Steak knives, anyone making them?

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DevinT

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Jan 29, 2010
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The problem is they dull cutting against porcelain plates. I was thinking of using Maxamet as the core for its high hardness (~70hrc) and high wear resistance/edge holding. Even then, it would still need touched up on a diamond hone frequently.

Thoughts?

Hoss
 
DevinT said:
The problem is they dull cutting against porcelain plates. I was thinking of using Maxamet as the core for its high hardness (~70hrc) and high wear resistance/edge holding. Even then, it would still need touched up on a diamond hone frequently.

Thoughts?

Hoss
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I made a set of steak knives out of MagnaCut treated to 64rc as I wanted something stainless, and with enough edge stability to handle hitting our plates on a regular basis. I can’t stand serrated steak knives.

I’m actually really surprised at how well they are holding up, and how rare it is for them to need to be touched up.

I think I’d be a little worried about microchipping with a Maxamet steak knife…. But then again there were several Japanese kitchen knives made with zdp-189, so…. 🤷

Sounds fun.
 
I do.
Most of the knives I make are for BBQ (a big thing here in Argentina) or the kitchen. When a customer asks this, and it gets asked a lot, I always reply that the best solution is to have a wooden plate (bamboo or plastic would work too)
Porcelain, glass, granite, etc. will dull the best steel hardened with the best procedure, you know that, I know that :)

In fact, I have a BBQ bag, in it I have a couple of large knives, one for the plate, different tools and a beautiful endgrain plate... (photo)

Pablo

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i've made a set of 12 in AEBL because the customer wanted something that was easy to sharpen.

have request for another 12 which I might do in cru wear and get the blanks waterjet cut.

The reason I don't do a lot of them is because there's a maximum that a customer is willing to pay per Knife, and they don't take significantly less work than a larger knife which I can get a lot more money for. Or in other words, I'm not that efficient in production

also, I don't think I get the same amount of enjoyment out of doing a lot of the same type of knife so it's less interesting to me
 
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Theoretically most of the cutting a steak knife will do is behind the area of the knife that tends to dull the most (tip/belly) and even if the steel dulls from hard plates if the grind is thin enough the knife will continue to cut reasonably well on cooked ingredients. I often test chef knives I make before even putting a secondary sharpened bevel, anything in the 3-8 thou range will cut really well on most ingredients just from geometry alone. I’ve made garnish knives for bars out of nitro-v at 62-63 (basically just a pairing knife with a straight edge and k-tip) and they get dinged around a lot on glass or other metal objects and all the feedback I’ve gotten has been very positive and they are being used in a similar fashion to most steak knives. So I think any good stainless with a proper HT would likely be a good option with a thin grind.
 
I've done quite a few sets and use my regular AEB-L. We have a set of our own too that is 10 years old. They sit in a block on the counter and are grabbed more often than not when a paring knife is needed around the kitchen. I end up sharpening them once a year or so with the rest of the kitchen knives. We use em a lot.
 
A suggestion. Serrate the blade with shallower serrations. Intentionally sand and polish the serration tips. Tips are still to small for food and will byte, but will not just endure porcelain with ease, it will not damage it neither.
 
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