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LeftGB

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A friend tuned me on to this site, I have been a professional cook for about fourteen years now and have bought a few knives over that time. Most of the knives I own are German made with the exception of one, my Masahiro 210 gyuto virgin carbon. I was curious about what virgin carbon steel is and if anyone knows how it differs from the blues, whites and super steels. Seeing all of the awesome Japanese and custom knives you guys post on here is making me rethink my collection.
 
Virgin carbon steel is carbon steel that hasn't been used for anything before its current use. For example, 1095 carbon steel was used to make leaf springs that were used as the suspension system in vehicles. It was then recycled and reformed into a kitchen knife or what have you. Where as virgin steel was made, then immediately turned into a blade. Supposedly this makes it have less inclusions but definitely eliminates or greatly reduces the presence or chance of stress fractures. Now Blue Steel is a type of steel that has a certain chemical make up, and white steel has a different "recipe" if you will, so they are chemically different. Now you can have Blue steel that is virgin and blue steel that is not virgin, same with every other kind of steel.

Now super steel as far as I am concerned is a buzz word, with the exception of Aogami Super or Blue Super, which is actually part of the steel's name. Technically it is a steel that passes a certain test (being stronger and lighter than 17-4 stainless a quick google search shows) but there are a lot of great steels out there that aren't "super steels" Such as 1095, 52100, the blue steels , the white steels, etc. What is more important once you get passed the truly bad/mediocre steels for the most part is proper blade geometry and heat treat IMHO.

I hope you enjoy the forum.
 

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