Need some help here

S

Sylvester

Joined
Jun 30, 2001
Messages
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I just got an order for two kitchen knives.
one is something in the order of a cooks
knife or a small chef`s knive & the other
one is just a small paring knive.
My question is what steel (440-ATS34) &
1/16in or 3/32?
Any suggestion would be apperciated
:confused:
I have never work with steel that thin, this
should be fun. :rolleyes:
 
I would go with the thinner stock because it will slice better. I do not think you will see that much difference between the 440C and ATS-34. 440C will be more rust resitanced and ATS-34 would hold a better edge. I would be more concerned if the steel was cold rolled are hot rolled. I would stay away from the cold rolled because it likes to warp durning heat treat.
 
I know this isn't going to help, but did the customer request stainless? Except for my Tichbourne Julienne model, my favorite kitchen knives are all high carbon steel.
 
Richard no the stainless was not requested but
I know how people are about caring for
kitcken knives. I would prefer carbon steel
myself. I don`t care for stainless for knives
or guns.
Ray what ever I use it`ll be precision ground
Thanks All
 
Sylvester, I have old carbon steel kitchen knives, because I like to
buy them at auctions. Most are very cheap, however some have been
heat treated very well. I also have and mostly use stainless knives.
The point is, is the user going to use those grooved sharpning
steels, if so, the knife will need to be a softer HRc. The stainless
knives that I use are all somewhat soft, however a couple of passes on
the steel and they slice very well. Some of the carbon knives do not
sharpen nearly as well this way, however they do hold the edge much
better. I love thin knives! 440c is more stainless than Ats 34.
 
My paring knives are all made from 1/16" stock. i've used 440C and ATS34. Vastly prefer ATS34 for edge holding. Grinding 1/16 is a good character builder.
 
Since it has been proposed to use carbon steel, but you know that most people don't take proper care of their blades, why not compromise and go with the ATS-34? It's gonna have closer to the blade qualities of 5160, but it's gonna be more stain resistant. Seems like the best option to me. For the parring knife though... those don't need flex necessarily all that much, so either would work. For the chef's knife though, ATS-34 is definitely the best option..
 
Wustoff and Henckle use stainless. I would go with Ats-34, and make sure to tell them to wash it immediately after EVERY use. Onions and tomatoes will wreck even a stainless knife.
 
Thanks Guys- I was leaning towards ATS34.
I have very little experience with stainless,
I like L6 & 1095. Have never worked with steel
that thin should be a good learning experience.
 
i use both ats and 440c. in 3/32" i use the ats for the larger culinary knives and 440c for the paring and steak knives. the extra edge holding on the big ones is what i am after. on the small ones they tend to be used for fruit and lie around wet more so the corrostion resistance of 440c is what i prefer.
 
My limited experience might be illustrative, 'cause I did virtually everything wrong...

Except I used 440C, which was good.

My paring knife has seen about 5 months of kitchen time. Yep, it gets used for fruit and other peeling chores. And yep, into the diswasher it goes. Take that into consideration when you pick your handle material. Mine is maroon linen Micarta, and I love that stuff. The 440C hasn't shown a bit of discoloration anywhere.

But what I did wrong was use 1/8" stock and hollow grind -- boy was I off-kilter that day! :rolleyes: You want the thinner stock, and flat -- or better yet, convex -- grind your blade. The hollows seem to 'stick' to whatever I'm cutting, I think the flatter geometry would push the cut open more. Just a wild-a** guess though.

By the way I file worked it, and that's pretty. :) Filework always seems worthwhile to me.

Dave
 
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