Schnabelhund
Member
Long time no see!
Three years ago, I asked a few questions about CCK carbon steel knives and thanks to your support, I took the plunge and decided to get my first carbon steel knife while I was in Hong Kong. When I told my local host that I was planning to buy a CCK knife, he decided to gift me a large slicer![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
It was my first (and to this day only) carbon knife, and I was amazed by its sharpness, but I noticed a sulfur-like smell and some discoloration of foods while I was using it for the first time. Therefore, I decided to force a patina onto it and turned the blade black with an oxalic acid solution. I've never had any issues with reactivity since and the CCK slicer turned all my other knives into benchwarmers.
The other night, somehow a few drops of water made it onto the blade, ate through the patina, and left rusty spots on it. I decided to remove the rust and polish the blade before I force a patina onto it again. The thing is, now that I see the shiny bare steel blade, I kinda like the look.
I know Japanese chefs like to keep their carbon knives shiny and patinaless. Surely they would prefer having patinas if their knives made their food smelly and spotty, wouldn't they? So how do they deal with this issue? From lurking around here, I vaguely remember reading that CCK carbon blades are particularly reactive and that nicer, more expensive carbon steels don't have this kind of issue. Is this the case?
I know many of you would just use the knife and allow a natural patina to develop, but natural is not the appearance I'm after. I'd like to either have a shiny bare blade or a dark, matte, uniform patina all over the blade. Now I can think of three ways to go forward.
1) Force a patina onto the blade again. The previous dark one served me very well for three years and I didn't hate the look.
2) Find out how Japanese chefs keep the blade shiny and at the same time deal with the reactivity, then try to do that. I do like the look better (for now).
3) Somehow periodically renew the (hopefully food grade) protective lacquer the knife had OOTB.
If you have any advice, it'd be much appreciated!
Three years ago, I asked a few questions about CCK carbon steel knives and thanks to your support, I took the plunge and decided to get my first carbon steel knife while I was in Hong Kong. When I told my local host that I was planning to buy a CCK knife, he decided to gift me a large slicer
It was my first (and to this day only) carbon knife, and I was amazed by its sharpness, but I noticed a sulfur-like smell and some discoloration of foods while I was using it for the first time. Therefore, I decided to force a patina onto it and turned the blade black with an oxalic acid solution. I've never had any issues with reactivity since and the CCK slicer turned all my other knives into benchwarmers.
The other night, somehow a few drops of water made it onto the blade, ate through the patina, and left rusty spots on it. I decided to remove the rust and polish the blade before I force a patina onto it again. The thing is, now that I see the shiny bare steel blade, I kinda like the look.
I know Japanese chefs like to keep their carbon knives shiny and patinaless. Surely they would prefer having patinas if their knives made their food smelly and spotty, wouldn't they? So how do they deal with this issue? From lurking around here, I vaguely remember reading that CCK carbon blades are particularly reactive and that nicer, more expensive carbon steels don't have this kind of issue. Is this the case?
I know many of you would just use the knife and allow a natural patina to develop, but natural is not the appearance I'm after. I'd like to either have a shiny bare blade or a dark, matte, uniform patina all over the blade. Now I can think of three ways to go forward.
1) Force a patina onto the blade again. The previous dark one served me very well for three years and I didn't hate the look.
2) Find out how Japanese chefs keep the blade shiny and at the same time deal with the reactivity, then try to do that. I do like the look better (for now).
3) Somehow periodically renew the (hopefully food grade) protective lacquer the knife had OOTB.
If you have any advice, it'd be much appreciated!
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