Who can tell me more about Carter knives?

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mark76

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I am considering to get a Carter kitchen knife. I am mainly interested in a Kuro-uchi series knife or a High Grade series knife. However, I only know these knives from pictures.

Who can tell me more about these knives?

Particularly I understand both series are made from laminated carbon steel. And that the Kuo-uchi series has a kurouchi finish ;) and a "rustic look". I interpret this as less polish and perhaps a lesser finish.

Is this correct? And are there any other significant differences between the Kuro-uchi series and the high grade series?
 
Carter makes KU series from scratch i.e. forge welding of soft/hard steel is done in-house. On the other hand, stainless cladded knives are pre laminated from Hitachi factory.
 
Thanks. But I am not interested in the stainless knives. I am interested in the differences between the Kuro-uchi series (laminated carbon if I am not mistaken) and the high grade series (laminated carbon as well).
 
I have bought relatively recently a 167mm KU funayuki which is white #1 clad with carbon steel. I just love the knife. It is VERY thin and light and just made to take care vegetables and all possible smaller cutting tasks. In spite of the thinness it has very little flex. Relatively easy to sharpen to shaving sharp and has more than acceptable edge retention - not as good as super blue, but that is to be expected from white #1. The handle on mine from from red hearth and purple heart - non stabilized hard woods - has great finish and feels very nice in hand. It is glued on with epoxy (as far as I can tell). Because of the thinness the knife has only average food release, but that does not seem to bother me too much. The height of the blade, the shape of the tip, the relatively flat profile together with low weight make for a very nimble cutter.

Originally I wanted to get a stainless clad one, but once I saw this one, I just could not say no :) And as was mentioned before - the carbon clad knives are entirely made by Carter.

I have bought and sold a few knives in the past 2 years, but I plan to keep this one.

This is how it looked brand new. It has some patina now, but it is not all that strong. There are more photos on my Flick if you are interested.

 
Simple misunderstanding: the high grade series has a core of white steel laminated between stainless steel. I am not sure what the KUs are laminated with, but they also have a carbon core steel. Murray used to offer a choice between white and blue core steel but these days almost exclusively uses white - nothing wrong with that. The main difference is, as you expected, in the level of finish. HGs are more polished (although far from mirror polish) and get more attention to detail plus a higher quality grip. I don't have a KU knife but several of his SFGZ line and from that I would assume they are a little thicker than the HG line. That said, the HGs are usually very thin and extremely good cutters, the other lines are more rustic but still excellent performers. Only you can decide whether the prices work for you, they have gone up quite a bit since I bought my first Carter knife about 8 years ago - actually, they have more than doubled. I enjoyed every knife I had from him - and I had a total of 11, 5 sold out of pure financial need, still holding on to 6 of them....

Stefan
 
Thanks. But I am not interested in the stainless knives. I am interested in the differences between the Kuro-uchi series (laminated carbon if I am not mistaken) and the high grade series (laminated carbon as well).

HG cladding is stainless and is pre laminated from factory, to make it more clear to you.
 
Thanks guys, it makes me want a Carter even more... But do I understand it correctly that the Kuo-uchi knives are laminated with carbon steel and not with stainless steel?
 
I think that Carter also does KU knives that are stainless clad - at lest some of his neck knives are. But all KU kitchen knives I have seen were carbon clad (Carter calls the carbon cladding material Gokunan-tetsu).
 
Thanks! Can anyone tell me how reactive this Gokunan-tetsu is? And does it rust easily, or does it just form a patina?

(I googled it and the spec I found is C< .08, S < 0.10, Mn < .030, P < 0.03, S </0.03. This makes me think it could be quite prone to rust.)
 
I do not think that the cladding Carter uses is more (or less for that matter) rust prone than cladding found on other knives. If you take care of the knife, than you will not have a problem with rust. Mine has formed some relatively light patina during the use, no rust. kBut I always clean/was it immediately after use and if I have more work to do I wipe the blade here and then.

Any iron (or carbon) cladding will rust of not care for properly or left wet/dirty.
 
I assume you've contacted him directly with questions? I love my Carter.
 
I think that Carter also does KU knives that are stainless clad - at lest some of his neck knives are. But all KU kitchen knives I have seen were carbon clad (Carter calls the carbon cladding material Gokunan-tetsu).

He does not make any stainless clad Kurouchi knives in my experience.

The Kurouchi cladding is not reactive from what I've read, but, if the Kurouchi finish is removed (by sanding or grinding), it is slightly reactive. This was done by a previous work owner to one knife I own.

Also, the thickness of his knives varies depending on the length - longer knives are thicker at the spine, in my experience. I have owned 3; currently own two; used 5 or 6 including the ones I own.

That being said, I think what makes Carter knives special is the grind - they are thin behind the edge. I have owned two smaller funayukis - SFGZ and Kurouchi - and they are thinner at the spine than the 225 mm HG gyuto I own. There are variations with respect to grind and thickness between knives. That being said, I think the best specimens are great cutting knives.

The SFGZ and HG are stainless clad, carbon core steel knives. Carter has never made kitchen knives with stainless core steel to the best of my knowledge.
 
I have a Carter Nakiri that it is an absolute joy to use. It is Kuro-uchi made with Hitachi white steel core laminated
WEIGHT: 160 grams
HANDLE: Premium Arizona Desert Ironwood with Cocobolo ferrule, accented with red liners
BLADE LENGTH: 5.2sun, 159mm (6.26")
BLADE WIDTH: 47mm
BLADE THICKNESS: *1.3mm
Here is a pic

NakiriCoco2_zps1ce8ffdc.jpg
 
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