Sal, kitchen knife steel is too smooth

dantecubit · #1

My Santoku performs a lot better since I scuffed up the sides a bit. Food doesn't stick to it anymore. Not as pretty now, though. Is this something that could be done at the factory? It would improve the kitchen knives 5000% (they are already insanely great).

#2

Thank you for the input Dantecubit. And thanks for the kind words.

We played around with ridges and holes in the kitchen knives to keep things from sticking, but we've not found anything really effective, for say cucumbers.

How rough did you make it? Whaqt did you use?

sal

"We are all teachers and we are all students"

severedthumbs · #3

sal go with the layered steel like on the Shun knives. I own a set and find that they are quite good at the sticking problem.

JD Spydo · #4

say "Severdthumbs" when you talk about layered steel would you be refering to something similar like the San Mai III layered steel that my Cold Steel Trailmaster Bowie is made of. CS also makes tantos out of the same bar stock. I think that a set of chef's knives would be awesome made from that type of steel. From what I hear; premium layered steel has incredible tensile strength. I wish also that I knew more about the material.

Mr Glesser if you are listening/reading this feedback; Then what do you think or know about this San Mai III blade steel? :) :spyder: :)

#5

Hi JD. San Mai is a good method of obtaining specialized results. It consists of sandwitching a core material with certain qualities between two layers of outside materials with different qualities.

If we can get Ed Schempp to chime in, he knows more about making San Mai than anyone I know.

The layered steel that Kershaw uses is a damascus with more than 3 layers. Each layer creates a ridge. The ridge permits moisture and air to travel between the material being cut and the steel.

sal

Luke_A_P · #6

I must say I have noticed this sticking problem, often it adds significant friction to a cut through moist vegetables. I have noticed the effect always seems reduced with my Opinel knives, compared to any others I own. I am not sure if this is due to the profile of the blade, the surface finish or the steel, which is carbon steel rather than stainless.

Luke

severedthumbs · #7

Yeah I think the layered steel like on the Shun knives is better for this application than San Mai would be. I believe the Shun's have 16 layers on each side.

willyp_ig · #8

I've always wanted to see a chefs knife with a large shallow fuller ground the length of the blade. Here is a link to a knife with this setup, and i think it would work very well to prevent food sticking and would remove excess weight. The problem with the damascus in knives like the shun is that they cost much more than the the very good spyderco knives, and the performance advantage is only marginal in my opinion. That said, if I had the money to spend, i'd love a kershaw shun 8'' chef's knife. I think the real attraction to spyderco knives is that they offer performance at a price point unparalleled by the competitors. Maybe they could break into the upscale market, but they should keep their lower priced line.

severedthumbs · #9

check out the Shun pro line. should suit your needs.

i.v · #10

what i did to one of my kitchen knives a long time ago was to cut triangular cannels just above the edge with the triangle tip pointing up & carved a little deeper than the base.. this forced the fluids of what you're cutting up & out & things didn't stick on fast cuts...
it looked a little like this:

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ grooves
------------------- edge

it was kinda crude but it worked alright

dantecubit · #11

Sal, I just used the 2 fine stones of my Sharpmaker (on the back where there are the two side-by-side grooves). I was hoping it wouldn't scuff it up too bad but it did.

Damascus steel would be great but I imagine expensive. I was just thinking more along the lines of lightly buffing the sides so they're not so totally slick. I made a turkey stew last night and the Santoku is MUCH improved for potatoes, carrots and the like.

Anyway, thanks for the response.