masibu
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2012
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Sorry if this has been brought up (likely in that 50 page patina thread which I really can't spend time filtering through) but I'm curious on the affect different foods have on different carbon knives regarding patina.
For instance, I find that my White 2 yusuke suji and masamoto ks take and hold more of a blue patina although the masamoto eventually darkens over time (probably because I use it to cut juat about everything whereas the suji is used for fish) A fujiwara carbon gyuto I lent out to my housemate (also a chef) tends to darken easily and seems to skip the blue phase altogether or is very short lived. I have a clad blue 2 mizuno which takes on a bit of a blue colour on both cladding and core steel and then the cladding seemingly takes an orange colour all of a sudden (which I thought was rust at first) which is pretty ugly. My sugimoto carbon shows a mixture of blues and browns which is okay although I think I prefer keeping it clean. I have a kurochi itinomonn which I scrubbed off and polished up and have started a kind of kasumi finish on. The blade road takes on a brilliant, striking blue and then seems to fade away to grey. Strangely, the cladding (which is supposed to be reactive) shows no discoloration at all. Its almost as though it's stainless (although I dont go chopping onions with it...I use it for cooked meats primarily on the line). Hiromoto as core steel tends to go black relatively quickly as well from experience.
What's going on in these knives that I don't understand? Does polishing iron cladding reduce cladding reactivity extensively? Is brown patina something that turns up in less pure alloys like the cladding on my mizuno or possibly even the carbon alloy sugimoto uses (I'm not sure though as the fujiwara is a pretty impure steel compared to white steel and it doesnt go brown at all)? Does the fujiwara darken quicker due to lower carbon content/lower hardness or perhaps due to the chromium content as the hiromoto tends to darken quickly as well? Do different alloys just react differently to different acidic foods?
Some answers would be great as I obviously have a lot of questions. I know the patina doesn't affect performance but it would be good to know how I can control the colours that appear on my knives so maybe I could possibly even customise it to suit me. I really like the blue colours I get sometimes and would probably prefer to keep that colour over the murky brown colours I get on some of the knives.
For instance, I find that my White 2 yusuke suji and masamoto ks take and hold more of a blue patina although the masamoto eventually darkens over time (probably because I use it to cut juat about everything whereas the suji is used for fish) A fujiwara carbon gyuto I lent out to my housemate (also a chef) tends to darken easily and seems to skip the blue phase altogether or is very short lived. I have a clad blue 2 mizuno which takes on a bit of a blue colour on both cladding and core steel and then the cladding seemingly takes an orange colour all of a sudden (which I thought was rust at first) which is pretty ugly. My sugimoto carbon shows a mixture of blues and browns which is okay although I think I prefer keeping it clean. I have a kurochi itinomonn which I scrubbed off and polished up and have started a kind of kasumi finish on. The blade road takes on a brilliant, striking blue and then seems to fade away to grey. Strangely, the cladding (which is supposed to be reactive) shows no discoloration at all. Its almost as though it's stainless (although I dont go chopping onions with it...I use it for cooked meats primarily on the line). Hiromoto as core steel tends to go black relatively quickly as well from experience.
What's going on in these knives that I don't understand? Does polishing iron cladding reduce cladding reactivity extensively? Is brown patina something that turns up in less pure alloys like the cladding on my mizuno or possibly even the carbon alloy sugimoto uses (I'm not sure though as the fujiwara is a pretty impure steel compared to white steel and it doesnt go brown at all)? Does the fujiwara darken quicker due to lower carbon content/lower hardness or perhaps due to the chromium content as the hiromoto tends to darken quickly as well? Do different alloys just react differently to different acidic foods?
Some answers would be great as I obviously have a lot of questions. I know the patina doesn't affect performance but it would be good to know how I can control the colours that appear on my knives so maybe I could possibly even customise it to suit me. I really like the blue colours I get sometimes and would probably prefer to keep that colour over the murky brown colours I get on some of the knives.