kitchen knife stainless?

[Alex C.]

so mom wants a kitchen knife for her birthday. What kind of stainless do ya'll reccomend?
Alex

 

[Todd Robbins]

I use 440C for stainless kitchen knives that I won't be sharpening. It's very stain resistent and pretty easy to sharpen. In my kitchen, we have BG42 and ATS-34. I like the BG42 better, by a small margin, but ATS-34 and 154CM are great steels as well, and I'll use S30V for the next addition to our kitchen, and I really want to make a vegatable slicer with D-2, because of the large carbides and resulting aggressive edge. The most used knife in our butcher block is made of an M2 sawzall blade. I've only sharpened it twice in over a year and it's still shaving sharp. With an acid etched finish, it doesn't rust readily, either.

Daniel Koster makes some kitchen knives, so maybe he'll chime in here with his favorites.

Todd

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Most professional chef's cutlery I make is ATS-34.I make special pieces from S30V.I have ATS-34 in my kitchen at home. The "super V's" (30,60,90)are great,but a B***h to work with (and forget mirror polishing).
Stacy

 

[Daniel Koster]

I've used mostly 440C because it is easy to sharpen and maintain. I have it hardened to 58.

My ideal kitchen knife steel would be a san-mai laminate of 52100 and 420 (or similar stainless). I'm working on that right now...just having a hard time finding supplies at a good cost. But basically the 52100 would be thin and very hard.

 

[Don Hanson III]

1095