looking for: japanese carbon edge encased in ss damascus, hammered finish

Title say all. Want a gyuto, nakiri or santoku. Carbon cutting edge encased in two sides of Damascus stainless. Hammered finish. Hand crafted.

I have a black finished 7" nakiri blue #2 I got off amazon for $50and it's my sharpest compared to a wusthof non ss carbon chefs and victorinox ss fibrox chefs. So I'm interested in hand crafted Japanese blades and just wanted to see if hammered and Damascus help release food from blade. Does Damascus alone help release food? or only hammered helps?

question, Should I be hung up on carbon blades? seems like they are sharper and sharpen more easily. But I don't own a Japanese ss edged knife, maybe I'm being ignorant? so I thought id ask. I have money for quality blades but can't really afford to buy tons of different blades so gotta research and be selective. Thanks

fewlio said:

Does Damascus alone help release food? or only hammered helps? ... Should I be hung up on carbon blades? seems like they are sharper and sharpen more easily. But I don't own a Japanese ss edged knife... gotta research and be selective. Thanks

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Anything's a trade-off, but you'll certainly get the best cutting and sharpening experiences with high-carbon edges/blades.

Yes, the kind of cladding does affect release, if you want to get technical. Sure, hammered works well on one extreme, and on the other the most polished blades can stick the most, depending on the shape/geometry. I have no experience really looking into it and testing, but imagine damascus could support release if there are variations in texture/density. However, my wife (don't mean to diss her, but...) uses a small petty with SS damascus and it feels as smooth as any polished blade.

You can get good SS-edged knives too, but in my experience high-carb delivers most.

Why not try a good carbon knife and see how it goes, but take care of it, and if it doesn't work out just put it on BST, and then go for a SS?

daveb said:

The principal function of the hammered finish is to release dollars from the buyers pocket...

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If you can possibly get past that, there are better value mono-steel out there

(I can't BTW)

Those that have both, what's better at releasing food? hammered stainless, or karouchi? (natural unpolished bumpy black finish from forging)

Cladding is either to limit reactiviy or for looks. Good food release comes from geometry.

fewlio said:

Those that have both, what's better at releasing food? hammered stainless, or karouchi? (natural unpolished bumpy black finish from forging)

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The grind of the knife is a much more significant factor than the finish.

It would probably be more fruitful to state which knives you're considering and then ask which of those has better food release.

IndoorOutdoorCook said:

Cladding is either to limit reactiviy or for looks. Good food release comes from geometry.

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Geometry - yes, of course. Cladding - along with reactivity and looks, if looks are important then another factor would be how easy/difficult it is to maintain in that way. Better knives are usually easier to sharpen/thin too, so another consideration.

Cladding also supports the knife and makes it less prone to breaking in case of an accident. Since most J-knives have iron cladding it certainly does not aid reactivity as iron tends to be more reactive (since it is less pure) than the core carbon steel. Also - clad knives have less chance of warping during HT (or so I have read).

I tend to enjoy hammered knives more than Kurouchis, mostly because Kurouchis tend to use reactive iron cladding. They both release extremely well providing the basic geometry is good but I also like Tsuchime for looks and feel.

If you are negotiable on the Damascus you can find great Hammered knives with carbon edges such as T Fujiwara (Maboroshi) or Anryu.

MrOli said:

I tend to enjoy hammered knives more than Kurouchis, mostly because Kurouchis tend to use reactive iron cladding. They both release extremely well providing the basic geometry is good but I also like Tsuchime for looks and feel.

If you are negotiable on the Damascus you can find great Hammered knives with carbon edges such as T Fujiwara (Maboroshi) or Anryu.

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I agree - the hammered are great lookers and very often out perform damascus certainly on a value level