Do stainless steel steels exist?

[Modern Slip Joints]

While in any other context my title likely would be confusing, here it should be obvious my inquiry is about sharpening steels. I like them for quickly sharpening my kitchen knives none of which have blades harder than 1095. I recently added four chrome plated Solingin steels including a couple made by Henckels because for under $2 in the thrift store I couldn't resist. That got me wondering, we have super hard stainless for blades so why not for steels.

[btrwtr]

Like most modern kitchen knives the steels are now made of stainless steel.

[Mumbleypeg]

Yes, stainless steel honing “steels” aka “rods” do exist. So do ceramic rods of course. My understanding is that most modern food safety regulations require cutlery and other food prep utensils to be made of stainless steel. You can’t effectively “sharpen” modern stainless steel using a carbon steel rod - modern stainless steels are harder than carbon steel. Some modern honing rods are made of stainless steel having a diamond coating or impregnation. Diamond rods actually sharpen in addition to just straightening the existing edge, but my understanding is they don’t remove as much metal as more traditional sharpening “stones”.

Here is an eye-opening article about the subject: https://www.jayfisher.com/Food_Safety_K ... bon_steels.

This will also be of interest: https://blademag.com/buyers-guides/best ... yers-guide

Ken

[Modern Slip Joints]

Thank-you for the links Mumbleypeg. It will take a while for me to read enough of jayfisher's site to be ready to write much about it. However, their writing all carbon steel blades are too unsanitary for preparing foods does appear to contradict your preference for those blades. None of the kitchen knives I've handled are too hard to touch up with carbon steel honing rods. Very few people buy the hardest stainless kitchen knives. Cheap soft stainless kitchen knives are more common.

One of my $1.60 thrift store honing rods is stainless steel. Nothing is written on it but the color of the smooth rod ahead of the handguard looks like stainless steel. A magnet sticks to every piece of it but most stainless steel alloys used in guns and knives attract magnets.

[Mumbleypeg]

Thank-you for the links Mumbleypeg. It will take a while for me to read enough of jayfisher's site to be ready to write much about it. However, their writing all carbon steel blades are too unsanitary for preparing foods does appear to contradict your preference for those blades. None of the kitchen knives I've handled are too hard to touch up with carbon steel honing rods. Very few people buy the hardest stainless kitchen knives. Cheap soft stainless kitchen knives are more common.

I think Fisher’s context in writing this is chef’s knives (as in professional chefs for whom he makes knives), not cheap kitchen cutlery. While I do like traditional pocket knives of carbon steel, my opinion of stainless steel changed with my acquisition several years ago of the Worksharp Guided Sharpening System and its diamond plates, which allowed me to put a sharp edge on stainless blades. My prior difficulties to satisfactorily sharpen stainless steel was the primary reason I preferred carbon steel. Which is why I described Fisher’s article that I linked as “eye-opening”. He addresses exactly that subject.

As for my preferences in knives, the kitchen is not where I use my pocket knives - neither carbon steel or stainless. My favorite EDC currently is a custom folder by G.W. Stone which has a 440C steel. 440C is not thought of by many as a “modern super steel”. It’s been around at least 40-50 years. But IMHO it’s an outstanding steel. It also happens to be one of Fisher’s favorites, at least partly because it’s a favorite of his customers. https://www.jayfisher.com/Blades.htm#440C. And https://www.jayfisher.com/440C-Love-Hate.htm

Ken

[ThatWeirdKnifeGuy]

Back when I was a professional butcher in a commercial food prep area we were inspected by local and state health inspectors on a regular basis. We used both high carbon and stainless knives, the rods were high carbon. At first both were in house, but eventually we switched to a knife service. They brought us fresh knives every other week but we honed them many times in a day. I washed so many steels and knives as an apprentice.....

Never did notice much rust now though looking back. They were exposed to hot water and commercial degreasers on a daily basis. Must have been the fat and grease that kept them protected all day in the first place.

Now at home i use mostly stainless rods and knives in the kitchen. I use a paring knife, 8" chef's, and honing steel all from victorinox. I don't know which variety of stainless they use.

[Reverand]

I know that this is a side topic, but I bought several Victorinox knives at a thrift store a few years back. They are really good kitchen knives!