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I'm sure this will get down voted as its a Luddites call to arms, but all my cutlery is simple high carbon steel. Its cheap, holds an excellent edge, and in th

I'm sure this will get down voted as its a Luddites call to arms, but all my cutlery is simple high carbon steel. Its cheap, holds an excellent edge, and in the kitchen it develops a wonderful rustic patina. For a pocket knife, a few drops of oil once or twice a year will keep it in good order, or you can chemically blue it if that suits your style as well.

jimmar 5y ago
I have family members who refuse to clean knifes properly. I need stainless steel. Personally, I'd prefer to have high carbon, but I know it'd be a rusted mess in a month.
- yumraj 5y ago
  I've had great success with Victorinox stainless steel knives. They are pretty sharp, for us anyway, and seem to keep that way. And, they seem to be pretty reasonably priced.
yumraj 5y ago
any recommended brands? or are these custom made?
- bob_loblaw 5y ago
  Spyderco, but I am a fanboy. Their forums are really insightful. If you do down the rabbit hole of knives and steel, Spyderco does a better job of catering to this market. They experiment with all kinds of steel that will never make it to another production company. It should be noted, Spyderco knives tend to be on the "ugly" side. It took me a while to get them as a company. Benchmade, Hinderer, Chris Reeve, Spartan, Demko, etc. The list goes on and on. This is a great time to be a knife knut.
  - yumraj 5y ago
    > This is a great time to be a knife knut. Curious as to why is that?
    - bob_loblaw 5y ago
      Intricate knives requires high precision manufacturing. There are lots of small makers out there. Sharp By Design[1] is a one-man knife shop. He operates a CNC machine out of his garage in New Jersey. while his designs may not appeal to you, he puts a lot of time and effort into his knives. But his knives are expensive. He can only work so fast, and he has to charge a living wage for his time. Many people will scoff at paying several hundred dollars (perhaps over one thousand) on a knife. The rise in high-precision manufacturing in China means that Sharp By Design can partner with Reate (a well known Chinese knife manufacturer who does very good work) and offer his knives at a much more affordable price. He doesn't have to simplify his designs either. Other Chinese companies like We and Kizer are doing similar work. More and more custom knife makers are getting a deal with a company that allows their designs to be purchased by more and more people. Hell, there are people who are making a living as a designer partnering with Chinese manufacturing. They don't have the knife maker background. They have a good eye for design and understand the market. Thanks to Larrin and other prominent knife people, knife users have a better understanding of knife performance. We now know that geometry and hardness are important. Companies are slowly responding, Companies across the board are upping their game. Civivi (owned by We Knives) makes budget knives. Their quality, fit and finish, and steel choices are great for what you pay. You don't have to spend a lot to get a good knife. Everywhere you look, people and companies are getting better and better at making knives. Titanium used to be an exclusive material. Titanium frame lock knives are everywhere, and they have a price that is not prohibitive. Finally, Triple B Handmade Blades (Big Brown Bear on YouTube) is importing some of the highest quality diamond stones (not aluminum plates, but actual resin-bonded stones) available. They are very pricey (start at $350), but they allow you to easily sharpen high-hardness, carbide-packed steels. [1] https://www.sharpbydesign.com/ https://www.sharpbydesign.com/
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bob_loblaw 5y ago
The thing is, there's no such "best" steel. It all depends on what you want to do with the steel. I'm sure a custom maker will make a MagnaCut chef's knife, but I don't think you'll notice much of a difference. The corrosion resistance should be great, and that goes a long way with easy of maintenance, especially when cutting things like tomatoes. But most kitchen work is done on a cutting board (hopefully plastic or wood), and the material is quite soft. You can make a good argument that MagnaCut isn't needed in the kitchen. MagnaCut wasn't developed for the kitchen. Even though I am a self-professed "knife person" I just don't rely on a knife all that much where I would notice the difference between MagnaCut and VG10. So, on paper, MagnaCut is a big step forward compared to pretty much every steel. But that doesn't mean every steel is not obsolete. And, of course, we all have preferences. We like what we like, even if another option is "better" in some way. 52100 is a great steel. Sharpens like a dream. Sometimes, that's all that matters to a person.
- pas 5y ago
  A (probably) completely different question: are there good knives for a kitchen that doesn't require maintenance? (So, are the ceramic knives any good?) I cook once in a blue moon, mostly pasta; so I'd use it mostly to cut cheese and sausages. Can you recommend a knife for this? (Or maybe it simply doesn't matter on such a small scale?)
  - drran 5y ago
    I have a self-sharpening stainless steel kitchen knife made in Czechoslovakia with waved edge. It never sharpened, but it still works just fine for everyday kitchen needs, except for peeling (I have a ceramic peeler for that), because of the waved edge. However, I have no idea where to buy a second one. «Bread knifes» with roughly similar edge are large, thick, and non-flexible.
  - jacobian 5y ago
    No, there aren't. Knives dull over time; even the most durable steel formulations need sharpening eventually. Those ceramic knives are pretty robust, but they too will dull. More importantly, they're extremely brittle; my experience with them is that they chip very quickly and are really unsuitable for anything other than very light use. For your use, they might be ok, but I think you'd end up being annoyed when they break sooner than you want. I recommend something from the Victorinox Fibrox line to folks like you who just want to cut stuff and not think about knifes. They're very sharp out of the box, quite durable, and will last a long long time before going dull. When they do, they're so cheap (like $25) that you could just get a new one rather than messing around with sharpening.

