Cooking knives

Hambo said:
Does anyone here own or use a carbon steel cooking knife?

What kind of knife/knives do you own? Did you force a patina or just let it develop over time?

The reason I ask is because I'm attending a knife making workshop in Sakai, Japan (just outside of Osaka) and assembling my own carbon steel knife!

So basically the blacksmith makes the knife blade/tang, then I get to knock the handle on and learn how to sharpen it.

I also get to choose six characters to stamp into the blade :)
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I have a lot of carbon blades in the kitchen, they will patina, but how depends on what you cut and how you look after them. Onion will quickly leave dark blotches if you leave chunks sitting on the blade, as will leaving it sitting in lemon or other acidic food juices. I don't find rust to be an issue unless the blade is left wet overnight(ish). I'm in Melbourne though, NT / QLD may have different results.

The knives my wife (ab)uses end up with uneven dark patches and rust spots from not being cleaned immediately and/or put on the rack wet. I've given up caring, so just keep these sharp. I tend to wipe, rinse and dry straight away so my "good" knives have developed a milder more even patina. I've done a forced mustard patina to meh results. Coffee works to darken the blade but your surface prep needs to be spot on otherwise it gets streaks and blotches and looks shit. It'll also show up inconsistent heat treatment. It's really a lot of fuck around when it doesn't work.

Patina can be removed with scotchbrite and / or autosol. However, getting a decent finish takes a bit of work. If you are going to rub the blade, angle the edge down against the surface so it's protected from stray fingers ;-)

Have fun with the course.
 
I have in order of ease of use -> silliness:

1. WMF Spitzenklasse German stainless,

2. Shun Taiwan/Japan VG10 Damascus stainless

3. Nenohi Show Japan 3 clad stainless.

4. Masahiro yanagiba Japan 2 clad carbon steel.

5. Custom Icelandic carbon steel damascus.

The WMF's and Shun's are my go to knives. The Shun's hold a better edge but are harder to sharpen.

The Nenohi's are almost too beautiful to use, but are absolute lasers when I do use them. The Masahiro is to satisfy my dreams of being the Iron Chef Japan. The Icelandic number is for the zombie apocalypse.

I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It takes a while to learn but I'm very quick with it now.

I use a cloudy/waxy virgin olive oil to coat the carbon steel blades and to look after the wooden handles.
58df6fe72b6ebf04f358dbacca535f72.jpg


Sent from my 24069PC21G using Tapatalk
 
Oddjob said:
I have in order of ease of use -> silliness:

1. WMF Spitzenklasse German stainless,

2. Shun Taiwan/Japan VG10 Damascus stainless

3. Nenohi Show Japan 3 clad stainless.

4. Masahiro yanagiba Japan 2 clad carbon steel.

5. Custom Icelandic carbon steel damascus.

The WMF's and Shun's are my go to knives. The Shun's hold a better edge but are harder to sharpen.

The Nenohi's are almost too beautiful to use, but are absolute lasers when I do use them. The Masahiro is to satisfy my dreams of being the Iron Chef Japan. The Icelandic number is for the zombie apocalypse.

I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It takes a while to learn but I'm very quick with it now.

I use a cloudy/waxy virgin olive oil to coat the carbon steel blades and to look after the wooden handles.
58df6fe72b6ebf04f358dbacca535f72.jpg


Sent from my 24069PC21G using Tapatalk
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I like the look of the first one.
Swibo for me, functional.
 
mark22 said:
I like the look of the first one.
Swibo for me, functional.
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The WMF is essentially equivalent to Messermeister, German quality but a bit unknown here. I read somewhere they had the biggest cutlery foundry in the EU, but I bet that includes their huge amount of tableware.

I've had the WMF set for 20+ years and the only damage was a lost tip on the fruit knife when it was dropped from height. Otherwise the fit and finish has been perfect, no loose rivets, no cracks, handle lines up with the tang perfectly.

Have you got a complete set of the SWIBOs? I've seen the filleting knives but it never occurred to me they made chef's knives.

Sent from my 24069PC21G using Tapatalk
 
The Duckmeister said:
The thread title has intrigued me..... No one has mentioned the best way to cook knives......
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Whoops. Sorry, my bad. I bake mine at around 800-815C for 10 minutes. Followed by a quick dip in warm oil before letting cool to room temp. Then into the toaster oven at 200C for two hours for a nice golden brown. Splash of water to cool, then back into the toaster for another two hours.
Then refine and decorate as required.
 
Oddjob said:
The WMF is essentially equivalent to Messermeister, German quality but a bit unknown here. I read somewhere they had the biggest cutlery foundry in the EU, but I bet that includes their huge amount of tableware.

I've had the WMF set for 20+ years and the only damage was a lost tip on the fruit knife when it was dropped from height. Otherwise the fit and finish has been perfect, no loose rivets, no cracks, handle lines up with the tang perfectly.

Have you got a complete set of the SWIBOs? I've seen the filleting knives but it never occurred to me they made chef's knives.

Sent from my 24069PC21G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I have a wide tip steak knife, hd boning knife (most used one) and a filleting
 
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