnce is pleasing and the Steel and handle materials are crafted with the utmost care. Some have expressed a dislike of the traditional sheaths (wooden) for the outdoor knives but I do not find this a great concern.

My $0.02

 

[joeshredd]

I bought one of their bowie styles, @7" long, at last years Blade show...
As to it's brittleness - well, don't try opening champagne bottles with them!!! They do chip!
But, that's on glass, and it did sharpen up nicely afterwards. As to it's slicing ability - yes, it is great in the kitchen, but my version is a little too wide for good vegetable work.. And to carry it, it is heavier than most of my customs in the same style...
I think I just bought it cause it looked really cool and had that neat wooden scabbard the Japanese do for their utility blades!

 

[Stainz]

Some 25+ years back, I found some Japaneese made laminated CS edge/CI shank/wood handled mortising chisels at a closeout store. These were made even in sharkskin covered wood handles, although I opted for the lessor expensive wood-only handles (They do have a forged ring at the hilt to permit the wood to mushroom instead of split when struck with a wood mallet.). I haven't been trying to wear them out, but they are used more than my soft English steel mortisers, which have required several sharpenings despite much less use. The Japaneese chisels often can be pushed instead of struck - but they have been struck - mainly used in mahogany, maple, oak, pine, and walnut. They are still razor sharp - and have no chips. Almost too nice to use!

Stainz