CarboNext users

My only problem with carbon steel is dulling after use with acid fruit. Do you experience the same with semi-stainless?

Yes, but to a lesser degree. So I instead use an AEB-L petty for most of my fruit work and my Ichimonji TKC 270 gyuto for almost everything else!

Yes, it is important not to think of it as semi-stainless. I think the stainless part should be omitted. It is really a semi-carbon and will degrade, patina etc...just less rapidly than carbon. IMO, semi-stainless should still be treated as carbon, it just has a little more safety for those "oh sh!t, I forgot to clean my blade" moments.

Thank you, guys. Very helpful!

Well, it's all relative. Even "stainless" degrades in acid eventually.

tk59 said:

Well, it's all relative. Even "stainless" degrades in acid eventually.

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Especially a toothy edge will degrade rapidly; a well polished one will resist much better.

Benuser said:

Especially a toothy edge will degrade rapidly; a well polished one will resist much better.

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Absolutely.

Benuser said:

Especially a toothy edge will degrade rapidly; a well polished one will resist much better.

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Simply because less steel is exposed to the acid?

Andrew H said:

Simply because less steel is exposed to the acid?

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Yes. Less surface area but I would guess it also probably dries faster with more polish.

As far as I know so called stainless steel has in fact an shiny patina of Cr2O3 which might be interrupted. I'm afraid I'm no metallurgist.

tk59 said:

Yes. Less surface area but I would guess it also probably dries faster with more polish.

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I'd be interested to see how much of the acid would be left behind.

With even hardly reactive carbon steel like AS the dulling is almost instantaneous. About the same for stainless with a J1000-2000 edge. In both cases the blades were cleaned immediatly.