Properly cleaning knife after polish

I just polished up a couple knives with Flitz, they look great but notice there's the residual metallic smell and taste when I cut food. How to I properly clean so this doesn't happen, did I not buff the knife enough? I did wash with dish soap but did not scrub with a coarse sponge for fear I would get scratches.

Also noticed when I etched with vinegar, there was a residual vinegar smell/taste of a couple days. :sad0:

What knife/type of steel are we talking about?

The knife is a carter so white steel I think

There should be no residual taste or smell on the steels, and since the stainless is clean, and the Hitachi white steel is pure, you should not be left with any taste or smell from impurities like sulfur. If you clean your knife, did you use a good detergent soap like Dawn and rub it good to make sure you got rid of all the abraded steel stuck on the surface? Carter's stainless cladding is very soft and scratches very easily. Unless you're looking to sell it, I wouldn't worry about keeping that knife pretty.

OK maybe I'll give it a better scrub down with soap, sounds like it might be some residual metal. The carter is actually KU so I don't believe it has the cladding, the exposed steel is hitachi white.

Then you will be tasting the mild steel cladding. Let it patina a bit and the taste will go away.

ar11 said:

OK maybe I'll give it a better scrub down with soap, sounds like it might be some residual metal. The carter is actually KU so I don't believe it has the cladding, the exposed steel is hitachi white.

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The core steel (hagane) may be Hitachi white, but it's only exposed for about a quarter of an inch. The wide, three-quarter inch bevel is exposed mild steel cladding. This is probably where the metallic taste is coming from, as Squilliam said. Let the exposed cladding and hagane patina, and the taste should go away. In the future, don't bother cleaning it with Flitz, or you'll be right back where you started from.

Rick

OK got it, makes sense, duh forgot he forges the hitchachi inside of other metal. Shoud've known after watching Murray's youtube video multiple times. I had thinned a bit on one side, and decided to purdy it up hence using flitz. So is flitz not good for use with knives, or is it just bad with reactive steels?

Also rubbed some rare meat on it, started to develop some nice bluish/purple patina, but i still get a mettalic odor if i put my nose to the blade.

ar11 said:

OK got it, makes sense, forgot he threw that cladding on it. I had thinned a bit on one side, and decided to purdy it up hence using flitz. So is flitz not good for use with knives, or is it just bad with reactive steels?

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The problem isn't Flitz, it's cleaning off the patina, which exposes clean metal.

ar11 said:

Also rubbed some rare meat on it, started to develop some nice bluish/purple patina, but i still get a mettalic odor if i put my nose to the blade.

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The odor should subside as the patina develops. It might take a few days, depending on usage. Cut some hot chicken and check the patina it forms.

If you use a stone that creates a kasumi finish then you won't have to bother with the flitz. In my experience the misty surface looses the smell / taste faster than a mirror too.

Squilliam said:

If you use a stone that creates a kasumi finish then you won't have to bother with the flitz. In my experience the misty surface looses the smell / taste faster than a mirror too.

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Interesting. I'll have to try it. Thanks!