The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

Nathan the Machinist said:
I put D2 skinners in the dishwasher all the time

This is how I know that Osage orange is actually dishwasher tolerant. It's the epoxy on the liner that lets go.

Potato knives in the dishwasher too

IDGAF

I don't recommend you do this. But I'm always breaking shit. That's how I learn.

But yeah, the new steak knives will be fine
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Magnacut steak knives will benefit from superior edge stability and high hardness.

It's utterly ludicrous to use such a high performance material in such a menial task.

I like it.

Running knives in a dishwasher is not good for them. Part of that is the clanking against other stuff and the stainless steels you will see in the dishwasher usually have dreadful edge stability.

There's nothing worse for an edge than a hard ceramic plate. I would argue that it's worse than using steel or even a brick as a backstop. That porcelain plate or (God help you) glass cutting board is worse than anything that knife is going to see in a dishwasher.

Mom who uses a granite countertop as a cutting board 😬

I honestly believe I make the best knives of their kind in the world and their performance can be double, quadruple, maybe even 10 times that of an alternative. But they are, ultimately, constrained to the limits of the physics of the real world. They are merely substantially better than average, they're not indestructible.

Delrin is dishwasher safe. I would not begrudge a person hand washing their steak knives. But, if you don't want to worry about it, don't worry about it, it will be fine. Washing it in the dishwasher will be the least of its concerns. Someone like my mom using it to cut their steak and sawing against the ceramic plate without a care in the world... Don't worry about the dishwasher.

I might serrate the steak knives. I hate a serrated knife, but the benefit in this application is the tip of the serration touches the plate leaving the cutting edge safe. Because, while you might know how to use a steak knife, you might be eating with unwashed heathens and Philistines. because it doesn't matter what we make the knife out of or how good the heat treat is, clanking it against a porcelain plate is going to blunt the edge.

Should I serrate the edge of the steak knives?

I need to give this some thought....
 
The downside to serrating the edge of your steak knife is you're now sawing through your meal like a neanderthal rather than cutting it with a surgical precision that you would expect from a steak knife that costs more than a decent meal...

I personally don't want a serrated steak knife

But, we're able to CNC sharpen it. Although re-sharpening it might be a problem

I don't know the answer to this.

I love my mom. But she's hard on stuff. I certainly wouldn't let her use one of my nice steak knives.

Hummmm
 
To the uninitiated:

Steeling your kitchen knives is for soft crappy European knives

If you have somehow managed to roll or otherwise misalign the edge of a high quality high hardness knife, the last thing you want to do is try to roll it back. Stone the burr and move on with your life, but it's an abrasive process, don't try to mush it back over with some kind of a pointed stick. Keep a decent stone in the kitchen for that.

Exactly the same amount of effort and a very similar process. Actually probably even less time and it works way better for modern high performance materials
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I keep a small white (soft) Arkansas Stone on the window seal next to the sink and stone my steak knife before I use it

I'll bet some people don't do that
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Would make life easier if you could stone the people tossing nice carbon steel knives into the metal sink and leaving them there, wet, to rust. 😜

***had a roommate do that before. Had another roommate who used my chef’s knife to mince some garlic, then scooped it up with the blade then smacked the knife edge first onto the rim of the steel pot to knock the garlic off into the pot 🤬 Yes, she put a huge ding in the edge. “How else was I supposed to get the garlic in the pot?” Good grief.
 
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If the knife needs it, the burr will cut into the stone and it will be obvious

And if the knife doesn't need it, it will just glide right over

Either way, it's pretty straightforward and simple and it causes no harm. If it didn't need it, it won't do anything and if it did need it, well...
 
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