The demand for high-end kitchen cutlery keeps growing.

[Rugger]

I have a couple of good Go-To kitchen knives- one is a knife that my once-upon-a-time German GF brought back from Turkey. Looks like it's made from a leaf spring but takes a good edge and I can beat on it like a rented mule & it's never let me down in 15 years. Cost was maybe $3.00 USD. Another I have is a knife I paid $7.00 for at the final hours of the Timonium MD knife show about 5 yrs ago- It's from Thailand & is so super thin & sharp, I can do onions that are almost microscopically thin, and when I want to make salsa, the cilantro & parsley don't even need to go into the food processor. I've used high-dollar "professional" knives in a restaurant kitchen quite a bit- but big $$$ doesn't always mean high performance.

 

[james terrio]

Isn't CPM-3V non-stainless? I was under the impression that it was a CPM tool steel with a bunch of vanadium and about half of the chromium as "true" stainless.

You are correct, 3V is not in the least bit stainless. It will pit in an ugly manner if not passivated and even then it needs to be kept pretty clean. I included it with the other two because those are the 3 "super" steels I have experience with.

CPM-S35VN is the new improved stainless version of 3V... kind of. I can't comment because I have no experience with it.

 

[C-9]

35VN is the fix for chipping and brittleness issues of 30V which was supposed to be a stainless 3V until it was re-engineered to something entirely different.

 

[C-9]

I have a couple of good Go-To kitchen knives- one is a knife that my once-upon-a-time German GF brought back from Turkey. Looks like it's made from a leaf spring but takes a good edge and I can beat on it like a rented mule & it's never let me down in 15 years. Cost was maybe $3.00 USD. Another I have is a knife I paid $7.00 for at the final hours of the Timonium MD knife show about 5 yrs ago- It's from Thailand & is so super thin & sharp, I can do onions that are almost microscopically thin, and when I want to make salsa, the cilantro & parsley don't even need to go into the food processor. I've used high-dollar "professional" knives in a restaurant kitchen quite a bit- but big $$$ doesn't always mean high performance.

You may have used expensive knives, but that doesn't mean you've used high performance knives. I'm familiar with the kind of cutlery you describe, and they just can't compete with performance knives. Even if you think you're cutting things thin with those, the better knives cut that much thinner and easier.

 

[eyeeatingfish]

I have also heard from one poster who had afriend who worked in a mass produced kitchen knife company that the company did not heat treat their knives properly.

He explained that the company would heat the knives to a lower temperature because they would have fewer blades suffer warping. So even though decent steel may have been used and a decent grind applied the knives were junk because the company would not invest in a good heat treat.

To report on my spyderco kitche knives, I have the yin and yang i think. THe straight edge and the serrated edge knife with about a 7 inch blade and the blade is not very wide. They are ones I use the most probably, though they don't chop as well because it lacks the blade witdh to keep your fingers from hitting the cutting board.
They are VG-10. THey sharpen easy enough and hold an edge alright but I have seen small chips in the edge of the blade.

 

[butcher_block]

i can tell you first hand that cpm154 vs 154cm is hands down cpm154 is the winner. now that said i am testing XHP and a different steel from Carpenter that is just about the alloy that i have been saing for a year or 2 that i wanted to have my own batch of (im making a chopper and a razor to test both ends of the steel in use ) if its as good as i think its going to be it will be my carbon of choice

 

[james terrio]

35VN is the fix for chipping and brittleness issues of 30V which was supposed to be a stainless 3V until it was re-engineered to something entirely different.

True, I hope my earlier comment wasn't misleading. There's a long weird story behind all that but it's not worth going into here.

...now that said i am testing XHP and a different steel from Carpenter...

You're such a tease.

How do you like the XHP? I'm finding it keeps pulling ahead of CPM-154 the more I use it.