What are your experiences with VG10?

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mark76

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The title says it all. I'd like to know what your experiences with VG10 steel are. I hear mixed opinions on this steel. Some people are very happy with it, other people say it's quite chippy. It seems to depend on the heat treatment But let me not jump to conclusions. What are your experiences?
 
My hattori is VG10 and is one of my favorite knives. In fact, until I got my Devin ITK, it was probably my favorite knife. It isn't chippy at all.
 
Tried several Tanaka petty knives in VG10 and liked them. Still has one and it's competing pretty well agains much more expensive knives in both carbon and stainless.

Sharpens easy, doesn't prone to chipping. Holds a edge pretty well in home environment. Maybe it wouldn't take as sharp edge as some knives with white#1/2 core, but the differences aren't noticeable for me, since it's a kitchen knife, not a razor.
 
+ 1 on the Hattori, I love my HD nakiri, my shun guyto is a different story altogether, went through a very chippy stage
 
With a high end steel like VG10， "chippy" is a function of poor sharpening and/or technique.

Heat treat is of course important. VG10's main problem is its popularity - its not esoteric enough for "enthusiasts" and is used in mass-produced "high-end" knives, i.e. Shun classic.


Fwiw i have a couple of cheap Taiwanese VG10 knives and the steel is great - the geometry, less so.
 
Hey Mark
Its not the steel, its the HT that matters. VG10 can be a wonderfull steel for knives as well as very bad. Just like every other steel. The chippyness is in no way a funktion of the steel, but a funktion of grind and HT.
Your question should be: What are your experiences with VG10 by XX....

Greets Benjamin
 
My tanakas and shiki aren't overly chippy. Especially the tanaka`s are great value for money imo. But for me, they lose that initial sharpness a bit too soon (compared to a watanabe blue for example), though they subsequently stay sharp on a bit lower level for an acceptable amount of time.
 
I have several tojiro's Dp in vg10, they were chippy in the beginning but after sharpening no more.They hold a good edge for a long time,better than white steel but not so good than blue steel.
 
Independent from the steel type, a lot of brand new edges are chippy. Must have to do with factory heat treatment and/or buffering. Nothing specific to VG-10 in my experience.
What is specific to VG-10 is its dulling curve. It takes a crazy bity edge, and will loose it quite fast. The remaining sharpness though will stay almost forever, and is all you need for kitchen work, but will disappoint knifenerds.
Another particularity of the steel is its hard deburring. Don't expect the burr ever to fall off -- and if it did, it would leave a severely damaged edge behind. The burr has to got abraded carefully on stones, little by little. Might be just me, but I can't get rid of the burr until I reach the 5-8k.
 
Robert said:
I have several tojiro's Dp in vg10, they were chippy in the beginning but after sharpening no more.They hold a good edge for a long time,better than white steel but not so good than blue steel.
Click to expand...

What angle (and asymmetry, if any) were you using? Was it the factory angle? I have two 240mm DP gyutos but haven't sharpened them yet because so far I have only sharpened soft Euro steel and I'm a bit hesitant.

Benuser said:
Another particularity of the steel is its hard deburring. Don't expect the burr ever to fall off -- and if it did, it would leave a severely damaged edge behind. The burr has to got abraded carefully on stones, little by little. Might be just me, but I can't get rid of the burr until I reach the 5-8k.
Click to expand...

Can it be completely deburred with a balsa strop and polishing paste? I usually deburr my Euro knives by pulling them a few times through a bit of wood after the stones and the balsa strop to get rid of any burr that might have survived. Would that damage a VG 10 DP?
 
+1 on the Hattori HD. I have a nakiri and a 240 western deba. They get very sharp and aren´t more prone to chipping than any other of my japanese knives.
I have, however, sharpened several knives in vg10 for other people and I could´t bring out nearly the same sharpness in them. It must be about the heat treatment I suppose.
 
The factory edge is 60/40 butt 50/50 is also ok and I deburr on the every stone; and after every stone with cork . Me too I finish with 5K and newspaper.
 
VG 10 is a great steel. How come no one has brought up steel compositions?
That's how you compare different steels.

