Edge lasts forever! Have to spend a little time and have patience when sharpening. Most or all is pre lam, not sure if anyone is true hand forging.
It is an excellent steel for kitchen knives. Can take an hold a very refined edge, isn’t as hard to sharpen as some maintain, certainly easier than a lot of the over the top stuff in the pocket knife community, and as long as you know you need to treat it like a steel hardened to 65+ (TF white, Watanabe blue) it is perfectly suitable to kitchen tasks.
It’s going to hold its edge far longer than any of the hitachi carbons, and quite a bit longer than something like r2. That isn’t necessarily the most important thing. Most of my knives are white/blue/ginsan. But zdp has some excellent attributes.
Pretty OK in a home kitchen so far. I rotate thru knives, occasionally resharpening. The two I rarely resharpen are the TF Denka and Sukenari ZDP. I choose softer knives for hard and crusty materials. Match the pen to the paper.
In fact I don't always get the reaction "it chips on hard food". We're knife nuts here and have options. Maybe not a great rec for a beginner, but ...?
PITA sharpening I get though.
Welcome to the jungle, huh!?I would guess that some knives are chippy, even for enthusiasts. We try to push everything to the limit.
What do you mean?Welcome to the jungle, huh!?
Oh just pushing everything to the limit. This forum puts knives (and makers) through the paces.What do you mean?
I have a HAP40 on order. Any qualitative differences between it and ZDP? I'm sure I'll learn soon, but I'm always curious what to look forHave ZDP, Hap40 and YXR7. Love them all. Hold great edges. I don't find them hard to sharpen. So for me ZDP is great in my home kitchen.
I find that it just takes a little longer, really tough steel. Never found it chippy either. Edge last forever.When people mention pain in the ass sharpening, what exactly makes it difficult?
I have sharpened another very hard PM stainless steel, and I resorted to a new, more aggressive stone because my older, softer stone cut so slowly. Also didn't feel like I got an edge that lasted as long as it should have given the hardness of the steel. I found that diamond was the best cutter (but somewhat unpleasant to use), followed by a stone designed for hard steel. Just seems to take a lot of patience and fussy, controlled hand motions. One of My favorite steels to sharpen (Murata blue 1) seems to take an edge whenever you wave it over a stone. Harder PM seems to take diligence, focus, mental exertion and very controlled motions. Hard to explain without handing a knife back and forth between us.When people mention pain in the ass sharpening, what exactly makes it difficult?
What's the double sharpening technique? I'm trying to learn my way around PM steelsI have SRS15, R2 and HAP40. All are fairly easy to raise a burr on. I think that the main issue in sharpening these steels is deburring. I find SRS15 easier to deburr than R2, which is easier than HAP40, at least in the heat treatments that I have sharpened. Stropping on diamonds and Dave Martell's double sharpening technique seem to help here.
See this thread:What's the double sharpening technique? I'm trying to learn my way around PM steels
Thanks Phil. I was about to ask you the same question when I saw @captaincaed beat me to it.
I have SRS15, R2 and HAP40. All are fairly easy to raise a burr on. I think that the main issue in sharpening these steels is deburring. I find SRS15 easier to deburr than R2, which is easier than HAP40, at least in the heat treatments that I have sharpened. Stropping on diamonds and Dave Martell's double sharpening technique seem to help here.
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