Noted. well it's a good thing I'm not on stainless steels. high alloy to the end baby!
Wanting to switch to carbon from stainless steel
- Thread starter arredos
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I think something in magnacut would suit much better than something from knife japan. Most of the stuff is going to be pretty brittle high hrc stuff with so so out of the box edges, and of course not going to be impressive retention wise. Don't get me wrong. Love my mikami but would not recommend it for a newbie. Well, maybe not as an only knife... Getting a cheaper santoku from Michael as a secondary would be a good idea to learn sharpening and care of carbons on
There is a reason why the only knife family members are allowed to use is my newham magnacut. You can abuse the sh**t out of it without much worry of damage. They have chipped sg2, all the hitachis, the newham is really the only one able to handle newbies as well as being completely rust proof
There is a reason why the only knife family members are allowed to use is my newham magnacut. You can abuse the sh**t out of it without much worry of damage. They have chipped sg2, all the hitachis, the newham is really the only one able to handle newbies as well as being completely rust proof
I did classes and demos for a retailer that sold Shun. I can assure you that they are not ground thin. Get a little shady on technique with a plastic board and you'll get chips though.
corrected. I withdraw my statement. I admit, I was just parroting back what I read (which i added as a disclaimer). appreciate the fact check
its only a 700+ dollar knife
edit.... but a very good one and done knife if you can fight off the itch....
Thank you! I’ll check this out
Tomas Randa
Member
Thanks for the advice. Custom is gonna be awhile! Starting off easy…
Agree that they are not ground thin. My technique probably could use some work. But it’s not the worst. I think there has to be something to the heat treat.
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I think you can get a msicard magnacut for like half that right?its only a 700+ dollar knife
edit.... but a very good one and done knife if you can fight off the itch....
Yep: https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/msicard-cutlery-215mm-magnacut-gyuto.70054/
He is currently doing a promotion: 2 for 1 on gyuto magnacut during ARM!
spaceconvoy
Senior Member
VG-10 is a pretty middle-of-the-road stainless, and anyone who makes a blanket declaration that VG-10 is a chippy steel doesn't know what they're talking about. Since VG-10 is seen more in cheaper mass market knives, I think its reputation for being chippy is more likely the result of suboptimal heat treatment.
I actually like my Shun for what it is, and while I found it chippy at first, that went away after a few sharpenings. I think that has more to do with geometry, since mine came with the closest-to-zero ground edge I've ever seen in a factory knife. But it does fit the other VG-10 stereotype, that it loses peak sharpness fairly rapidly and settles into a mediocre-but-still-sharp edge for a long time. That's what I like about it actually, makes a great casual utility knife, and it's been almost a year since the last time I sharpened it
just avoid shun, it's garbage.
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Not necessarily. There's a lot of poor VG-10. Hattori and some batches of Tojiro prove that isn't so much about the steel, but rather its HT.
Regarding carbon care, core and cladding, Michael at Knifejapan has some excellent advice-
“Tip for young players: rinse your knife in hot water before drying in order to evaporate water molecules in the microscopic pits in the blade steel. No rust.”
“Tip for young players: rinse your knife in hot water before drying in order to evaporate water molecules in the microscopic pits in the blade steel. No rust.”
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As you better do with stainless as well.
I do think who leaves their kitchen dirty with food and knives just laying around.
Can't speak to Shun VG-10 but I had positive experiences with their VG-MAX for several years before falling down this rabbit hole. Sharpened easily, lost peak sharpness in about a week of home use but kept functional sharpness for quite a long time. No chipping issues for me on a set of Premiers.
Premier 8"
Anyway I'm a carbon fan now
Premier 8"
Anyway I'm a carbon fan now
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
My 2 short-form cents:
-I don't think rust is ever really an issue unless you're in some extreme climate or you're extremely neglectful with your knives. If you just clean them right after use it's fine.
-What can be an issue is reactivity...and to what extent that's a problem depends a lot on what ingredients you use to cook with. If you're someone who invariably ends up doing a lot of fruit and other ingredients then carbon isn't necessarily ideal IMO. But if you're doing things like meats and potatoes it's a complete non-issue.
-I'd say reactivity issues depend more on the cladding than anything else, since it's the iron cladding that's the main offender. The core steel is actually barely reactive, so monosteel or stainless clad is a lot 'easier'.
That being said...
-What do you expect to get out of it? Carbon steels don't necessarily have longer edge retention at all. And they especially don't make a knife 'perform' better. Performance is determined by geometry... how thick it is behind the edge, profile, spine thickness, etc. Basically the shape of the knife (down to the micro level), but whether it's a carbon or stainless knife isn't really relevant there.
-The main advantage of a carbon knife IMO is easier sharpening. But even that effect isn't massive if you compare it to the better stainless steels and have some good stones.
If you really want better edge retention you'd probably want something in a fancy PM steel. But again, is maximum edge retention something you really want / need?
-I don't think rust is ever really an issue unless you're in some extreme climate or you're extremely neglectful with your knives. If you just clean them right after use it's fine.
-What can be an issue is reactivity...and to what extent that's a problem depends a lot on what ingredients you use to cook with. If you're someone who invariably ends up doing a lot of fruit and other ingredients then carbon isn't necessarily ideal IMO. But if you're doing things like meats and potatoes it's a complete non-issue.
-I'd say reactivity issues depend more on the cladding than anything else, since it's the iron cladding that's the main offender. The core steel is actually barely reactive, so monosteel or stainless clad is a lot 'easier'.
That being said...
-What do you expect to get out of it? Carbon steels don't necessarily have longer edge retention at all. And they especially don't make a knife 'perform' better. Performance is determined by geometry... how thick it is behind the edge, profile, spine thickness, etc. Basically the shape of the knife (down to the micro level), but whether it's a carbon or stainless knife isn't really relevant there.
-The main advantage of a carbon knife IMO is easier sharpening. But even that effect isn't massive if you compare it to the better stainless steels and have some good stones.
If you really want better edge retention you'd probably want something in a fancy PM steel. But again, is maximum edge retention something you really want / need?
You got a knife in a fancy PM steel? I have good news and bad news.
Bad news: you only need to sharpen it once a year
Good news: once a year, you “need” a vitrified diamond stone
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Contact this guy @MSicardCutlery for a custom with Magnacut. I heard somewhere he can make knives apparently
