What is your favorite stainless/semistainless steel knives and why

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aszma

aszma

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I became a carbon convert pretty quickly in my career as for the first 2 years of my career i didn't really sharpen my own knives and didn't know much about knives in general. Back then I was rocking a global 210mm and a masamoto western vg10 240mm so to say i was using good steel or well heat treated steel wouldn't be the most accurate statement BTH the masamoto wasn't that bad but the minute i got new knives i never touched my global again. Once i started sharpening my own knives and dove deeper into japan's knives I tried my first blue carbon nakiri and just never went back. 3 years later majority of my kit is all carbon and i really have no issues or complaints but a couple months ago I picked up a JKI stainless 210mm gyuto and it has changed my whole perspective on stainless steel. I initially bought it to take on with me to stages and to have a knife friends could borrow but i literally use it for everything and it gets as much use in a professional kitchen as my carbon 240mm gyuto but for different things of corse. Its made up of AUS-8 steel with about 58-59 hrc and everything about the steel i find fantastic. Although it doesnt sharpen as well or hold as good of an edge as my carbon knives I dont ever have any trouble sharpening it and it stays sharp for a good amount of shifts and the fact that its a lower hrc lets me abuse it more letting me use it as a make shift deba and honesuki. Honestly if i had bought this knife instead of my global from way back when I probably would have kept using stainless and now i feel like ive completely ignored stainless steel when there are a lot of good stainless steel out there. So i just wanted to know what I might have missed out on.
 
Ginsanko, SKD, SLD, Nilox, AEBL are all represented in my block(s). Stainless clad caron also shows up a few times - something you might find is best of both worlds.
 
I have Swedish stainless Ginga and it is easy to care for, gets sharp, and maintains a nice edge.
 
Gesshin Heiji. Badass semi-stainless IMO.

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daveb said:
Ginsanko, SKD, SLD, Nilox, AEBL are all represented in my block(s). Stainless clad caron also shows up a few times - something you might find is best of both worlds.
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ive actually been using SS clad carbon recently and really like it as much as i love a nice patina using an iron clad or softer carbon clad blade at work just isnt as efficient so i leave those for home use now.
 
Sukenari 165mm petty in HAP40 semi-stainless with stainless cladding.

All my other knives in regular rotation are carbon, but I use this for cutting large amounts of lemons or oranges, to save the acid exposure on my carbon knives. It's a great knife, and could easily replace my other petty knives except for an aesthetic preference for carbon. The HAP40 steel is a little more work to sharpen than my carbon knives, but not by much.
 
Tanaka Ginsan 210 gyuto. Perfect for almost anything, great grind with nice convex profile, thin behind the edge, gets really sharp easily. Its my beater, paid like 100 for it new, so I use it with abandon.
 
Paraffin said:
Sukenari 165mm petty in HAP40 semi-stainless with stainless cladding.

All my other knives in regular rotation are carbon, but I use this for cutting large amounts of lemons or oranges, to save the acid exposure on my carbon knives. It's a great knife, and could easily replace my other petty knives except for an aesthetic preference for carbon. The HAP40 steel is a little more work to sharpen than my carbon knives, but not by much.
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I've been eyeing HAP40. Curious to hear more.
 
Elliot said:
Tanaka R2, Yoshikane SLD.
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I heard R2 can be a bit hard to sharpen and a bit chippy. A friend of mines had a shibata made of R2 and was having issues with it havent used it myself though
 
GoodMagic said:
Tanaka Ginsan 210 gyuto. Perfect for almost anything, great grind with nice convex profile, thin behind the edge, gets really sharp easily. Its my beater, paid like 100 for it new, so I use it with abandon.
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Ive heard people swear by ginsan saying its ike white carbon but stainless is that true?
 
Sukenari YXR7 high toughness tool steel, good edgeretention, needs a bit thinning for my taste

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O really like the Ryusen Blasen R2 parer we have and also Yoshikane SLD.

I did like Yoshikane SKD (A2), but I felt that that the HT was a bit on the brittle side.

I am not fun of Nilox - but mainly from the making points of view :p
 
Nilox or SB1 ist a pita to grind while making knifes, and also very picky on stones to sharpen in terms of burr control without giving a long lasting egde retentention....

... i would as knifemaker or user prefer AEB-L or similar steel :)

Regards

Uwe
 
I will have a close look at AEB-L, RWL34 and 1 or two others when I will get to making some stainless knives again.

EDIT: not to go too far off topic - AEB-L with a proper HT is a really nice steel. I would go to Robin if I were looking for a knife on this steel.
 
I have the k&s tanaka ginsan pimped out version and you just can't beat it performance wise. Use it daily as a line knife and the edge retention is incredible. I also second aeb-l, had one by Nora and it performed superb
 
Toyama stainless clad blue. It’s just so good. And easy to maintain. I have not had to thin it but an excellent cutter.

I have a Sakura Syousin ginsan that’s a bit thick and heavy.

But that shun 180mm classic santoku gets a lot of use (and abuse) as an all round petty. Sometimes I just can’t be stuffed oiling a carbon blade.
 
Cbt said:
Been eyeing the chromax for a while now but never got to pulling the trigger not it. How's the grind in terms of food release?
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It's definitely a laser! With that said, stuff sticks to the knife but slides right off. I never think "I wish I had better food release". Get past the factory edge and it's quite the durable laser.
 
Tanalasta said:
Toyama stainless clad blue. It’s just so good. And easy to maintain. I have not had to thin it but an excellent cutter.

I have a Sakura Syousin ginsan that’s a bit thick and heavy.

But that shun 180mm classic santoku gets a lot of use (and abuse) as an all round petty. Sometimes I just can’t be stuffed oiling a carbon blade.
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Haha i actually just sold my syousin sakura and bought a toyama
 
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