Wantabe Usuba White or Blue

I like Super Blue simply for its' edge retention, but it might be just a matter of preference. I have both and it's hard to distinctly find a difference between the two steels. Both are incredibly easy to bring back to razor sharpness, but for me I've always had better success with Super Blue. I'd say the differences are probably negligible.
 
Watanabe doesn't do blue super. Normally I wouldn't really pay extra for blue over white because theres pros and cons to each, and if you don't know exactly why you want blue, then it doesn't seem logical to pay more for it. However, I do believe Blue #2 is the steel Watanabe is most familiar with, and because of his skill with the particular steel, I might consider paying extra for it.
 
C-9 said:
Watanabe doesn't do blue super. Normally I wouldn't really pay extra for blue over white because theres pros and cons to each, and if you don't know exactly why you want blue, then it doesn't seem logical to pay more for it. However, I do believe Blue #2 is the steel Watanabe is most familiar with, and because of his skill with the particular steel, I might consider paying extra for it.
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Correction on my part, I thought this was the steel that we were discussing. I'll step out, my experience is only with White and Blue Super. I prefer Blue for it's edge retention, though.
 
It would be better to prefer it for its higher corrosion resistance and lower level of brittleness. White steel actually has slightly higher edge retention. Very slightly.

I have experience with several Watanabe knives and I've had chipping problems with the blue steel gyutos. They are simply harder than they should be for knife used in chopping vegetables. I've had to move mine to a 20 degree angle which seems kind of silly to me for a steel that hard. But so it is. I did pretty well with a Watanabe blue steel Chinese knife which I still have and enjoy so the problems I had with the two gyutos could be due to individual samples.
 
Knife Outlet said:
It would be better to prefer it for its higher corrosion resistance and lower level of brittleness. White steel actually has slightly higher edge retention. Very slightly.
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I don't have any Watanabe knives. My experience is with Carter kitchen knives and I find the exact opposite in regards to White Steel having more edge retention than Blue Super, and of the neckers I own I have also not had any issues with chipping. White Steel gets wicked sharp, but as far as it being able to take the same amount of work, Blue Super remains sharp for much longer - to me.

Mine are sharpened at about 15 degrees. As stated already, Watanabe knives do not use Blue Super but instead Blue #2 so this might be the main difference in our experiences.
 
I'm not talking about our experiences. I'm just relating standard japanese cutlery industry knowledge. The differences are minute. I doubt you would even notice them in every day use, but the white steel does keep an edge slightly longer. It would be possible to alter the heat treatment to make the reverse true but not many makers would do that.
 
Why would you doubt that the differences are noticeable? I have both steels, and I use both of them. Based on my experience, I've found that Blue Super keeps the edge longer, whereas White Steel is able to get stupid sharp, it isn't able to keep that edge as long as Blue Super is.

From Murray Carter:

White steel, my personal favorite, is an amazingly pure steel and therefore the carbides in the steel allow for the keenest edge possible. So, when a surgically clean cut is required, such as in some type of food preparation (sushi, etc.), or in woodcarving, White steel reigns as king.

Blue Super steel is basically White steel with chromium, tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium added. This results in oddly-shaped carbides in the steel, so keenness is sacrificed somewhat. However, the new carbides enable this steel to retain its edge longer than any other grade of cutlery steel. Therefore, Blue Super steel is the king of edge retention.
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source: http://www.cartercutlery.com/frequently-asked-questions
 
Knife Outlet said:
I wasn't talking about super blue. I was talking about Watanabe's knives.
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Then sorry for the misunderstanding, I was under the impression that your posts in regards to preferring White Steel over Blue Super (but in this case you were actually referring to Blue #2 not Blue Super) and the counter-claim that White Steel has more edge retention abilities than Blue Super were directed towards my posts.

Even before your post I had stated that I was referring to Blue Super, not Blue #2, which is used in Watanabe knives:

somber said:
Correction on my part, I thought this was the steel that we were discussing. I'll step out, my experience is only with White and Blue Super. I prefer Blue for it's edge retention, though.
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And after your initial post:

somber said:
Mine are sharpened at about 15 degrees. As stated already, Watanabe knives do not use Blue Super but instead Blue #2 so this might be the main difference in our experiences.
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Which was why your comments after I had said that, which I could only have construed as being directed towards me, made no sense to me since I was only talking about Blue Super.
 
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