Shirogami carbon steel clad with stainless steel versus unclad Aogami # 2 carbon steel

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jonhaber

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Can anyone school me on the major differences between these two materials?

one is white #1 and should be less prone to rust because of the stainless clading?

thx
jon
 
I am not familiar with any maker using aogomi steel without cladding, it may not be clad with stainless, but It will be clad with either soft iron or mild steel ( I may be wrong), if you care for your knives and wipe regularly during use and dry thoroughly before storing it will not rust. It will build patina, which protects the knife.
 
Mono steel as in cut and ground from a blank as opposed to a honyaki forged blade?
 
The difference between White #1 and Blue #2 will be pretty minor if you only ever own one of them. Unless you own both, and sharpen/use them a lot, you will not know the difference. Hitachi carbon steel is a safe bet, though there are certainly some guys who heat treat it much better than others. I'll take crappy Hitachi carbon anything over cheap VG10 or soft stainless any day.

The one that is clad in stainless steel will stay shiny and rust-free, except at the edge. This basically means you only have to worry about really taking care of the edge, and if there is some residual water on the side/spine of the knife, it won't matter. Also, it is a bit less likely to discolor foods from reactivity, because most of the blade is non-reactive.

The Monosteel knife will get a patina, which is either a beautiful relational artform, or a smudgy mess depending on how you look at it.

The real difference here is that one is carbon monosteel and the other is stainless-clad carbon steel. Do not get hung up on steel types, unless you know more about which individual person is doing the heat treat.
 
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