Help first carbon knife please

[Alford78]

I'm wanting my first carbon knife to be one in the Japanese style for paring fruits mainly.

I'm wanting carbon for ease of sharpening and really thin blade to skin kiwi and other fruits. I'm new to water stones but have been practicing on some stainless with fair results over this past week. I just can't seem to get a good burr is my thinking. I can't get any of my s35vn folders to push cut phone book easily but can get them to slice phone book paper once the cut gets started. I'm using two different 1k and 6k stones and have a 400 that I used on a couple old kitchen knives that had completely lost a bevel and managed to get it to cut food but not phone book paper lol. Will practice on its super hard stainless some more for sure.

So, with all that in mind please help me choose my first reactive knife.

Price range under $200 would be good but could spend more if was worth it but would rather not go over $300 since I will be sharpening this knife in my early stages of learning.

Blade length under 6" for sure. Wooden wa handle preferred. Easy to sharpen. Thin as possible but not super bendy (my Kono HD2 is very thin and something similar would be fine but even thinner the better since will be half the length).

Thanks for your time
Alex

 

[chinacats]

I would suggest a Tanaka blue steel damascus...cost is very low so as you develop your skillset you won't mind the mess you make of the knife. That and it will be a great little cutter.

 

[Geo87]

Just a thought.... Why do you specifically want a carbon knife to cut fruit with? Carbon reacts with a lot of fruit due to the high acidity. The acid can also dull your edge.
My entire kit is carbon except for my petty which I trim alot of fruit with.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Fritzkrieg]

Just a thought.... Why do you specifically want a carbon knife to cut fruit with? Carbon reacts with a lot of fruit due to the high acidity. The acid can also dull your edge.
My entire kit is carbon except for my petty which I trim alot of fruit with.
Just my 2 cents.

Agreed, the best choice in my personal case is a 150mm Sakai Yusuke Swedish Stainless Extra Harden petty. Food for thought

 

[Alford78]

Oh. Had no idea that it would dull the knife any more so than veggies/meat. The patina isn't a concern only rust which brings me to question of iron cladding on knife suggested. Thought it would rust a lot easier than blue steel?

The main reason I figured would choose a petty/paring in carbon as my first reactive is because I'm new to sharpening and carbon steels. It would be a lot cheaper to mess up than a much larger knife.

May go back to drawing board.

Thanks all.

 

[chinacats]

I cut fruit with carbon all the time, but for citrus I will bust out the stainless. Yes, the iron cladding will be more reactive than the core steel.

 

[Castalia]

I just got a 135mm single bevel mukimono from Maxsim at JNS for <$200 and it is a lot of fun to use cutting small fruits and vegetables. It is my first single bevel and is very different from the rest of my collection of double bevels. Super thin razor like edge with thicker spine. It is blue steel and mostly mirror polished which seems to be holding back some of the reactivity, but it likes to be wiped off immediately. The picture from JNS:

View attachment 26719

 

[panda]

http://yhst-27988581933240.stores.y...etty-knife-150mm-white-steel-balde-kn150.html

 

[Castalia]

View attachment 26723

picture from the JNS website. I am still figuring out how to post images.