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Carbon Steel for the Kitchen?!

When I was a young lad dating my future wife, I remember when I used to go to her house for supper her father would use a carbon steel carving knife and fork with beautiful stag handles! The blade had a very dark patina on it. Many of his kitchen knives were carbon steel too.

Does anyone have carbon steel kitchen knives?

Tags: carbon, carving, fork, knife, steel

2 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Craig Henry on September 14, 2012 at 16:01

Our Old Hickory knives are still going great!! No problem with rust at all. Just wash and dry. Simple. Getting a nice patina, slow but sure. They look old timey. My wife LOVES the edge they take and HOLD! And I like they are easy to touch up when needed.

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Craig Henry on November 7, 2012 at 23:53

After a couple of months now using Old Hickory carbon steel in the kitchen, I asked Cass If she wanted to go back to the old stainless knives. She said "NO WAY!".

Permalink Reply by Randy, HHH Knives on January 16, 2013 at 23:31

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Craig Henry on January 27, 2013 at 15:48

Those are beautiful Randy!

KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by Carl Rechsteiner on December 30, 2013 at 6:32

Nice pic of one of Ivan's knives. He does very nice work. Communicate with him quite often over on KNF.

I have, over the years (call it attrition) have managed to replace all of my wife's SS knives with good carbon blades. Always been my preference. Made her a set of pattern welded out of 52100 and 15N20 that she won't use - too pretty (she says). But, she has plenty of good user blades, so no biggie, they make for good conversation in the kitchen.

My preferred blades are from 52100 and L6. Both have just enough alloy in them to hold up well to kitchen rigors (and abuse) and patina nicely. Been working on an offset slightly unconventional handle design that keeps the knuckles off the board a little better on the smaller utility blades. Tried going a little higher on the back lift but at some point the general public no longer likes the "look", so a compromise. Two regulars really like the more severe lift (and they get them), but I don't do them often.

Permalink Reply by Allan Moyse on November 17, 2014 at 10:02

Absolutely! Sorry, I am still new to the forum so I am still learning how to post pics, but I have come to prefer carbon knives in the kitchen. Although some of the modern stainless alloys are very good I find that the edge retention and ease of sharpening of a carbon knife is well worth the little extra care required.

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on November 18, 2014 at 18:12

Allan,

I personally agree. I used a set of Case stainless for years and I loved them. Then I was gifted some custom carbons for my kitchen and you couldnt get them away from me. Yes they take a moments more care after use and washing but they are sooooo worth it