jimmar 5y ago

I have family members who refuse to clean knifes properly. I need stainless steel. Personally, I'd prefer to have high carbon, but I know it'd be a rusted mess in a month.

yumraj 5y ago
I've had great success with Victorinox stainless steel knives. They are pretty sharp, for us anyway, and seem to keep that way. And, they seem to be pretty reasonably priced.

yumraj 5y ago

any recommended brands? or are these custom made?

bob_loblaw 5y ago
Spyderco, but I am a fanboy. Their forums are really insightful. If you do down the rabbit hole of knives and steel, Spyderco does a better job of catering to this market. They experiment with all kinds of steel that will never make it to another production company. It should be noted, Spyderco knives tend to be on the "ugly" side. It took me a while to get them as a company. Benchmade, Hinderer, Chris Reeve, Spartan, Demko, etc. The list goes on and on. This is a great time to be a knife knut.
- yumraj 5y ago
  > This is a great time to be a knife knut. Curious as to why is that?
  - bob_loblaw 5y ago
    Intricate knives requires high precision manufacturing. There are lots of small makers out there. Sharp By Design[1] is a one-man knife shop. He operates a CNC machine out of his garage in New Jersey. while his designs may not appeal to you, he puts a lot of time and effort into his knives. But his knives are expensive. He can only work so fast, and he has to charge a living wage for his time. Many people will scoff at paying several hundred dollars (perhaps over one thousand) on a knife. The rise in high-precision manufacturing in China means that Sharp By Design can partner with Reate (a well known Chinese knife manufacturer who does very good work) and offer his knives at a much more affordable price. He doesn't have to simplify his designs either. Other Chinese companies like We and Kizer are doing similar work. More and more custom knife makers are getting a deal with a company that allows their designs to be purchased by more and more people. Hell, there are people who are making a living as a designer partnering with Chinese manufacturing. They don't have the knife maker background. They have a good eye for design and understand the market. Thanks to Larrin and other prominent knife people, knife users have a better understanding of knife performance. We now know that geometry and hardness are important. Companies are slowly responding, Companies across the board are upping their game. Civivi (owned by We Knives) makes budget knives. Their quality, fit and finish, and steel choices are great for what you pay. You don't have to spend a lot to get a good knife. Everywhere you look, people and companies are getting better and better at making knives. Titanium used to be an exclusive material. Titanium frame lock knives are everywhere, and they have a price that is not prohibitive. Finally, Triple B Handmade Blades (Big Brown Bear on YouTube) is importing some of the highest quality diamond stones (not aluminum plates, but actual resin-bonded stones) available. They are very pricey (start at $350), but they allow you to easily sharpen high-hardness, carbide-packed steels. [1] https://www.sharpbydesign.com/ https://www.sharpbydesign.com/

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

bob_loblaw 5y ago

The thing is, there's no such "best" steel. It all depends on what you want to do with the steel. I'm sure a custom maker will make a MagnaCut chef's knife, but I don't think you'll notice much of a difference. The corrosion resistance should be great, and that goes a long way with easy of maintenance, especially when cutting things like tomatoes. But most kitchen work is done on a cutting board (hopefully plastic or wood), and the material is quite soft. You can make a good argument that MagnaCut isn't needed in the kitchen. MagnaCut wasn't developed for the kitchen. Even though I am a self-professed "knife person" I just don't rely on a knife all that much where I would notice the difference between MagnaCut and VG10. So, on paper, MagnaCut is a big step forward compared to pretty much every steel. But that doesn't mean every steel is not obsolete. And, of course, we all have preferences. We like what we like, even if another option is "better" in some way. 52100 is a great steel. Sharpens like a dream. Sometimes, that's all that matters to a person.

pas 5y ago
A (probably) completely different question: are there good knives for a kitchen that doesn't require maintenance? (So, are the ceramic knives any good?) I cook once in a blue moon, mostly pasta; so I'd use it mostly to cut cheese and sausages. Can you recommend a knife for this? (Or maybe it simply doesn't matter on such a small scale?)
- drran 5y ago
  I have a self-sharpening stainless steel kitchen knife made in Czechoslovakia with waved edge. It never sharpened, but it still works just fine for everyday kitchen needs, except for peeling (I have a ceramic peeler for that), because of the waved edge. However, I have no idea where to buy a second one. «Bread knifes» with roughly similar edge are large, thick, and non-flexible.
- jacobian 5y ago
  No, there aren't. Knives dull over time; even the most durable steel formulations need sharpening eventually. Those ceramic knives are pretty robust, but they too will dull. More importantly, they're extremely brittle; my experience with them is that they chip very quickly and are really unsuitable for anything other than very light use. For your use, they might be ok, but I think you'd end up being annoyed when they break sooner than you want. I recommend something from the Victorinox Fibrox line to folks like you who just want to cut stuff and not think about knifes. They're very sharp out of the box, quite durable, and will last a long long time before going dull. When they do, they're so cheap (like $25) that you could just get a new one rather than messing around with sharpening.