Stamped Vs Forged Kitchen Knives

T

The Wolf

Joined
Mar 25, 1999
Messages
74
What are the specific differences between the two kinds of knives. Specifics.

Thanks Wolf
 
Stamped knives are what the name implies, stamped out of a pieces of sheet steel. Forged knives are rough shaped by heating and pounding. both knives are than final finished by grinder and sanding. Stamped knives are generally thinner and cheaper and do not have the weight needed for a lot of food preperation work. The thicker blade and additional weight of a forged blade such as Wustof makes food preperation much easier and quicker. Stamped are also gennerally less cost than forged.
 
I do a lot of cooking and food preparation. Nice thin stamped blades work better than thicker forged blades. I can't think of a food preparation task that needs a forged blade. Even my cleaver is just a heavier piece of rolled and stamped steel.

Fully tapered blades are probably rolled into a wedge conture rather than ground all the way.

In particular I try and avoid forged blades for chef's knives and others used against a cutting board. Forged blades commonly have heavy bolsters at the heal of the blade that interfere with full blade sharpening. Knives like these need to work flush against the board to work and need nice even sharpening to work.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 08-01-2000).]
 
Wolf - Most "forged" blades are actually stamped with the bosters welded on. Wustof is one of the few that still Forges his blades. He does and excellent job. BTW Drop forged is different from hammer forged. Drop forged is one "bang" which forms the blade and bolster.

IMO weight is necessry where thin or sharp are not optimum. In food separation, thin seems to require less effort.

The steel is still the heart of the knife. Good steel, good heat treat, good grinds = good knife.

sal
 
Thank you for all who responded.

My point was that forged knives have this "distinction" that I feel is overated. If you chose to go forged its just a preference. I don't feel one can say stamped is better or forged is better. From my experience it comes down to how well one takes care of their knives, which is turn will determine how long they last.

[This message has been edited by The Wolf (edited 08-07-2000).]
 
I have to disagree, forged Wustoff knives are better than any stamped blade I have or have tried. The extra weight and blade thickness make preparing large amountts of product much easier. Try to cut a large squash with a stamped blade versas a forged Wustoff and you will immediately see what I mean. I also beieve that the forged products will last longer as they are generally made from better materials. Consumer reports also rates the Wustoff as the best. I have been using Wustoff for about 15 years and they have replaced every other kitchen nife that I had.
 
OK, within the last week I have cut up a watermelon, a casaba mellon, and a large acorn squash.

I prepare the melons by cutting about 3/4" off each end, then I stand the mellon on end and cut the rind off the entire mellon, then I cut the bare melon meat in half, (at this point I remove seeds from the casaba), I slice the halves into inch-thick disks, then I cut the melon into 1" cubes (I love seedless watermelon). For cutting off the ends and the rind I use a thin knife with about a 1" wide blade which easily slices through the rind and follows the contour of the melon easily. For slicing and cubing the melon I use a thin, stamped, 10" chefs knife. I don't see where a forged blade would have helped these large sized tasks.

I quartered the acorn squash length-wise using a thin stamped chefs knife. I started to use a hollow ground knife, but found the contour didn't work as well going through the tough squash. I switched to a full-tapered blade. Splitting the squash was made more difficult by its tendency to roll. I could have forced a thicker blade through the material, but I found a thinner blade to be safer. Having a larger handle on the knife also improved control when using heavier pressure.

So my question is, what squash preparation activity benefits from a forged blade? Also, what do you do with the bolster when you sharpen the blade?
 
For heavy duty activties I use a 10" Wustoff Chef's knife. This knife is rigid enough(backbone) to allow a squash to be cut in half using a stroke to penetrate until the blade binds up in the squash and than a little bang on the cutting surface will then split the squash. S stamped knife with thin blade does not do this for me. When chopping large amounts, the weight and shape allow the blade to rock on the cutting surface, speeding up the process and reducing fatigue. I have a stamped carbon steel chef knife and for me it requires much more effort to use. As for the bolster during sharpening, I use arkansas stones and don't have any problems. I do not use any grinding on my blades and do not like diamond sharperners because they scratch the blade.
 
Jeff Clark
I was thinking about your question about what do you do with the bolster when you sharpen a forged knfe. Do you use a sharpening device with wheels through which you pull the knife? Sharpening using a stone should not result in any problems with the bolster. I do not use power or any device with wheels.
 
I primarily use a long diamond bench hone on my knives. The problem is with the heel of the blade on knives used on a cutting board. I prepare foods in large batches. The most efficient way to do this is to take large batches on a cutting board and slice push cut through them with a slightly rocking toe-to-heel motion. I might do this with 10 stalks of celery or 6 carrots at a time. If I was preparing beef strips for Stroganoff I would be cutting across 4-6" of sirloin per cut.

The key is that I need to sharpen the blade smoothly all the way--including the heel where a forged bolster would be. If I don't remove material from the bolster the blade becomes concave or stepped down adjacent to the bolster. I lose the ability to cut flat to the cutting board.

The solution it to take a grinder to the bolster and cut it to above the line of the edge. Now the bolster will never stop the heel of the blade from reaching the cutting board. Then you cut a choil next to the bolster so that the bolster doesn't interfere with sharpening the heel. Since I have an extra-coarse diamond hone I have brute force sharpened forged knives to the heel (beveling the bolster at the same time), but it takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and it isn't pretty. Besides, I don't find the bolster served a useful purpose.
 
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