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Is this true, John? Not questioning you, but I've read several sources that say white is HARDER to work with than blue. Here's a quote from the giant cypress page I linked earlier (granted this guy is talking about chisels and tools, but the steels are the same as in kitchen knives);
So why would Japanese toolmakers choose one steel over another steel for making a tool? From a manufacturing standpoint, it’s easier to work with blue steel than white steel. If white steel is properly processed, the range of temperatures that you can use for the annealing/hardening/tempering process is fairly narrow compared to blue steel. Since the tolerances are tighter, it takes more precision and skill when working with white steel.
On the other hand, white steel also is less expensive than blue steel, so it tends to show up more in cheaper Japanese tools. As you move up the ladder of price points of Japanese tools, I find white steel chisels and plane blades on the cheap end, because of the lower cost of materials, then inexpensive blue steel tools, and then finally high end chisels and plane blades of both white and blue steel, where the cost more is a reflection of the skills and experience of the tool maker.
Is he correct? He states that blue is harder to sharpen to the same degree as white but holds it's edge better, which seems to be commonly agreed, so would that be why people think white is easier to work with than blue?