Metal for deba

[asiandave]

Hi I am looking for help in terms of is white 2 vs blue steel for a deba. I am not sure which way to go for a deba. And also deba recommendations are always welcome and appreciated. Thanks for your time members. Ps the deba will be for home and professional kitchen also.

 

[Dan-]

This is pretty easy. White for ease of sharpening and blue for edge retention. Which one you need will solely depend on how many fish you need to process in a shift. You’ll want to freshen the edge regularly regardless. With today’s limited availability, you have to consider maker and line for “how much time do I want to spend fixing this” and “how much money do I want to throw at this problem.”

So plz share that.

 

[Pie]

Deba has to go through hard stuff. Blue would be my guess.

There’s more factors than this but in pro setting I imagine you kind of have to keep going when the edge drops off. Unless you’re @stringer

 

[Greasylake]

I have both blue and white debas, and for pro use I would probably pick the blue steel. The edge on a blue deba with a good heat treat can last a surprisingly long time which is really nice when you're dealing with volume. For just home use, doing only a couple fish at a time, white would be my pick because of the higher potential sharpness. There also other ways you can make your edge last longer, such as using something like a double bevel deba to cut off heads, and shears to cut rib bones. Scales will tear up an edge more than you think, so you're gonna want to be avoiding those if you can.

 

[inferno]

imo both white and blue is about as unsuitable for a deba as it gets.
you want toughness here right. and both white and blue is about as untough as it gets.

maybe aus 8/ginsan/aeb-l/ maybe even vg-10 would be preferable imo.

 

[blokey]

I’d say Abe-l is good, but one important thing in deba fish butchery is to glide the slippery skin open, i just found most stainless don’t do that for me. One argument I heard is the needle like martensite of carbon steel maintain, causing it to fall off during use and crest micro serrations for sharper edge, whereas conventional stainless have large martensite structures become rounded during use. Tho this is just from internet, but my imho carbon steel do does the job better.

 

[M1k3]

imo both white and blue is about as unsuitable for a deba as it gets.
you want toughness here right. and both white and blue is about as untough as it gets.

maybe aus 8/ginsan/aeb-l/ maybe even vg-10 would be preferable imo.

Doesn't matter that much with a knife with a 6+mm spine for most of the length.

 

[inferno]

i'd say its mostly BS. regular carbon steel goes from one type of martensite to another at 0,8% and the above 0,8 is the worse one. and everybody is happy with 1095, white, and blue etc. which are all the worst type.

maybe people see what they want to see?? i have a feeling thats what it is.

the low carbon ss blades have the toughness going for them at least. just get one of each??

 

[inferno]

Doesn't matter that much with a knife with a 6+mm spine for most of the length.

but the edge still needs to be sharp. and acute. but yeah a deba is is a lot higher angle than a regular knife. i agree there.

 

[blokey]

i'd say its mostly BS. regular carbon steel goes from one type of martensite to another at 0,8% and the above 0,8 is the worse one. and everybody is happy with 1095, white, and blue etc. which are all the worst type.

maybe people see what they want to see?? i have a feeling thats what it is.

the low carbon ss blades have the toughness going for them at least. just get one of each??

It’s not about amount of the carbon rather the chromium addition, I agree white 3, 1084, 80crV2 might make better high toughness steel tho. The source I read is in Chinese also from a metallurgist. His main arguement is the formation of plate martensite instead of needle martensite reduce the potential high sharpness.

 

[blokey]

I might add the source as well, probably DeepL can translate the whole thing.
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/523726040?utm_id=0

 

[inferno]

80crv2 would most likely be better in actual use than any white or blue at least. same hardness, 4x the toughness

 

[inferno]

i made my own deba/santoku hybrid. uddeholm 15n20.
0,75C and 2% nickel, goes up to 65hrc. and is tough as nails.

 

[blokey]

Also white 3 is really underrated tho personally I haven't got any toughness problem with white 2 or blue 2 deba.

 

[inferno]

you can chop down a ******* tree with 15n20 at 62hrc

 

[blokey]

I will definetly consider it when I'm chopping down a tree.

 

[inferno]

its the best.
80crv2 does the same thing in another way. they are basically equivalent steel in actual use.