Takefu VG 10:
Roughly 1% C, Cr 15%, Mo 1.05%, Co 1.4%, V 0.2%

So looking at it's composition, VG10 steel can take a great edge and edge retention is very good as well. Not only that's it's very stain-resistant

Now what steel are you trying to compare it to? If it's chipping on you, you are either sharpening improperly, cutting stuff you shouldn't be cutting, abusing your knife on a hard surface, or whoever made the steel cheaply/improperly produced it.

mhpr262 said:
Can it be completely deburred with a balsa strop and polishing paste? I usually deburr my Euro knives by pulling them a few times through a bit of wood after the stones and the balsa strop to get rid of any burr that might have survived. Would that damage a VG 10 DP?
Click to expand...

VG can be deburred on a strop or soft wood no problem. I sharpen vg10 steel knives everyday. What stones you are using is usually the problem. I use sigma select stones on my harder steels. Since they are designed for high speed steels, deburirng on a stone is quite easy. From there you can go to a strop or soft wood to clean off the rest, just be firm but gentle on the final strops.
 
Timthebeaver said:
With a high end steel like VG10， "chippy" is a function of poor sharpening and/or technique.

Heat treat is of course important. VG10's main problem is its popularity - its not esoteric enough for "enthusiasts" and is used in mass-produced "high-end" knives, i.e. Shun classic.
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better myself. :plus1:


In general, not a bad steel at all, both in sharpening and in use. However, you will find many better performing steels for the same price and/or lower price.
 
banjo1071 said:
Hey Mark
Its not the steel, its the HT that matters. VG10 can be a wonderfull steel for knives as well as very bad. Just like every other steel. The chippyness is in no way a funktion of the steel, but a funktion of grind and HT.
Your question should be: What are your experiences with VG10 by XX....

Greets Benjamin
Click to expand...

I have one of the bad examples from Shun, substandard ht here = crap. Shun has a return policy they honor for this sort of thing and I intend to see how good their word is here.


Rick
 
mistascoopa said:
Couldn't have said it better myself. :plus1:


In general, not a bad steel at all, both in sharpening and in use. However, you will find many better performing steels for the same price and/or lower price.
Click to expand...

witch steels?
 
In terms of stainless, I think vg10 is one of the all rounders. Sharp, decent edge retention and relative easy to sharpen. I like sg2 the best but rate vg10 highly.
 
Timthebeaver said:
With a high end steel like VG10， "chippy" is a function of poor sharpening and/or technique.
Click to expand...

Looked at Shun santoku edges under a microscope, and all the bluntness was chipping. No rolling, just chipping. What else is steel like that going to do?
 
pkjames said:
In terms of stainless, I think vg10 is one of the all rounders. Sharp, decent edge retention and relative easy to sharpen. I like sg2 the best but rate vg10 highly.
Click to expand...

Agree; with the right heat treat, it's a very decent steel.
 
osakajoe said:
VG 10 is a great steel. How come no one has brought up steel compositions?
That's how you compare different steels.

Takefu VG 10:
Roughly 1% C, Cr 15%, Mo 1.05%, Co 1.4%, V 0.2%

So looking at it's composition, VG10 steel can take a great edge and edge retention is very good as well. Not only that's it's very stain-resistant

Now what steel are you trying to compare it to? If it's chipping on you, you are either sharpening improperly, cutting stuff you shouldn't be cutting, abusing your knife on a hard surface, or whoever made the steel cheaply/improperly produced it.



VG can be deburred on a strop or soft wood no problem. I sharpen vg10 steel knives everyday. What stones you are using is usually the problem. I use sigma select stones on my harder steels. Since they are designed for high speed steels, deburirng on a stone is quite easy. From there you can go to a strop or soft wood to clean off the rest, just be firm but gentle on the final strops.
Click to expand...

Agree have no problem deburring VG-10 most take off on the stone finish on newsprint. I find VG-10 pretty easy to sharpen compared to junk stainless. Have a thick core of VG-10 in my Tojiro cleaver. Chop frozen fruit, bananas, mango, fresh frozen pineapple, big strawberries, peach slices. Every friggen morning over a year absolutely no chipping sharpen it twice a month. No way I would do that with my thin carbon cleavers.
 
Used a fair bit of vg10 before trying out carbon (blue#2 and aogami super), had no issues with it. No burr problems and the only chipping came from me being an idiot and letting the unwashed hordes (family members) too near my knives
 
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