why 01 steel?

[mete]

There are many examples of metallurgy/cooking relationships.
There was a great TV show about chocolate by the 'science lady' Shirley [don't remember her last name ] talking about tempering , crystals etc .I thought I was in a metallurgy class !
Flaky pastry [mille foglia] is just like damascus with two different materials folded numerous times. I just had some great lemon biscotti . Bits of lemon peel [carbides] in a matrix of dough . Heat treated twice of course !
The pinch of this and that of spices in cooking is the same as the addition of small amounts of alloying elements to significantly change properties.
The aging of fruit cake for a month or two - the same as aging grey cast iron fo a year.
ETc, etc !!

 

[m. wohlwend]

There are many examples of metallurgy/cooking relationships.
There was a great TV show about chocolate by the 'science lady' Shirley [don't remember her last name ] talking about tempering , crystals etc .I thought I was in a metallurgy class !
Flaky pastry [mille foglia] is just like damascus with two different materials folded numerous times. I just had some great lemon biscotti . Bits of lemon peel [carbides] in a matrix of dough . Heat treated twice of course !
The pinch of this and that of spices in cooking is the same as the addition of small amounts of alloying elements to significantly change properties.
The aging of fruit cake for a month or two - the same as aging grey cast iron fo a year.
ETc, etc !!

I have always found it interesting that Master Smith Bob Kramer was a chef before he became a knifemaker!

 

[Marion David Poff]

Here are a couple of anecdotal observations I often make in this regard. How the blade sharpens. I understand you don't really test hardness by sharpening, but for a user like me, the way in which a blade sharpens seem to correlate with many of its performance attributes. On the one hand there are blades that feel stiff and almost 'ring' off when you are sharpening them. There are other blades that feel sort of muddy when you are sharpening them. I find the 'stiffer' sharpeners to be better performers (ability to get an edge and edge wear) and the 'muddy' knives tend to be very difficult to get an edge and to keep it. I don't think it has to do with wear resistance per say, as most of the high end stainless, VG10 and 154 feel muddy to me. Alternatively, I've encountered both O1, 1095 and the occasional Buck 420HC as 'muddy'. Some Bucks are also 'stiff'

I totally agree with the point you are making here.

I was gonna respond in depth, but I think I might just cloud it, so we will go with that. : )

Oh yeah, and BTW, you better be nice man, or I am gonna put that quote in my sig line....

(yeah here we go again with KGD giving Rick a public BJ on the forums again).

To which I respond.... If anyone posts that this thread is useless without pictures, they should be banned for life.

Marion