I'm sure there are stainless steel varieties that can rival carbon steel but on the whole I haven't come across any that are affordable..
Yes, you're right but this is because carbon steel in consumer oriented knives is very much a niche market and therefore you're only looking at a tiny % of the consumers that would even consider them...especially in the west. In the rest of the world carbon steel knives are much more affordable & widely used.
In a previous life I was a traditional wooden boat builder and I've got a shed full of every woodworking tool you can imagine and not one of them is or ever was or ever will be made of stainless. Oh you're 100% correct of course, I'm not saying that woodworking is the same as cutting veggies but the cutting edge of carbon steel at the very tip is just harder. Don't know how else to describe it.
No you're 100% right, but as a boat builder you know its all about using the right tool for the right job. Carbon steel is brilliant for tools, its qualities shine & its weaknesses aren't shown up. Saying carbon steel is harder than SS is kinda apples with oranges - as there's so many grades and varieties that its meaningless unless one knows what you're comparing with what exactly.
Most consumer stainless steels are relatively soft - and for good reason as the average user (no-one in this forum) is, with all due respect to them - morons and therefore need a knife that will put up with the ghastly treatment they give it. Hence being relatively 'soft' (HRC in the mid to low 50's) is a good thing. Giving them a 62HRC knife would be a disaster as it'd work great for a little while but in no time they'd have broken off the tip, chipped the blade up and down by cutting frozen food and bones etc. I can tell you know your stuff and also respect your items, but a LOT of other people simply don't and hence they need to be given items which are commensurate with their skills/care level for their own protection.
The number of times I've seen people buy expensive knives thinking that the knives would basically 'take care of themselves' and end up ruining them by the above mentioned mistreatment plus letting them get completely blunt, then destroying the edge by resharpening on their $5 cheapie sharpener or at Mr Minute or the angle grinder their Uncle has etc - and then they whinge about the knives being a rip off and they were no better than the $30 K-Mart cheapies they had before! Kind of amusing to see them blame everything but the real problem, themselves.
Admittedly stainless steel kitchen knives are a lot better than they used to be, but they're still an attempt to be as good or as easy to use and sharpen.
There are a lot of high end SS alloys around if one wants to pay for them but they can be kind of expensive. I'd imagine the mid-market consumer stuff is pretty static - I know the main grade of steel used by Wusthof, Victorinox, Henkels etc has been in use for many years. It works, does the job well for average consumers so no need changing. I'm sure 20+yrs ago their was some really soft steels in the SS domain that would have been best used for dessert spoons rather than carving knives. Carbon steel is a dream to sharpen and doesn't offer any tricks the way many varients of SS steel can.
The acid food thing I haven't had much problems with. All you have to do is rinse the knife a few times during use.
Really depends on what you eat, and if you're respectful of your tools as you are it'll never be a problem - but people just don't do this. I do, but I'm weird. But most folks use the knife and then chuck it in the sink or dishwasher. They're terrible to their tools. Because you've been good from day 1 you'd have a nice patina on your knives protecting them - whereas the average user never gets this built up and so wonders why it's started rusting only a few hours after they used it.
Thanks for the link. I've never really considered Japanese knives (by the way, their woodworking tools are also out of this world) because they're just too expensive. This link doesn't seem too bad price wise. I've seen a few in knife shops and some of them have different bevels. Handed sometimes too. If I could find a carbon steel knife
this size that has a standard bevel I'd be happy.
Ah thats ok - CKTG is very good BUT their shipping costs are bad (think $USD30 for a single knife) - hence I arranged a group buy to them a few months back. If you just want to buy a couple of knives I've suggest looking at
Japanese Chef's Knife, as they have a flat shipping cost of $7 or so. Mainly stainless stuff but some carbons in there...they are nice stuff so not on the cheap side.
Alternatively this
Ebay seller is well known in the knife community and has some very well priced items with affordable postage. If you like your carbon steel you will not be able to go past the
Tojiro Shirogami range.....its top shelf steel at a bargain price. You could get the Petty (which is the Japanese utility knife) in 120 or 150mm for well under $50 posted. Rest assured they'd amazing in every way apart from a reasonably basic handle but hence the price.
Yes, you're right a lot of Jap knives do come with non-50/50 bevels or single sided ones - which does make them technically superior at cutting BUT a bit of a tricky one to sharpen. But you'll find most good vendors will state this in their listing plus I also check the Tojiro website (which is very interesting in its own right) as well.
