shobudonnie
Well-Known Member
Which steel gets sharper? A white 1 steel by either togashi, Tanaka, or nakagawa, or a spicy white steel from either heiji or Shigefusa?
Swedish carbon vs white 1
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There is no practical difference in how sharp these steels get. There is very little theoretical difference in how sharp these steels get since both are very low alloy steels. There is very little practical difference in how sharp any of the knife steels get for knife tasks. Some are just harder to get sharp.
M1k3
Senior Member
The steels are more similar, than different. It'll be more about the grind and your skills as a sharpener.
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Which of these is Swedish? I see the designation on Missono Dragons -- they are not nearly as hard as white 1 by the top smiths mentioned above. Is spicy white Swedish? That sounds odd.
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Yeah Heiji and Shig use Swedish carbon steel. But it’s different from Misono swed carbon steel. Pretty unparalleled in its edge taking IMO but good wh1 is not far behind along with that steel Raquin uses.
M1k3
Senior Member
"Spicy White" is most likely referring to 26c3/125sc/145sc steels.
How good a sharpener are you? IMO how sharp a knife can get says much more about the sharpener than the steel it's made of.
26C3 is usually called Spicy White, spice coming from small Cr addition. No spice in the other two, their claim to fame is that they are very pure, so as bland as it gets.
shobudonnie
Well-Known Member
Is 26c3 the steel that heiji and Shigefusa use?
Probably not, but hard to know for sure.
Bernal claims it's 26c3 Shigefusa Kitaeji 210mm Wa-Gyuto with Saya – Bernal Cutlery but it wouldn't be the first time a retailer was wrong
It could be or they are just inferring. The steel has been called Swedish steel, Swedish special steel, and rarely Swedish spicy steel. These names don't tell us anything really except that the steel is a Swedish steel. We can't even be sure that the exact steel formulation hasn't changed over the years. If someone wants to cut a piece of their heiji or shig and send it for analysis then we would know what the steel used for that batch was. It is some sort of low alloy steel, that supposed to be pure, whatever that means. Heat treats for heiji and shig seem to be different as even though it is supposed to be the same steel it acts slightly different in the two brands according to many reports.
All of this is really not relevant in answering OP's question since whatever these steels are they are close enough to each other to have the same sharpness potential.
Where is ma sha when needed
Yeah they just add pepper flakes during melting
M1k3
Senior Member
Kampot? Red? White? Telecherry???
Chili P!
Shirogami #1 has less alloying elements than both Swedish 26C3 or Shefcutt so I suspect it's potential is better
for ultimate sharpness of the three. That being said how much more I don't know. But I'm happy I have all 3 and
still have yet to make a Shirogami #1 or Shefcutt knife. Spicy White from my research is 26C3.
for ultimate sharpness of the three. That being said how much more I don't know. But I'm happy I have all 3 and
still have yet to make a Shirogami #1 or Shefcutt knife. Spicy White from my research is 26C3.
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Yeah they're all similar enough steels that sharpness will be similar. If you're after ultimate sharpness -- razors are heat treated for that.
nakiriknaifuwaifu
Senior Member
In my experience, hard white 1 (for example by TF) keeps an edge discernibly longer than the steel from shigefusa. For what it's worth, in my opinion Heiji's semistainless is top-3 in class while his swedish is a good but overall unremarkable simple carbon steel.
