Which stainless knives sharpen like carbon?

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hutchla

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I've heard that some stainless knives sharpen as easily as and with similar feedback as carbon. I'd like to get one but I'm not sure which knives behave like this. The one I always hear mentioned is the DT ITK in AEB-L but these are difficult to find.

Excluding all semi-stainless knives, which other ones qualify?
 
Only one I've found so far. Have even tried a few not made by Devin, with bad results.
 
HD's are pretty carbon like. They might be more semi-stainless though
 
Hah, I have carbon and I love carbon. It's just that some people talk about great stainless like it's so common.

I think the best I can hope for is a Heiji SS - but it's not stainless.
 
experienced guys here will tell that the heat treat is as important as the steel . DT's heat treat is supposed to be outstanding. Marko Tsoukan also has excellent heat treat of aeb-l. Will Catchside uses some Sandvik stainless that is a pleasure to sharpen . Maybe look to try knives made aeb-l , m 390, Sandvic 13c26 or 19c27.
 
I'm not excluding SS, just want to see if there's any reason to include stainless.

So, only custom makers have a heat treat that's really outstanding and a joy to sharpen? Seems unusual that some makers who use similar steels don't have similar HTs.
 
ive been really impressed by the sakai yusuke and ashi ginga stainless steels.
 
Carbon may be "easier" to sharpen but most stainless is not "hard" to sharpen, other than maybe a few of the harder PM or tool steels.
 
hutchla said:
I'm not excluding SS, just want to see if there's any reason to include stainless.

So, only custom makers have a heat treat that's really outstanding and a joy to sharpen? Seems unusual that some makers who use similar steels don't have similar HTs.
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HT is to many makers something to fight over. I have tried skd and sld and wasnt very impressed. Again could have been the ht.
 
Maybe "easy" wasn't the right word. I have a Shun VG10, a PM Kagero from Jon, and some Wusthof Dreizack that I sharpen regularly. None are difficult to sharpen. But they're not that enjoyable either when compared to carbon.
 
hutchla said:
I've heard that some stainless knives sharpen as easily as and with similar feedback as carbon. I'd like to get one but I'm not sure which knives behave like this. The one I always hear mentioned is the DT ITK in AEB-L but these are difficult to find.

Excluding all semi-stainless knives, which other ones qualify?
Click to expand...

Heat treat is a big factor, but you're looking for something with a small grain size in a finished product. Generally speaking my experience points to the cleaner Swedish steels from Sandvik like 13c26/AEB-L/SF100, but I'm sure there are others on the market.
 
Devin Thomas' AEB-L, Butch Harner's CPM154, & Hattori's KD in Cowry X are the three that pop into my head right away. Most stainless steels don't grind smoothly (crunchy on the stones) and certainly don't de-burr easily, these three mentioned are every bit the pleasure to sharpen as carbon knives are.
 
Gesshin ginga stainless on my 180 petty is pretty darn good
 
I wont say it is like carbon, but I like my R2 Itou knife for sharpening
 
Of the few I have experience with, Heiji's semi-SS is the closest to the carbon steels I have.

Saying that, I have Yusuke SS and Yoshikane SLD, and have had the Hattoir FH gyuto in VG-10, that are/were very nice to sharpen. Easy to raise a burr, and de-burr, get very, very sharp, and I have not experienced the down sides Dave mentioned. My Blazen SG2 is more difficult to sharpen, but still does not feel crunchy and easily de-burrs - it's just much trickier to get really sharp. The SLD feel very hard and dense, but easy to sharpen. I'd have to say the Yusuke SS and the Hattori FH are the nicest SS I have sharpened.
 
I loved me Delbert Ealy in AEB-l. it takes a wicked edge quite easily and holds onto it for quite a while.
 
I have Butch Harner's Carpenter CTS-XHP and still impressed by its ease of sharpening and edge holding ability. A few passes on my leather strop charged with chromium oxide and it is back to a fine working edge.

My experiences with carbon have been with a white #2 and blue #2. I will not say they feel the same on the stone but pretty close.

Ferry
 
I know many people aren't a fan of VG-10, but the Hattori FH series (and possibly the HD, never tried one) and Takeshi Saji's knives feel pretty good on the stones. I don't find them any harder to sharpen than my carbon knives. Maybe take a touch longer to get a burr up, but deburring is easy. Ultimately though, they just don't take as nice an edge as most carbons I've used. And VG-10 is still pretty expensive for what it is.
 
i really don't get the hype over ITK, i had one and passed it along pretty quick. when i first got it i was a newbie so didn't really know what i was getting into and thought it was good at the time but figured out eventually it wasn't a keeper. ginsanko aka g3 is the easiest stainless to sharpen i've tried but still not close enough to carbon for me.

hattori fh is not difficult to sharpen, but feels horrible on stones, it's gummy.
 
hattori fh is not difficult to sharpen, but feels horrible on stones, it's gummy.
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Maybe it's in the stones? Or perhaps I just haven't tried enough to have stainless to compare it to, but I've generally felt that the hattori FH felt pretty responsive on the stones (cleaver and suji). I currently use a cerax 1k, suehiro rika and a kitayama. Previously used a shapton GS4k as my mid stone and everything felt like crap on that.

I'll agree that Gin3 is really nice, also whatever Mizuno use as their swedish stainless.

I've been pleasantly surprised by HAP40 too, thought it would have been much harder on the stones.
 
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