(only a few people on the forum know how sick I am)
-Chuck
Is it finally time for therapy, Chuck?
(only a few people on the forum know how sick I am)
-Chuck
I find Blue #2 drastically more reactive than any White steel
Some thoughts here about White #2 steel.
My experience has led me to feel this might be the best beginner's steel for kitchen knives. I think it's high reactivity and poor edge retention are actually good qualities under the right consideration.
Young cooks looking to develop knife skills and maintenance would do well to learn to always be mindful of the cleanliness of their blades, and you get get a whole lot better at sharpening if you have to do it every night. As well, and as many of you are aware, it's an easy steel to sharpen and takes a great edge, which is very rewarding. A little bit of fragility is a good thing too, as I find force is rarely if ever neccesary with a knife and using a blade you have to be mindful of will help develop finesse with your approach to cutting and such. oh yeah and there's no need for sharpies when taking these blades to the stone.
i think all young cooks should go buy a $200 white steel gyuto should they be able to afford it. it will teach you a lot of good things and be a lot of fun. it feels good having a moderately priced, unassuming knife that's way way sharpen than anyone else's! then there's always room to upgrade in the future..
just some random thoughts..
thanks!
I agree with all of your points and almost all of the "first j-knives" that I've given a presents that I've given have been white #2. There does seem to be quite a bit a variation as to the edge retention though and I have a w#2 honyaki that's pretty darn good.
I also sharpen or touch up my knives once they lose 10-15% of their initial edge and I've found that there really isnt much difference between steels when it comes to holding on the finest part of the initial edge and, if anything I'd say that some of the simple carbon steels are actually BETTER at that than the fancy SWR stainless stuff.
I agree on your points of it teaching good habits in terms of hygiene and frequent maintenance, but I do think that one potential problem is that they are almost too easy to sharpen / touch up so developing clean / precise sharpening technique is as important. While this is certainly much less frustrating for a beginner, it also means that they can get away with not holding consistent angles, not developing a small / even bur and removing most of if when refining the edge, etc. I really did most of my learning on very difficult to sharpen steels and while it was frustrating, it also forced me to develope very good technique and to also understand exactly what I was doing and why.... it also made me really appreciate good carbon steel.
My Watanabe and Mizuno Tanrenjo gyutos are both extremely reactive. The Watanabe often develops orange spots mid-prep job...like if I'm cutting 10 onions, it'll develop rust on less-contacted parts of the blade by the time I've cut 7 of them. I have to take a green scrubbie to it 2-4x a day if I'm using it at work.Really? - Blue contains alloying elements (chromium and tungsten) which should attenuate reactivity relative to white, if anything.
Which blue #2 steel knives in particular? - iirc there are not many blue monosteel knives out there (Takayuki western gyuto, various honyakis spring to mind, think the yoshihiro blue wa-gyuto is blue #1).
My Watanabe and Mizuno Tanrenjo gyutos are both extremely reactive. The Watanabe often develops orange spots mid-prep job...like if I'm cutting 10 onions, it'll develop rust on less-contacted parts of the blade by the time I've cut 7 of them. I have to take a green scrubbie to it 2-4x a day if I'm using it at work.
Sounds like your cook just moved from one form of tip work to another? I heard its great work if you can get it. :stinker:
I got a Tojiro Shirogami Gyuto for a prep cook. I showed him how to sharpen and made a green brick available to him. His knife skills were so poor that the knife would be DULL by the end of the day. Then he would say he didn't have time to sharpen it. The knife got so dull he stopped bringing it to work. So of course I made fun of him and his lack of sticktoitiveness. He quit, moved to Miami and was an extra in a porno within a week.
True story.
So the white steel experience will depend on the person. I've had better luck starting them on forgecraft and CCK.
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