True. Some of the newer knife-specific “super steels” combine improved corrosion resistance along with improved hardness (compared to the relatively soft stainless steels used in most commercial brands).
That is the trade-off, right? Hardening steel inherently makes it more brittle. As a tool steel, D2 (you might know it as Sverker 21) gets hard but retains a greater degree of toughness to resist breaking under repeated impacts. It is also commonly used in manufacturing for cutting blades. The combination of wear resistance and corrosion resistance means less time replacing or sharpening the cutting blades.
Thanks, I sincerely appreciate the encouragement. I remember you put one of my first chef’s knives through a reasonably tough test regimen and reported back how (unexpectedly?) well it faired for a first-time maker.
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You’re welcome. You’re very talented.
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When choosing a steel, there is always s trade off.
As you mentioned. Sg2/D2 excels in edge rentention and impact resistance. For me the trade off is it being a bit annoying to sharpen.
But it’s not always that simple. VG10 made from a cut of stamped sheet can be avarage at best, chippy and with a fast drop in peak sharpness. But VG10 that’s bin hammered out and hardened by a smith can be almost as good as SG2/D2 in my opinion.
A simple white or blue paper steel can have really different properties depending on what the smith wanted it to be. And that sums up pretty good why I think it’s a fascinating hobby🙂
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Exactly my point.
I have both a Wusthof and Henckels; but both are older and made in Germany. Recently I was in Ross, or TJ Maxx (I forget which) and saw a Henckels for an extremely attractive price. Upon further inspection, “Made In China.” Might have been great or crappy, but I didn’t lay out the green for it, just assuming it wasn’t to the level of my old Henckels. I wonder if that doesn’t have something to do with it. I haven’t seen a Chinese Wusthof yet, is what I’m getting at.
There are SO many good steels for knives. Probably hundreds. No maker I know has tried all–much less many–of them.
It used to be that 'smiths used what they had laying around or could pick up as scrap. 52100 was popularized by a country 'smith, Ed Fowler, because he had access to it in the form of large industrial ball bearings. Likewise John Deere tractor load shafts in 5160. L6 from bandsaw blades. Truck spring leaves. Railcar coil springs, etc., etc. They all work.
Now we have rolling mills that do small runs of many toolsteels. Still, 'smiths don’t dabble much. They typically find one or two alloys they like and stick with them. So I’m always cynical when the next “miracle” steel appears on the cutlery scene. Every time, it’s an alloy that’s been around for years. Someone just pushes it, brags it up.
Personally, I think how well a toolsteel is hardened and tempered (and worked afterward) makes more difference in how a blade performs than does the choice of alloy. But good luck convincing retail buyers of high end cutlery of that, or selling them on a great blade made of O1 or A2, over a blade of unknown quality of Hitachi Blue calling to their egos.
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And we agree most of the way.
What i find rather interesting is that the Japanese had a lot of luck reintroducing us to knifemaking that was made similar in western Europe and probably lot of other places for decades, and then almost forgotten.
Many old western knifes made before stainless became the norm. Was thinner, lighter, harder and could potentially be sharper then today’s Zwilling and wusthof knives. Windmühlenmesser even had a “nailflexing edge” as a signature for there thin grinded edges.
The heavy, soft and thick grinded western chef knives was something that came with stainless steel. I guess the knives main purpose as a cutting tool was sacrificed for the convenience of stainless steel🤷
I think the reason for this is that Japan kept much of its itinerant and cottage-based cutlery professions much longer than did the West. I get into trouble every time I say this, but Japanese steels prior to the World Wars was terrible–not always, but usually. It probably would still be but for Western metallurgy and imports.
There’s a lot more to this story. As Western cutlery became more consolidated as an industry (as opposed to a craft), uniformity and automation took over. It is now far beyond any layperson’s imagination. I was given a private tour a few years ago of the main Zwilling Henkels plant in Solingen. This factory turns out 50,000 knives a day. On weekdays, it has a staff of SIX workers, and it can run on just TWO over weekends. The steels it uses come on enormous sheet spools for the robots to eat and manipulate. The steels are chosen in order to make possible the robotic electrical current forging steps that melt, twist and press the blanks into shapes that LOOK like hammer-forged bolsters. So of course they choose steels and grinds to maximize uniformity, quality control and profits, sometimes cutting corners.
This is the dystopian opposite of besmudged 'smiths in Japan, or at the real forges at Gransfors or Hultafors Bruks in Sweden.
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You are so right. Many of my knives are from the sixties and earlier. Their heft and their profiles are more like Japanese than like a Wusthof or a Henckels. They are even fairly different from twenty year old Sabatiers. I have a recently acquired old stock Nogent 7" chef knife and a 6" twenty year old Elephant four star Sabatier chef knife, also from Thiers Issard. The 6" is a good bit heavier than the 7". The 7" is also nearly 1/4" taller.
Apropos Swedish forges.
If one should be looking for a western factory knife with a different Geometry then the modern German knives that are almost exclusively made for rockchopping.
They could look at the Mora chef knife, reasonable thin with a good flatspot and a tip high enough for some moderate rockchopping.
Henckels have been doing this for awhile now. I believe the two persons Zwilling should still be made in German.
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The best Henckels knife I ever used was carbon steel and made in Brazil.
I have so many high end knives. The vast majority are not being used.
When I moved from our big house to a beach condo there was no place for my collection. I took some trusted favorites and some sharpening devices which have served me well. My cooking has changed as well. More simple meals, fish centric
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for me, knives are a tool. that said, some people tend to take care of their tools more better than others.
for me, as the advice always goes . . . the knife/handle has to fit your hand and be one with your knife habits. if the tool does not work with you, you’re doomed…
while on a corporate long term foreign assignment I bought some basics in Germany - where one can buy Wuesthof/other German makers at seriously less cost than when exported to USA…
the other thing is, a dull knife is a bad knife and it does not matter whether it’s a $6 K-Mart special or a $1,000 ueber Japanese hand made thingie…
so, as ‘sending knives out for sharpening’ leaves my pantry naked, I opted to learn to sharpen-me-own.
then was the problem of ‘the block’!!! after many futile searches for a proper knife block, I bought some rough sawn hard maple, went to the basement, and made my own.
it has knives, kitchen shears, T/.5T/t/.5t + analog + Thermapen thermometers - note that this is the result of multi-years of mental debate on what would work for me… being a big of a ‘the right tool/knife for the job…’ it’s been very good for me.
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All I can tell is that you removed your honing rod for a thermometer. 
Very beautiful knife block by the way.
hee-hee.
hone is upper left, analog therm upper right
digital Thermapen is the red thingie at the bottom.
they both have their special uses . . .
did another block for SIL - who is also an avid cook
the upper right for a hone, the rectangle below for the kitchen shear -
a Clauss #18518 . . . which they have non-understandably ‘discontinued’
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Wow. Nice.
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