Yanick 225 mm
Tried the unthinkable
- Thread starter Barmoley
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parbaked
Senior Member
I have an 8" beater in AEB-L and micarta from Salem Straub that works for travel/guests & BBQ.
AEB-L done right is tough, at least in this workhorse...
No doubt, AEB-L done right would work in this application too. Really a lot of knives and steels could. Some just have a better chance to survive and keep sharp. I also made it more challenging by refusing to sharpen them while on vacation. Just wanted to see if they survive and still cut afterwords. I actually sharpened two local to the house steak type knives to peel potatoes with. The house didn’t have a peeler. I used the bottom of a coffee mug as suggested by @panda, worked very well.
I have lesser AEB-L - 13C26 - with two knives that once thin and sharp, just endure about forever. Bamboo boards, my gf and plastic boards and forceful techniques, that's been going on for months since I've sharpened the Gyuto which is the most used. Also have been roughened to many more extents where I used to live not so long ago - not resharpened since. I'm not even such a good sharpener to begin with. I have better carbons in my possession that I sharpen just as "well" and still there's nothing to hold a candle to them. Blue 2 is nice and I didn't get the necessary time with AS to have valid personal experience of it yet. It still could be that my gross skills work better with finely grain SS for reasons I couldn't fathom.
I was very surprised that AEB-L performed so average in CATRA testing.
I was very surprised that AEB-L performed so average in CATRA testing.
Gregmega
Senior Member
Full set of honyaki- 2 Yanick, one Ittetsu, and a Comet
Gregmega
Senior Member
Pretty nuts, but very nice knives.
Have there been any "converts" to the use of sharp knives?
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I was actually pleasantly surprised how well AEB-L did. Especially at high hardness. Yes, it trails truly high wear resistant steels, but it did significantly better than what we consider edge holding champs in kitchen knives blue super, 1.2562, A2, Niolox while still being tougher at the same high hardness. I think this is a good indication how good AEB-L is for kitchen knives at high hardness. It wins over all other common steels that we love, it is also stainless and sharpens nicely, what's not to like. There are some steels that would do better in some aspects, but they give up something else most of the time.
Well they all liked them and want them, but they don't want to spend the money, don't want to learn to sharpen and when I was trying to correct how they hold the knives I was told on numerous occasions that they've held them this way for years and it worked fine until now. So.......
On the other hand I've sent many people to JKI and they bought knives there and I've also gifted many knives to a few friends and relatives. One friend started cutting cigars with the 240 western gyuto I helped him buy, he almost got slapped, but hey it is his knife and he is not a very close friend. His excuse was that it was the sharpest knife he had and he needed cigars to be cut clean.......people are psycho.
DitmasPork
Senior Member
Bravo! I started taking nice knives traveling with about 5 years ago. No longer too precious about them, just tools. My family are respectful (fearful) of my knives.
Nice to hear I am not totally crazy about this, and that someone with much more experience can say this helps to know where I am at in evaluating steels I get to use. Thanks!
